IS DIABOLUS IN MUSICA THE MOST UNDERRATED SLAYER ALBUM?
Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 1:30pm by Axl RosenbergD.X. Ferris certainly thinks so, and listening to the record again this week, I’m starting to agree with him (I actually think that the Paul Bostaph years in general are underrated, and that the recent Slayerenaissance began with God Hates Us All. But I digress.). Diabolus has an incredible sense of groove – something Slayer are not usually known for – and, of course, reunited them with Rick Rubin for the last time.
Here’s the band playing the album’s opening track, “Bitter Peace,” in Argentina in ‘98, probably right around the time Diabolus was being released.
-AR
I love Paul Bostaph’s drumming! His mix on Diabolus is much better than on Divine Intervention. They really boosted him too high in the mix on DI, as if to say, ” Dave is gone, but this guy rules too!”
Holy Shit! is Kerry King wearing a Stone Cold Steve Austin shirt?
WIN!
Definitely a good album. There’s a couple fantastic songs; Death’s Head is one of them.
I honestly only like “Bitter Peace” “Death’s Head” “Point” and “In the Name of God.” The rest I could do without, and “Stain of Mind” is damn-near nu-metal.
Diabolus has a few good songs on it but for the most part the album was a huge let down. That being said Slayer’s post Divine Intervention dissapointments have nothing to do with Paul Bostaph. The guy is an excellent drummer.
Wait, is Jeff playing a fucking Les Paul in that video? I should have emphasized that “Bitter Peace” is Slayer’s second best song of the 90’s, behind “Seasons in the Abyss.”
Honestly, I feel that Divine Intervention was more underrated from the Bostaph-era. I thought the drumming on that album was fine (“DIttohead,” anybody?)
Personally, I think the most underrated Slayer album is Hell Awaits. That album deserves way more props than it gets. Sure, the production is terrible, but the songwriting is fantastic. A different side of the band that I wish they explored a little bit further.
Hell Awaits is a killer record and it’s ashame that so many people are turned off by some of the early Slayer records solely for the production values.
Very true. At Dawn They Sleep should be played live sometime soon.
I’ll take Megadeth over slayer any day of the week
It depends on what Megadeth your talking about.
Megasuck
Megaboring
Megadeth over Metallica, OK. Over Slayer? Fuck you.
Slayer over Megadeth and Metallica…the end, even Diabolus being one of their weaker albums in my opinion, is better than most of Megadeth and Metallica.
Paul Bostaph SLAYS!! I’d take him over Dave Lombardo any day!!
Diabolus is actually the first Slayer album I heard. I knew the classic songs like Seasons, etc. but this was the first Slayer album I heard in its entirety.
I loved Bitter Peace, still do. Death’s Head is a wonderfully evil song.
Reign in Blood was the first album I listened to. It changed my life and made me the upstanding individual I am today.
yes. the record is fucking awesome. but the one bad song is among their very very worst. and they played it live on that tour. stupid kerry.
All the records after Seasons are shit. LOL. Get good taste.
Pretty much. Even Seasons is just decent.
Never seen Jeff playing a Les Paul before. Cool.
I used to use “Bitter Peace” as a demo song when I was looking for minidisc shelf systems when I lived in Hong Kong. The Chinese salesmen would freak out when I’d crank it up. Awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHH_KnMrcU8
Here’s a clip from the badass ‘85 Combat Tour (Slayer, Exodus and Venom!) video with Jeff playing a Les Paul! And it’s fuckin’ funny to see Kerry with hair!
I love Paul Bostaph, but this album sucks, and not because of him.
although Undisputed Attitude is mostly all covers the last song Gemini is a Slayer original and is one of their best IMO! It’s inspired from the movie “The Exorcist III” which has a character who is the Gemini Killer.
Yeah, Slayer trying to sound like KoRn is soooooooooo cool. DiM sucked.
Bostaph makes bands better.
Nu-Slayer. They might as well have shitty masks on, and 5 other guys that do nothing. Seriously, DiM is a horrible album, as is anything groove related.
lol 5 other guys that do nothing. Slipknot FTL.
Pantera and Sepultura are groove metal, you wanna tell me they suck?
Pantera and Sepultura’s groove era created some of the worst music ever. You actually seem to think that they made good music, don’t you?
Arise rules
They made some great metal, it’s not supposed to be all artistic like you make it out to be. You probably hate Nevermore too, they have some groove in their music too. But whatever, the point of metal isn’t to be artistic, it’s supposed to be aggressive and heavy music, and artistry sometimes gets in the way of that. Some like Randy Rhoads and Jeff Loomis have the ability to mix those two, but it’s not a requirement for metal.
Bad metal is made with the sole goal of aggression in mind. Good metal is made with the goal of creating art. Art can be aggressive, but aggression in a non-artistic manner is just retardation. I never said that Slayer and Sepultura weren’t metal (they obviously are), but I did say that they were awful.
And no, don’t like Nevermore either, although Loomis is a good solo guitarist.
metal was created with the sole purpose of aggression in mind…it’s your idiotic statement that proves you don’t know shit about the genre
Nevermore is mandatory listening.
Ziltoid hates pantera… I think i might start counting these.
That’s because Pantera sucked.
You’re really reaching if you find anything worthwhile about this lame attempt to fit in with the times! The logo change was the immediate tip off that this record would suck.
i know why ziltoid hates groove so much…he’s jewish and as cartman stated for us in the episode that the kids all go down to the rainforest for the getting gay with kids musical review..jews have no rythm therefore he hates it so much…anyways i think the last song on this album “point” that shit rules
I hate groove because the music is dumbed down for mass appeal and is incredibly shallow. No subtleties or fine artistic touches anywhere.
it’s just cuz you ain’t got the funk mane
At the time this album came out, my friends called it slow and soft; they said the band was too old to play fast anymore. But my friends listened to shit like Korn so I let them go on thinking Follow the Leader was the shit while I jammed out to this album. It was instantly my favorite Slayer record, and by far the most memorable. So I found it quite funny to see this post on MS, and I knew the comments would be the same shit my friends said about this album. So to the detractors of this album, I ask: Have you really given it a chance? I mean, if this was their attempt at mass appeal then why is it their most underrated? I think it was their last good album and that everything since has been more mainstream sounding, especially cookie-cutter God Hates Us All. I couldn’t find a track I liked on the album, and Christ Illusion was better but honestly it sounds a lot like DiM b-sides and I always skip around when I listen to it.
Diabolous is Slayers best album post Seasons in the Abyss. I don’t care if people give me shit for that. I’m not some young punk- I bought Reign in Blood when it came out. I can only see the comparisons to nu metal vaguely. Even so it would be nu metal done right- Solos. no whinng, no rapping, no super detuned guitars, etc. Stain of Mind is super aggressive and gets me pumped up every time I hear it. I still hate that Kerry talks shit about the album and blames it on Hanneman. After reading the credits of my Slayer albums I’m beginning to like Hanneman a lot more than King.
Fucking great album. Bought the day it came it out and always loved it. Not your typical slayer record but still one of the most evil records they’ve ever made and has a great creepy fuckin vibe. Still rock this record all the time.
The video seems to be from the time they arrived at the gig, but their equipment didn’t. That explains why Jeff is playing a Les Paul and the bad sound. Diabolus was th first Slayer record I heard and I listened to it exclusively for weeks if not months. And by exclusively I mean I really listened to nothing else. This was the only cd I brought with me on holiday. Since then I was a Slayer fan.
Not to get down on Slayer in any way but the last three albums have not caught my attention at all. They all sound too similar and in many ways like they trying too hard to be fast and aggressive. I’ve been following Slayer since “Hell Awaits” and they always had a progression in their sound which made them interesting which I think has not been the case lately. Although I’ve got the albums I can recall very few songs that actually sticks.
DIM is a great album in that respect since they at least tried to bring something new to their sound (something I think has been sorely lacking on the last albums). After hearing “Gemini” on “Undisputable Attitude” I was hoping that they would go for heavier instead of faster and DIM didn’t disappoint in that respect.
“Love to hate” is my personal favorite.