Seasons in the Abyss Totally Explained

Seasons in the Abyss is the fifth studio album by thrash metal band Slayer. It was recorded in 1989 and released in 1990 through Def American Records, and later through American Recordings after the company changed its name. This is Dave Lombardo's last studio album with Slayer, until his return in 2006 with the release of Christ Illusion.

Recording

"Born of Fire" was for a long time just an instrumental leftover song from South of Heaven with a working title "Stress" due to the fact that Kerry King couldn't write any good lyrics for it during the South of Heaven sessions. Eventually it was the last song completed for Seasons in the Abyss. The somewhat strange vocal arrangement on the track "Temptation" was unintentionally done that way. If you listen to the track, you actually hear Tom Araya singing the song twice: once the way he thought it fit and for the second time on the insistence of Kerry King the way he thought it should be sung. The haunting end result came to be because the first vocal track wasn't erased between the takes. When the producer played the track and heard both vocal renditions simultaneously on the instrumental background, he liked it so much that both vocals were used on the album. Nobody is sure which vocals are the original.

Lyrical themes

War, murder, and human weakness are the major lyrical themes, while rarely turning to the demonic themes of that of Reign in Blood and South of Heaven.
The song "Dead Skin Mask" was inspired on the murders and habits of serial killer Ed Gein. "Blood Red" deals with oppressive communist governments and the way they "Enforce truth through a gun". The song is an allusion, or at least has its inspiration, in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Reception and significance

Seasons in the Abyss was released on October 9, 1990 and peaked at number 40 on the Billboard 200 album chart, the highest position the band attained at the time. In 1992 the album was certified gold, for sales in excess of 500,000 in the United States.
The album received positive reviews, Steve Huey of All Music Guide described the album as bringing back the "pounding aggression of Reign In Blood, periodically kicking up the mid-tempo grooves of South of Heaven." Huey praised the music as "displaying the full range of their abilities all in one place, with sharp, clean production.," stating the band is refining rather than progressing or experimenting. The album received a rating of four and a half out of five stars, while the title track and "War Ensemble" earned Slayer its heaviest airplay on MTV to date.

Track listing

"War Ensemble" (Lyrics: Araya/Hanneman) (Music: Hanneman)– 4:54
"Blood Red" (Lyrics: Araya) (Music: Hanneman) – 2:50
"Spirit in Black" (Lyrics: King) (Music: Hanneman) – 4:07
"Expendable Youth" (Lyrics: Araya) (Music: King) – 4:10
"Dead Skin Mask" (Lyrics:Araya) (Music: Hanneman) – 5:34
"Hallowed Point" (Lyrics: Araya/Hanneman) (Music: Hanneman/King) – 3:24
"Skeletons of Society" (Lyrics & Music: King) – 4:41
"Temptation" (Lyrics & Music: King) – 3:26
"Born of Fire" (Lyrics: King) (Music: Hanneman/King) – 3:07
"Seasons in the Abyss" (Lyrics: Araya) (Music: Hanneman) – 6:42

Credits

Slayer

Tom Araya – bass, lead vocals

Jeff Hanneman – lead & rhythm guitars

Kerry King – lead & rhythm guitars

Dave Lombardo – drums

Production

Rick Rubin - producer

Andy Wallace - co-producer, engineer, mixing

Slayer - co-producer

Chris Rich - assistant engineer

David Tobocman - assistant engineer

Allen Abrahamson - assistant engineer

Howie Weinberg - mastering

Larry Carroll - illustration

Sunny Bak - photography

External results

Click here for more details on Seasons In The Abyss

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://seasons_in_the_abyss.totallyexplained.com">Seasons in the Abyss Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.