OCTOBERFEAST – Reign in Blood

[OCTOBERFEAST is the greatest celebration of the year, a revelry dedicated to pop-culture’s most nutritious Halloween detritus. Plastic screams and artificial sweeteners have never been more bountiful. In the old country, villagers refer to the extended party as Satan’s Snacktime]

The OCTOBERFEAST rages on, undaunted by those protesters standing outside of the gates. With their self-assured smirks, those do-gooders standby with band-aids and pamphlets about PTSD   and bottles of the always-refreshing Gatorade. Who the hell do they think they are? Don’t they realize that the proselytes of popular-horror can’t be dissuaded? And even if conversion were possible at some point, it certainly wouldn’t be on this date.

For October 7th is an especially important day in the OCTOBERFEAST cycle. After all, it was twenty-five years ago today that a portal to Hell was activated, granting a diabolical musical-daemon safe passage to Earth. Although this malignant spirit only appears in thirty-five minute bursts, the terror he instills last a lifetime. If you ever crossed paths with this October-beast, you’ll never forget the experience.

Today, OCTOBERFEAST proudly serves as Earthrealm-host to Slayer’s Reign in Blood.

As a lifelong thrasher, it’s my firm belief that listening to Reign in Blood is a genuine rite of passage. If every child were forced to listen to the album on their 13th birthday, we wouldn’t have weak constitutions mucking up our collective unconscious with Kardashian-daydreams and soda-pop pipe-dreams. Instead, our society would be teeming with rockers who’re aware of the dangers of religious intolerance, genocide, biblical hitmen, and mental illness.

Either that, or we’d be a pack of violent invalids constantly punching our own mothers in their durn faces.

In any case, Reign in Blood is a bad-ass album that many see as a defining moment in thrash metal. There’re so many damn riffs that it’s sometimes difficult to remember all of the individual tracks. However, there’s no forgetting the album’s introductory or concluding frames, two tracks that’re universally regarded as metal masterpieces.

Angel of Death opens the album with pure freneticism, guitars and drums flailing about wildly while words of madness are spat upon the listener’s ears. Flaunting circle-pit riffage, dial-up modem solos, and what is one of the most infamous double-bass drum breaks in metal history, the tune is an opening right-hook. If you can’t handle this track, there’s no way you’ll last the entire album.

But when those of us with enough kerosene in our veins and cement in our heads get to the end, we’re rewarded with Raining Blood. The song begins with atmospheric noise,   foretelling of a tremendous storm before launching into an absolutely iconic riff. In fact, this opening structure not only harkens back to Black Sabbath, but surpasses it in all arenas satanic. With sinisterly-harmonized leads and bludgeoning bass drums, Raining Blood evokes dark imagery that simply cannot leave the listener’s mind.

Hordes of lunatics converging upon the White Palace, cannibalizing one another as they rip the Prince out of bed and offer his blood to the Sky-Beard.

Something tells me that when the kind souls occupying the path outside of OCTOBERFEAST see that Reign in Blood has arrived, they’re going to pack it in for the night. They’re going to go home. They’re going to hold their loved ones close. And then they’re going to weep.

Uncontrollably.

So…who wants to head into the pit with me?