In the story of the Big 4 of thrash, the band that is always considered to have stayed truest to the genre is Slayer. Anthrax dabbled with rap metal, Megadeth went for radio-friendly rock, and Metallica...well, you know what happened with Metallica. Even Testament made ballads and Exodus had a groove metal album. Slayer, though, they remained committed to thrash, right? Wrong actually!
Released in 1998, just as nu metal was tightening its grip on the heavy music scene, Slayer’s eighth album is the exception that proves the rule: experimental, groove-laded, down-tuned, featuring rap-esque vocal patterns and basically disowned by the band, Diabolus In Musica is the one true outlier in their back catalogue. The question is, nearly three decades after the event, is it actually any good?
