Original Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo recently discussed his current relationship with Slayer’s landmark 1986 LP Reign in Blood, confessing that the album still gives him physical chills. He shared these thoughts during an appearance on Loaded Radio.
Lombardo said: “Oh, it still gives me the chills when I listen to that album. The palms of your hands get sweaty, your heart rate increases, and you’re in the moment.”
“I’ve performed those songs so many times in my life on stage, and that adrenaline, just thinking about it, and when I listen to those songs, it triggers that adrenaline, I get charged. If I go into cardiac arrest, play ‘Angel of Death’ or ‘Raining Blood’ or something, and watch me just pop up, like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?'”
That reaction reflects the album’s lasting intensity. Reign in Blood was built under unusual circumstances, and its short, punishing history helps explain why it still hits Lombardo and listeners with the same physical force.
Reign in Blood was recorded with producer Rick Rubin and released through Def Jam, an unlikely home for a thrash metal band at the time. The hip-hop label behind Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys pursued the band harder than any other suitor, and the album went on sale on October 7, 1986. Guitarist Kerry King later said, “We never realized how special it was when we were working on it.”
The album’s impact was amplified by its brevity. Reign in Blood runs for roughly 29 minutes, delivering its ten songs with almost no excess and helping establish the record’s relentless pace. Guitarist Jeff Hanneman admitted that the band found repeated guitar riffs tiring at the time, saying, “If we do a verse two or three times, we’re already bored with it.” That preference shaped the album’s famously compressed structure.
“Angel of Death” also created controversy before the album reached stores. The song’s references to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele prompted accusations of Nazi sympathizing and racism against the band, which they vigorously denied. Columbia Records, Def Jam’s distributor, refused to release the album because of its subject matter and artwork, which delayed its planned April 1986 release.
Lombardo’s drumming remains central to the record’s reputation. His rapid double-bass work, sharp fills, and tightly controlled aggression helped give songs such as “Angel of Death” and “Raining Blood” their physical force. His relationship with Slayer was complicated, however. He made five albums with the band until 1992, left, and later returned. He left Slayer in 2013 and is not part of the current reunion lineup, which is playing Reign in Blood in full on its 40th-anniversary shows with Paul Bostaph on drums.
Despite the controversy and its compressed runtime, Reign in Blood became one of thrash metal’s defining albums. Its combination of speed, precision, and extremity continues to explain why Lombardo still feels its effects decades after recording it.
