Slayer Orchestrates Fearsome Intensity

The bond between Slayer and its audience has a fearsome intensity. Friday night’s sold-out Hollywood Palladium show was dramatic testimony to that--not even counting the brawls with the police going on outside. From the moment the band opened with “South of Heaven,” raised fists waved like cilia in a blackened lung and the jammed floor exploded into a massive slam-dance pit.

The L.A.-based group masterfully orchestrated the activity, as the movement of the sweat-soaked crowd slowed down and sped up along with the time changes and buzz-saw riffs. This undulating nightmare contained an eerie poetry. Slayer’s brand of powerhouse speed-metal is a highly sophisticated, brightly sarcastic celebration of anger and exhilaration.

The predominantly teen-age, male audience gravitated toward guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, and also ate up bassist/vocalist Tom Araya’s blunt humor. When he railed against TV evangelists “who ask you to send them money because God is broke,” the audience roared. No wonder authority figures hate this band.

This dressed down quartet can graphically illustrate the destruction of the world and a descent into purgatory, all within the context of a three-minute song. That’s artistry at its most violent. If Slayer whips its fans into a frenzy, it only proves how effective they are.