1/2 SLAYER “Seasons in the Abyss” <i> Def American</i>

In the beginning, there were Metallica and Slayer, and only Metallica and Slayer, the two giants of new American metal. If Metallica was the Beatles of the genre, the guys who made heavy rock respectable again, Slayer was the Rolling Stones: dark, violent and nasty, fascinated with evil, the favorite group of every bad kid in suburbia (that was Slayer blasting out of the tape decks in “River’s Edge”). Slayer was the most extreme band anybody could think of, and the most intense stage performers in the world.

Over time, thousands ofother bands copied the Slayer formula, many of them playing even faster than Slayer, and others--Carcass, Napalm Death--relying on more violent imagery. Slayer slowed things down on its last album, and a lot of the other bands did too, but sludge-metal had the feeling of an artistic dead end.

This time out, instead of being imitated, Slayer is imitating, sort of, the logical direction taken by Metallica when that band evolved from the pure thrash of “Kill ‘Em All.” On “Seasons in the Abyss,” by far the most accessible Slayer opus, the songs are riffy instead of droning, the vocals toned down from howls to snarls, the emphasis shifted from thrash to rock. It’s not quite as impressive as ‘87’s “Reign in Blood,” one of the best two or three metal records ever made, but maybe they’ll finally sell more albums than T-shirts.