Slayer is one of those bands that can do no wrong musically. They’re unapologetic, evil, and just badass. Now there are those that say they wrote the same album but honestly those who say that are idiots and don’t know what they’re talking about. A perfect example of such is their album (and my favorite Slayer record) Divine Intervention with the One-Two Punch of the songs “Killing Fields” and “Sex. Murder. Art.” Let’s take a look….
Divine Intervention came out in 1994 which was the height of the grunge era and while bands like Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, and even Testament did their best to keep up with the sound of that time, Slayer stayed the course and said “no fuck that we’re doing what we want” and well you have Divine Intervention. If anything, they dialed everything up a notch and went full on fuck you, in your face with this one and the opening track “Killing Fields” just goes right for the jugular with that badass drum intro. Not only is that the perfect way to grab and pull you in, but it’s also the first time we hear Dave Lombardo’s replacement Paul Bostaph. I mean come on you cannot deny that that drum intro is iconic and the perfect way to kick start the record.
Let’s take a look at the first song “Killing Fields.” When it came to writing the album, they focused more on realism such as politics, psychology and inner violence, serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, and Nazis like Reinhard Heydrich. “Killing Fields” explores the human psyche, inner violence, and when one gives into their violent tendencies. It explores the choice to kill people and the urge to do so which is something that guitarist Kerry King (he wrote this song btw) has always been fascinated with. It’s certainly a lot to take in for a song that’s only clocks in at 3:57.
Immediately after “Killing Fields” ends, without pause, goes right into the next song “Sex. Murder. Art” which I have to say is one of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Slayer songs!! The badassery of this song is unmatched and it may only clock in at 1:50 but man what a song this is. This is one of those short but sweet songs and for being so short, it absolutely crushes. Now this one takes place from the point of view of a serial killer. The song touches upon a killer’s perverse unification of physical domination, violence, and the sadistic gratification they get from all of this. When it came to writing the lyrics, singer/bass player Tom Araya said “for this one, I just kind of got inspired by watching TV. That gave me a whole lot of ideas. The whole idea about the dude with Slayer in his arms was brought about because reality is scarier than anything you can make up.”
When it comes to Divine Intervention, you cannot deny how badass this album is especially the one-two punch of the first and second songs. This is absolutely an album that comes out swinging and is the perfect blend of thrash metal and punk. What makes this band and album even more badass is the meeting they had for marketing it. Tom Araya said “when we did Divine Intervention, this was the last conference we ever had with a record label where they sat us down and sold us the idea of how they wanted to do “Divine”, and how they were going to do this with the cover… and all these different ideas for the album. Then one guy looked at us and said, ‘But we need a hit song.’ And we said, ‘But you’ve got eleven songs, and if you can’t find a hit in one of them then you’re shit out of luck because that’s what we’re giving you.’ So we’re like saying to them, ‘Right, you write the fucking hit song and we’ll record it.’ That shut the guy up and that was the last time we had any kind of meetings like that!”
