血之王朝 (1986)

Reign in Blood is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on October 20, 1986, by Def Jam Recordings. It was the first Slayer album to be released by Def Jam and the first to be produced by Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band's sound evolve.

Reign in Blood received widespread acclaim upon release and was responsible for bringing Slayer to the attention of a mainstream metal audience. Alongside Anthrax's Among the Living, Megadeth's Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, and Metallica's Master of Puppets, Reign in Blood is credited with defining the sound of the emerging American thrash metal scene in the mid-1980s. It was the first Slayer album to enter the US Billboard 200, peaking at number 94, and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1992.

The release of the album was delayed due to concerns regarding the lyrical subject matter of the opening track "Angel of Death", which refers to Josef Mengele and describes acts such as human experimentation that he committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The band defended the song, stating that they did not condone Nazism and were merely interested in exploring the subject.

Often considered to be one of the greatest and most influential metal albums of all time, NME ranked Reign in Blood at number 287 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2013. In their 2017 listing of the 100 Greatest Metal albums of all time, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 6.

Background

Slayer composed the material for Reign in Blood following their return from a tour of Europe. Guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman wrote much of the album's music on their own, and quickly taught it to drummer Dave Lombardo. The band recorded instrumental demos of the songs (which King described as "just the best 10 songs we had at that point") and took them to Brian Slagel, the band's manager at the time.

Following the positive reception Slayer's previous release Hell Awaits had received, the band's producer and manager Brian Slagel realized the band were in a position to hit the "big time" with their next album. Slagel negotiated with several record labels, among them Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons' Def Jam Recordings. However, Slagel was reluctant to have the band signed to what was at the time primarily a hip-hop label. Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo was made aware of Rubin's interest, and he initiated contact with the producer. However, Slayer's remaining members were apprehensive of leaving Metal Blade Records, with whom they were already under contract.

Lombardo contacted Columbia Records, which was Def Jam's distributor, and managed to get in touch with Rubin, who along with photographer Glen E. Friedman agreed to attend one of the band's concerts. Friedman had produced Suicidal Tendencies's self-titled debut album, in which Slayer vocalist Tom Araya made a guest appearance in the music video for the album's single "Institutionalized", pushing Suicidal Tendencies's vocalist Mike Muir. Around this time, Rubin asked Friedman if he knew Slayer.