| World Painted Blood | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 3, 2009 (2009-11-3) | |||
| Recorded | March–August 2009 | |||
| Studio | The Pass, Los Angeles, California | |||
| Genre | Thrash metal | |||
| Length | 39:46 | |||
| Label | American Recordings,Sony Music | |||
| Producer | Greg Fidelman | |||
| Slayer chronology | ||||
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| Singles from World Painted Blood | ||||
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World Painted Blood is the eleventh studio album by Americanthrash metal bandSlayer. It was released throughAmerican Recordings andSony Music on November 3, 2009 and was produced byGreg Fidelman and executively produced byRick Rubin.[2] It is the band's only album produced by Greg Fidelman and the last album to feature the band’s original lineup including guitaristJeff Hanneman (who died ofliver cirrhosis in 2013) and drummerDave Lombardo (who was dismissed from Slayer the same year). With much anticipation for the album after 2006'sChrist Illusion, members of Slayer began revealing information about the album beginning in early 2009.
There were four different artworks released for the album, each of which completed one-fourth of a map that when put together illustrates the earth painted with red. There are eleven tracks on the album, with origins illustrating death and destruction, war, serial killers, and the Apocalypse.World Painted Blood is the band's final album to be released through American Recordings, as well as the final collaboration between Slayer and label owner Rubin, who had worked with the band as their producer or executive producer sinceReign in Blood (1986).
Threesingles were released from the album: "Psychopathy Red", "Hate Worldwide", and "World Painted Blood". The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. It was praised byThe A.V. Club, who said that the "resounding success in that regard: It's eclectic, but never self-consciously so." "Hate Worldwide" and "World Painted Blood" were both nominated forBest Metal Performance at the52nd and53rd Grammy Awards, respectively. The album peaked at number two on the US Top Hard Rock Albums chart, as well as twelve on theBillboard 200 and forty-one on the United Kingdom album chart.
World Painted Blood marked the first time that the band wrote material in the studio rather than entering the studio fully prepared with lyrics. The fact that they were not prepared made guitaristKerry King skeptical. King related: "I was kind of thinking, 'Man, this could be the first record in a long time that's got a little bit of filler,'" he acknowledges. "But I think every song came out great. I was concerned some would sound similar, and every one is completely different. It's cool how it worked out."[3] The majority of the lyrics and music were written by guitaristJeff Hanneman. Kerry King stated: "I like when Jeff writes as much as he did for this record. When you have one guy doing most of the writing you only get one perspective. A lot of Jeff's stuff has a very punky vibe this time; the stuff I write sounds thrashy but with a hint of punk, and when Jeff writes the stuff is more punk with a hint of thrash. It works together well."[4] Unlike 2006'sChrist Illusion, the band was "under-ready" with their lyrics and music.[5]
The album was recorded in Los Angeles, California with producer Greg Fidelman from late January and March 2009.[6][7] There were 13 songs recorded for the album, but only 11 appear on the album.[8] In May 2009, King said of the album: "I think this one has a little bit of everything—more so than anything we've done sinceSeasons. So I would imagine people are gonna compare it to that one."[9] The band had recorded thirteen songs for the album, seven written by lead guitaristJeff Hanneman and six by King, although not all of them were included.[9] King later confirmed the album's release date was pushed back to late summer 2009.[10] An article on Slayer's website confirmed the album's name.[11] On August 20, 2009, Roadrunner Records confirmed the track listing.[12] Thom Jurek of Allmusic said the production "takes a different tack altogether for this guitar-manic crew."[13] A listening party forWorld Painted Blood was held on October 30, 2009 atDuff's Brooklyn inWilliamsburg, New York. The event started at 9:00 pm[7]
During the recording ofWorld Painted Blood, King usedBC Rich Guitars,Marshall Amplifiers and Cabs,Dunlop strings and picks,EMGpickups, andKorgtuners.[14] Hanneman usedESP guitars, Marshall Amplifiers and Cabs, Dunlop strings and picks,Monster Cables, andShure Wireless System.[14] Vocalist/bassist Araya used ESP basses, Marshall Bass Amplifiers and Cabs, EMG Pick-Ups, Dunlop Picks and accessories, and MXR Effects.[14] Lombardo usedTama Drums,Paistecymbals,Pro-Markdrum sticks, andEvans drum heads.[14]
Record producerGreg Fidelman said that "the fact that the songs were still new and fresh to them, and they hadn't been playing them for six months in rehearsal, kept the vibe and excitement in the studio very high."[2] VocalistTom Araya said that there "are two principal music writers in this band, so you're going to get a combination of speed and heaviness," and later said that the "writing is really aggressive and fast, while Jeff likes things to be fast, but with melodies and grooves. In making this album, we seemed to share the same vision from song ideas to titles; when we get together as Slayer, it just happens, nothing is contrived, it's not thought out, we just do it, and we did that with this new album."[2] Lombardo said that Hanneman's writing and performance had "gone back to this great punk energy, especially with 'Psychopathy Red'."[15]
Allmusic said that it expressed moods such as Harshness, Fiery, Confidence, Rowdiness, Aggressiveness, Rebellious, Cathartic, Anger, and Hostility. It also is categorized in genres likespeed metal andheavy metal. Thom Jurek said Lombardo's percussion beats "are WAAAAAAAY up in the mix," and said that "you can understand every word, even on the thrashers" about Tom Araya's vocal style. "[T]he guitars are simply further down in the mix and sometimes it becomes difficult to discern Araya's bass. Therefore, the first listen or two to World Painted Blood might be a bit confusing for the seasoned Slayer fan, but that changes quickly, and the sound of those drums blasting in one's head will become a more than welcome presence in the mix."[13]
The album's title track was said by band members to be the continuation of "Final Six", which was an outtake from their previous album.[16] "Final Six" origins deal with the apocalypse. "Human Strain" deals with apocalyptic origins as well. The track was explained by guitaristJeff Hanneman to initially be about the human race dying off by amutative disease.[17] The title of "Public Display of Dismemberment" refers to the consequences that countries outside of the United States give to citizens for crimes.[18] Tom Araya said that "Unit 731" is "very similar toJosef Mengele in the sense that it was a medical unit in the military, which wasa Japanese military unit, actually. They did kind of the same thing; they tested the limits of the human body and recorded it for scientific purposes."[19] "Playing With Dolls" is about a child witnessing a serial killer.[20] "Beauty Through Order" is aboutElizabeth Báthory, the most prolific female serial killer.[21] Jeff Hanneman explained: "I've been meaning to write a song about that for a long time. I couldn't figure out the angle, I was thinking, 'How does a woman write? I can't write like a woman I'm a guy!' Then I just figured, 'Well, she's evil; she has lots of power and killed people.' So I just started writing and the lyrics and they came out."[22] Slayer revealed toRevolver that the track "Snuff" has no lyrical concept.[23][24] "Psychopathy Red" was inspired by theRussian serial killerAndrei Chikatilo.[2]
"Psychopathy Red", a song inspired by theSovietserial killerAndrei Chikatilo, was made available as a "limited edition, blood-red vinyl seven-inch vinyl" disc on April 18, 2009 as part of the third annualRecord Store Day.[25] The song premiered on October 29, 2008, on a YouTube stream.[26] Originally, "Psychopathy Red" was going to be ab-side ofWorld Painted Blood, but after there was access to it on the internet, they decided to add it to the album's track list.[27]
On July 28, the song "Hate Worldwide" was released as a CD-single, exclusively available atHot Topic stores.[28] The song was available on the internet before November 2008 and until July 2009, it had been streamed more than a half-million times.[2] "Hate Worldwide" was released as a limited-edition single on October 20, 2009, throughColumbia Records as a CD.[29] The song was made available exclusively at Hot Topic stores and was streamed at Hot Topic'sShockHound.com. The composition was written byKerry King who said "It's a really cool track, and Tom's voice sounds incredible on it. The last line in the song's chorus is '..spread a little hate worldwide,' and that's what we've been doing for 25 years." Along with five other songs, "Hate Worldwide" was nominated for a Best Metal Performance Grammy Award, but lost to "Dissident Aggressor" byJudas Priest, which ironically Slayer covered 22 years earlier on their 4th studio album "South of Heaven", (Priest's 2010 Grammy Award winning version, was a live recording, taken from the 2009 album "A Touch of Evil: Live").[30]
The title track, "World Painted Blood", was released as a seven-inch single on November 26, 2010, and was limited to 2500 copies. It included theb-side "Atrocity Vendor".[1] A music video for the song had already been released on June 16, 2010.[31][32] The single was exclusively released through the Metal Club record store chain.[1] The song itself was said by the band to be a continuation of "Final Six", a bonus track on the special edition of Slayer's 2006 albumChrist Illusion, and deals with the end of the world.[16]Araya andHanneman have said "World Painted Blood" is "one of the more classic Slayer songs".[16] A music video has been made for "Beauty Through Order",[33] however, it has been removed from most online sources.[34]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 78/100[35] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [13] |
| Alternative Press | [36] |
| The A.V. Club | A−[37] |
| Chicago Tribune | [38] |
| Consequence of Sound | [39] |
| musicOMH | [40] |
| NOW Magazine | [41] |
| Pitchfork | 7.3/10[42] |
| PopMatters | 8/10[43] |
| Record Collector | [44] |
The album earned generally positive reviews. OnMetacritic, it holds a score of 78 out of 100 based on 11 reviews.[35]
"Sounding," saidClassic Rock, "like it was recorded in a studio where the amps were set toFUCK YOU rather than11 and armed with a dual attack of heavy and heaviest, Slayer's 10th studio album[sic] offers a remarkable clarity of vision and strength of identity."[45]
"Quite frankly we were beginning to wonder if they still had an album like this left in them," said Greg Moffitt of theBBC. "A few of the songs command the attention with the insistence of old… [The album is] a deliciously wicked ride."[46]AllMusic's Thom Jurek awarded the album three and a half stars, saying, "In many ways it could beReign In Blood Revisited… Some compositions on this new recording have more of the band's early–style melody in them, with lightning flare–up riffs between verses: quick unexpected guitar pyrotechnics; andblast beat power drumming from Dave Lombardo pushing it all into red."[13]
Leonard Pierce ofThe A.V. Club remarked on the "burden" that "weighs particularly heavy on bands that made their reps with intensity and innovation; Slayer, in particular, was perceived as wandering in the wilderness during the yearsPaul Bostaph sat behind the drum kit."[37] He rewarded the album with an A−, describing it as "eclectic, but never self-consciously so. It rarely flags in intensity, and it's good enough that if it were inserted in Slayer’s discography right afterSeasons In The Abyss — the record it most resembles — it would be an almost seamless transition."[37] Adrien Begrand ofPopMatters gave the album eight out of ten stars, saying, "It's a slight improvement onChrist Illusion, as more than on any of their previous five albums, the foursome of guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, and drummer Dave Lombardo find themselves revisiting the seminal styles of their 1986–88 heyday."[43]MusicOMH gave the album four out of five stars.[40]
Blabbermouth's Ryan Ogle gave it 7.5 out of 10 and said it "jumps into fairly aggressive thrash gallop, but doesn't really have that 'straight-for-the-throat' feel you'd expect from track one."[47]
World Painted Blood sold 41,000 copies in the United States in its first week, landing it at number twelve on theBillboard 200.[48][49] It had sold 160,000 copies in the US as of February 2015.[50] The album peaked at number seven in Germany[51] and debuted at forty–one on theUK Albums Chart.[52] "Hate Worldwide" was nominated forBest Metal Performance in 2009,[53] and the title track was nominated for the same award a year later,[54] but lost toIron Maiden's "El Dorado".
In June 2009, it was announced that the album would be released in the late summer of 2009.[8] The album was released on November 3, 2009. The album's artwork was revealed on September 15, 2009. Four different covers were equally shipped for a standard that when put together, they create a world map covered in blood.[55] The album has four special collector's edition CD covers, and each of them "display one-fourth of a provocative continental map illustrated with human skulls and bones; when placed together, the four images form a complete and grisly map of the world." Each album has a blood-red, transparent top panel, with the map displayed beneath it. The full map is also seen in a sleeve of the double-digipak edition ofWorld Painted Blood.[56]
| Region | Year | Label | Format | Catalog | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 2009 | American Recordings | LP,Gatefold | 88697 41318 1 | [57] |
| Russia | Sony Music Entertainment | CD | 88697 61431 2 | [58] | |
| Japan | Sony Music Japan International Inc. | SICP 2253 | [59] | ||
| Europe | American Recordings | 88697614912 | [60] | ||
| United States | 88697 41318 2 | [61] | |||
| Europe | 88697413182 | [62] | |||
| Australia | CD, DVD,NTSC | 88697534382 | [63] | ||
| Europe | 88697534382 | [64] | |||
| United States | 88697 41318 2 | [65] | |||
| LP, Gatefold | 88697413181 | [66] |
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "World Painted Blood" | Hanneman | 5:53 | |
| 2. | "Unit 731" | Hanneman | Hanneman | 2:39 |
| 3. | "Snuff" | Kerry King | King | 3:42 |
| 4. | "Beauty Through Order" |
| Hanneman | 4:36 |
| 5. | "Hate Worldwide" | King | King | 2:52 |
| 6. | "Public Display of Dismemberment" | King | King | 2:34 |
| 7. | "Human Strain" |
| Hanneman | 3:09 |
| 8. | "Americon" | King | King | 3:22 |
| 9. | "Psychopathy Red" | Hanneman | Hanneman | 2:26 |
| 10. | "Playing with Dolls" |
| Hanneman | 4:13 |
| 11. | "Not of This God" | King | King | 4:20 |
| Total length: | 39:46 | |||
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Psychopathy Red" (explicit live version) | Hanneman | Hanneman | 2:47 |
| Total length: | 42:33 | |||
Credits are adapted fromAllMusic.[67][68]
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[69] | 9 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[70] | 13 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[71] | 38 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[72] | 40 |
| Canadian Albums (Billboard)[73] | 8 |
| Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[74] | 21 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[75] | 15 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[76] | 12 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[77] | 28 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[78] | 7 |
| Greek Albums (IFPI)[79] | 26 |
| Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[80] | 27 |
| Irish Albums (IRMA)[81] | 38 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[82] | 26 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[83] | 20 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[84] | 16 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[85] | 15 |
| Polish Albums (ZPAV)[86] | 16 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[87] | 31 |
| Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[88] | 56 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[89] | 21 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[90] | 14 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[91] | 41 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[92] | 4 |
| USBillboard 200[93] | 12 |
| USDigital Albums (Billboard)[94] | 18 |
| USTop Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)[95] | 2 |
| USTop Rock Albums (Billboard)[96] | 4 |
| USTop Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[97] | 1 |
| Chart (2010) | Position |
|---|---|
| US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)[98] | 49 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Poland (ZPAV)[99] | Gold | 10,000* |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)| Studio albums | |
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| Songs | |
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| Related articles | |
