With every passing year it becomes and less and less clear what it is that many Slayer fans actually want from their favourite band. Instantly recognisable and remorselessly true to their trademark sound, even at their most daring and adventurous, Slayer have always been very good at being Slayer, which must make the constant whining of feeble-minded keyboard warriors who will settle for nothing less than a wholesale repeat of Reign In Blood or Seasons In The Abyss somewhat hard to take. If you consider how much hyperbole and froth was hurled at Death Magnetic last year – an album that, with all due respect, was a long way from being either a classic or a bona fide return to peak form – then World Painted Blood should currently be buried under an avalanche of effusive praise and foamy-mouthed plaudits, not least because this is plainly the best album Slayer have made since Divine Intervention, some 15 years ago. Two factors make all the difference here. Firstly, Greg Fidelman’s production has reinvigorated the Slayer sonic experience, bringing back all exposed-rib-rawness of those early albums while still retaining all the 21st century abdominal impact required of modern metal records. Secondly, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman are on blistering songwriting form once again, outstripping the robust excellence of the underrated Christ Illusion with a batch of nasty, hateful anti-hymns that veterans of this vintage should really struggle to conjure up. Just listen to the vicious, heads-down blast of ‘Unit 731’, the violent mischief of ‘Hate Worldwide’ or the three-headed, multi-rhythm nightmare of ‘Playing With Dolls’ and be glad that you didn’t pay attention to the naysayers who claimed that Slayer died creatively at the beginning of the ‘90s. Truth be told, this doesn’t quite scale the heights of precise brilliance that Mustaine pulled off with Endgame, but this is a truly great Slayer album and another career high point to add to an already formidable list. Some fans will bitch and whine whatever happens, so in the meantime, the rest of us can simply crank it up, soak up the evil vibes and enjoy the sound of one of the all-time great metal bands slamming a few more rusty nails into Christ’s broken limbs.