Review Summary: Who cares if it’s 7% Slayer?
A question I regularly ask myself when I listen to Slayer is “why do people not like
Undisputed Attitude?” Was it because it wasn’t satanic as hell? Was it because of that Minor Threat lyric alteration? Or because they needed Satan so badly they hated an album that was 93% a covers album? Because frankly, I cannot understand for the life of me how this has a 2.7 score. Call me emotional, but honestly, do Slayer fans not know how to have fun? Because
Undisputed Attitude is a great if a little imperfect covers album.
Undisputed Attitude is the most fun Slayer have ever sounded in their entire career, and delivers their covers well, turning hardcore punk songs into HARDERcore punk songs, complete with the Slayer shredding insanity you already know me love. It one-ups the intensity of all of these songs, such as on songs like Verbal Abuse’s “Verbal Abuse/Leeches” and T.S.O.L.’s “Abolish Government/Superficial Love”, but isn’t massively derivative musically yet they still completely shred. Apart from the off-kilter lyrical alterations by Araya which aren’t great (especially the infamous “Guilty of Being White” alteration*), there’s literally nothing wrong with any of these songs. Somehow, Slayer makes anarchy and rebellion even more intense, guitars shred left and right, and Tom Araya is an excellent vocalist who makes some of the album’s songs, such as “Mr. Freeze”, more intense vocally. Overall the band’s covers are relatively faithful to their source material and provide a modern(ish) update to hardcore punk (and its sometimes bad production). Even with the slower/groovier songs, such as “I’m Gonna Be Your God” (I Wanna Be Your Dog by the Stooges) and “Richard Hung Himself”, Slayer turns the atmosphere into semi-sinister, and still working regardless. Slayer also manages to insert some of their thrash solos into the mix and somehow making it work despite what you’d expect, bringing the songs on a similar level to their output (in terms of musical quality). Everything flashes by in such speed and haste that a 14 song album is actually 18 songs; and no second is wasted. Sometimes some of the songs are a little less well executed than usual but it has a rather minimal impact.
Of course, I can’t finish this review without mentioning, “Gemini”,a near 5 minute opus which could be seen as a subtle (and unfortunate) precursor to
Diabolus In Musica; but compared to that album, the slow formula is executed well in this song, with an almost perfect build up, going slow and accelerating up to a climax before it all schizophrenically explodes; it’s easily one of Slayer’s best 1990’s songs and beats anything on
Diabolus in Musica by a thousand nautical miles. So overall, once those 33 minutes are over, why the f—k aren’t you satisfied? It’s not the Slayer album you wanted, and sure not a revolutionary album, but why care when you could have so much fun? It’s a faithful and fun tribute and update to hardcore. Take it for what it is, learn to stop worrying about being so “KVLT”, and mosh the f—k out.
3.5/5
——
* how was racism “tongue-in-cheek” back then??
