August 4, 1984 - Haunting The Chapel

Eight days after my last release and a short nine months after their debut "Show No Mercy", Slayer released their first EP "Haunting The Chapel" on August 4, 1984. "Show No Mercy" was the best-selling album on their label Metal Blade and they wanted to quickly follow up with an EP. While originally only three songs, a fourth was added on a later reissue and it's this slightly longer version that I have, though the whole thing is still under 17 minutes. Despite the short turnaround this EP shows a change in style from their debut as they become even thrashier! Drummer Dave Lombardo adds a double kick pedal to his drum kit and it certainly makes things sound even faster and heavier than before! Let's check out some new Slayer!

The first song is "Chemical Warfare" and it would become one of Slayer's concert mainstays. It starts with one guitar, then the other, and finally the rhythm section before shifting into the furious main riff. We hear some unbelievably fast guitars from both Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman and Tom Araya plays some really fast bass as well while also singing the first verse overtop. The lyrics are about the awful things that happen to humans during war with chemical weapons and these death-and-destruction lyrics match the furious metal music very nicely. The guitars slow down in the chorus but they still sound great and Araya sings a solid chorus that ends with him saying the name of the song before they return to the furious main riff. They speed through another verse and chorus before shifting to a new chugging riff that is nice and heavy. This leads into the same riff that opened the song and sets the stage for the first solo. It's a short solo but it is pretty crazy and high-pitched and it leads right into a new verse as Araya yells overtop another quite heavy riff. After this verse another solo follows and both King and Hanneman play some excellent guitar in this longer solo. They return to the blindingly fast main riff, but play it higher than last time as they somehow give the feel of even more urgency than before! They jet right through a final verse and chorus before moving to the grand finale: almost a full minute of insanity. Lombardo goes absolutely bonkers, playing some incredibly fast and awesome drums while the three guitars play some droning and screeching stuff that sounds very noisy and very heavy! I'm sure some are covering their ears at this loudness to end the song, but I love every second of the madness and think it's a wicked way to end a pretty sweet song. Up next is "Captor Of Sin" and it kicks right into a guitar solo as your face gets unexpectedly melted right from the get-go with a pretty sweet solo! It's a smooth segue into the catchy main riff that is fast and sounds really good and Araya begins a nice harsh verse. The chorus sounds like a catchy Iron Maiden-like riff, but played at twice the speed (and it was already fairly fast)! The guitars sound great and just like the last song this EP has a new sense of heaviness that wasn't there on their first album. They return to the cool main riff and after another verse and chorus Araya sings a brief bridge that sets the stage for solo time. I'm not sure who plays it but it's a pretty awesome solo as usual with lots of super fast notes played perfectly in time. It slams right back into the main riff and they play a final verse and chorus before nicely jamming things out to end it. Track 3 is the title track "Haunting The Chapel" and they kick right into a main riff that sounds nice and heavy and by Slayer's standards is probably considered slow, but it's still pretty fast. Araya sings a verse with some very anti-Christian and borderline satanic lyrics as King (who wrote the lyrics) was very interested in the satanic culture. They play a couple verses with the gruesome lyrics meshing well with the heavy riff before they nicely segue into a more Slayer-like speed with a very fast new guitar riff. Araya sings a fast verse to match the furious pace and they ramp nicely into the guitar solo where things really take off! Both King and Hanneman get a chance to show their stuff in this long solo and they both do an amazing job with some ear-splitting solos that are unlike any other band! This wonderful solo takes us almost to the end of the song before we're played out a cool final guitar lick to end things on a very nice note. The final song on this EP is "Aggressive Perfector" and it has a slow and epic guitar opening and Lombardo really shows off his double bass pedal with some excellent drumming in this opening. An epic metal flourish to begin a song is a little different but things sound pretty great; especially the drums. Both guitars begin playing some really fast stuff and they shift nicely into a thrashing main riff. Araya's voice sounds less harsh in this verse and this song sounds more like their debut album with a much less heavy and dooming feeling. He does one of his very high yells  that were all over the first album to end the chorus and things still sound pretty good despite not being so intense. After another verse and chorus it's solo time and King and Hanneman trade solos back and forth a couple times and this epic guitar duel sounds pretty awesome! There's some really great guitar from both of them and they go right back into the chorus before they jam out the fast-paced main riff to finish things off.

That is the end of "Haunting The Chapel" and I thought it was a pretty sweet little EP! The first three songs (which is all the original EP was) show a much heavier side than was on "Show No Mercy" and I thought all three of them were great songs. The newer addition was solid as well but it's those first three songs (especially "Chemical Warfare") that show the direction that Slayer is headed in on their next album. I don't like to compare EPs to albums because obviously one is way shorter than the other, but I like the heavier feel of this EP a lot and am excited to hear a full album of this new style of Slayer!