EP Review: Slower - Slower
Reviewed by Carl Black
“On our last record, we did a song that has three verses, three choruses and two guitar solos and it’s only one and a half minutes long. Anything faster than that would just be…….silly.”
(Tom Araya, BBC Arena Documentary, 1988.)
Slayer songs played extremely slow. An interesting premise dreamed up by Bob Balch, the main man of Fu Manchu, while he was adapting his guitar teaching to a young man wanting to play South of Heaven. Bob’s pupil couldn't quite grasp it at full speed so he was shown the same song, only slowed down to help him learn. A light bulb moment came on and Slower were born.
The description filled me with curiosity on many levels. Slayer riffs are technically brilliant but some of the excellence can be extinguished because of the extreme speed. Will we finally get to hear that eloquence through the slowdown versions or is this just a rubbish novelty record that deserves its place in the bin?
Slower certainly hit the mission statement. All the Slayer songs here are absolute classics and ones which we can recognise instantly. Fuzzy, driving guitars and trippy, dreamy vocals drench each song. The album opens with a ten minute plus version of War Ensemble followed by an eight-minute version of The Antichrist. We get some earnest double bass drumming with Hawkwind weirdness. Blood Red is more accessible and could be a single release. Dead Skin Mask suits the style as the macabre subject matter and more melodic riffs seem to blend well with the slower, stoner style. South of Heaven closes out an interesting forty minutes.
After listening to this a couple of times, having not had the real Slayer for a few years now, it made my yearning for Tom Araya to come out of retirement even more painful. It also got me thinking… why am I listening to this when I've got real Slayer records to listen to. Ultimately this record enters in the novelty spectrum. I certainly don’t need this in my life, however I do need Slayer. It's not disrespectful as it is recorded by bona fide Slayer fans, but I'm not convinced the hardcore Slayer army will support this record, band or premise.
