Ελληνικά
We asked Thomas Trampouras to write about the album that changed his life. Thomas is the guitarist of legendary Greek Thrashers Flames, vocalist on Riffocity, guitarist and vocalist on Darkest Color and voice of Repentless a Slayer tribute band as well as the new guitarist of War Device…but to be honest the main reason for asking him to write for us was because he is a Slayer fanatic to the bone!!!
When I was asked to write some lines for my favorite album by Slayer the truth is I was excited at first, but then I thought that I don’t have just one by the band… And ok, I’m not their biggest fan… I know others who are crazy about them… Maybe I am more critical with them for that reason though…
Let’s take things from the start. As a kid in the 80’s I grew up with all this music in my ears. I don’t know anyone who started with thrash metal back then. And to make the long story short, Metallica became by big love around 85-86. I started developing my taste around extreme sound from there…. Hard times back then in Greece. You wouldn’t listen to your stuff anywhere in Greece, no radio or TV and of course there was no internet… Most importantly there were no money… Amazing right?
Hopefully I had a lot of friends. And some of them gathered money to buy vinyls. Triantafyllos was one of them, a true metal maniac. Of course the illegal recording of tapes in his house was an everyday life. Tons of tapes where he would write all the material he thought we should listen. One of them was everything by Slayer. Reign in Blood had not been released yet. He had put Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits and the date of the tape’s creation: 5/6/1986. He had also drawn pentacles with red letters and upside down crosses which made it even more attractive. Of course it was a C90 cassette so it fit more, and the space did not go to waste, so he put Speed Merchants – Razor.
I can’t say I was impressed by first listen, I wasn’t ready for Slayer…
And with so many tapes, I had to listen to tracks from many bands that were then unknown but are now considered huge. A chapter was closed and the tape got into my hands some time later.
I press play and by coincidence, I listen to Chemical Warfare. I was home alone. I walk towards the player in the living room, I get into a frenzy mode and between a pause at the end of the EP I hear a scream from outside the house somewhere “Stop with all that noise yellings! Will you let us sleep?”
Right then I realized Slayer are for me… I had a shock with Haunting the Chapel, Captor of Sin and Chemical Warfare.
Chemical Warfare. One of the best tracks in thrash metal. Very characteristic is the way the guitars start without leaving space for wondering what’s going on. It’s reasonable to be part of every setlist all these years, that it’s the start of a trilogy of tracks showing the violence of war is also important. The other two are Angel of Death and War Ensemble who have the same concept in different eras and references lyrically.
Captor Of Sin. Easily it would be in Show No Mercy, the step towards their next album hasn’t been made yet fully but it’s so good that they continue to play it often to this day even though it’s so old.
Haunting the Chapel. The fact that the Christian producer Bill Metoyer was scared to burn in hell when reading the lyrics of this track in the recordings, is enough for me, since I burst to laughter when I first read about it. What scared him was the first lyrics that Araya shouts at the track… “The holy cross, symbol of lies, intimidates the lives of Christian born”
I know today all that sounds simple and its very easy for someone to listen to extreme metal. Then if you put Chemical Warfare in the tape player at a school excursion you could seriously terrorize people… I’m serious.
Fate has brought it this way and now I come back to thrash with various ways, one of them being at a Slayer tribute band when Slayer themselves say they are quitting. An honorable act by the band.
What someone receives when deciding what they like is based on personal experiences. Haunting the Chapel is not better than South of Heaven… But it was what made me listen to Slayer for 33 years. It must have been what derived the passion of Lombardo about the double pedal and would put Slayer in a rising path in the scene in my opinion.
