Customer Reviews

Undisputed Attitude

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First off, kid. What's your age, 12? Slayer's Undisputed Attitude is not a new album, it's over 10 years old (may be older than you). Second, how is Slayer selling out by doing a tribute to music that basically started hardcore, thrash and speed metal (which Slayer was considered in the beginning) along with many other of the genres today. Do some research on punk and see all of the genres that came from it. Also, is it a crime for Slayer to be a fan of punk? Third, Slayer has come out with several albums since then and none of them are slow or even a different style of music. They don't even campare to the change that Metallica went through. Learn what a sellout is and don't run your mouth so much!!

I don't usually bother to take the time to write online reviews, but I thought I should write one for this album. The reason is that no one has has really acknowledged the fact that 11 of the 14 tracks on this cd are covers of old hardcore punk bands. As a fan of the genre, I think it's pretty cool, but some of the more die-hard metal fans may not like it. Here's the tracklist with credits to the bands that are covered.
1. Disintegration/Free Money (Verbal Abuse)
2. Verbal Abuse/Leeches (Verbal Abuse)
3. Abolish Government/Superficial Love (T.S.O.L.)
4. Can't Stand You (Slayer original)
5. Ddamm (Slayer original)
6. Guilty of Being White (Minor Threat)
7. I Hate You (Verbal Abuse)
8. Filler/I Don't Wanna Hear It (Minor Threat)
9. Spiritual Law (D.I.)
10. Mr. Freeze (Dr. Know)
11. Violent Pacification (D.R.I.)
12. Richard Hung Himself (D.I.)
13. I'm Gonna Be Your God ("I Wanna Be Your Dog" by Iggy & The Stooges)
14. Gemini (Slayer original)

For those of you who are wondering, D.I. and D.R.I. are different bands. Hope this helps some of you.

One of the building blocks of Thrash was always a healthy dose of Hardcore and Punk, which fans of the genre have often trumpeted about loudly. It supposedly gave Thrash a streetwise edge, and an open mindedness not always evident in Metal. So what happens when one of the true originators and innovators records an album of Punk and Hardcore covers? Was Slayer's `Undisputed Attitude' embraced with open arms and accepted by fans as the band paying tribute to their influences? Um... no.

Tom Araya's opening scream "Disintegrate, you b***ards!" may as well have been aimed at hundreds of thousands of tiny, narrowly focused minds which couldn't cope with this album. The casual observer might have thought perhaps Slayer had thrown away their amplifiers, discovered religion and sat around a campfire strumming Folk songs with Joan Baez, such was the barrage of criticism thrown at this album. Slayer's actual crime? Not recording a Slayer album.

Instead of allowing their beloved band a little room to indulge themselves, and perhaps recharge their creativity by reinterpreting some Punk classics, fans the world over ripped into the band for not recording a Metal album. Thrash's thin façade of "open mindedness" fifteen years in the making was smashed by one short album - Thrash fans simply couldn't accept something a little out of the ordinary.

Obviously, the album is different to other Slayer albums. There is little room for Kerry King's trademark tremolo abusing soloing, Paul Bostoph's drumming is kept relatively (and necessarily) simple, the riffing is dumbed down to the level of the originals, and Tom Araya's vocals are slightly higher pitched, with a touch of melody. However, it's still fast, vicious and heavy.

Perhaps the biggest problem was Slayer's choice of songs to cover. Taking the obvious route and revisiting "acceptable" Metal favourites like the Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Discharge or even The Exploited, might have made the album easier for Thrash fans to stomach. Instead, Slayer quite rightly went for their own personal favourites.

Minor Threat was possibly the least expected artist covered. Their philosophy ran somewhat counter to Slayer's own, and their music suffered from underproduction, but the guitar lines and aggressive vocals translate well. Tom Araya struck a little strife though, by changing the final line of "Guilty Of Being White" to "Guilty of being right". D.I.'s two contributions "Spiritual Law" and "Richard Hung Himself" are violent in their lyrical content and their simplistic riffing. Other offerings by T.S.O.L., Verbal Abuse, and Dr Know all fit reasonably well around each other.

"Sick Boy", originally by GBH was probably the most obvious choice of the entire album, and one of the highlights. GBH's own style sometimes veered toward very basic Thrash, and the song is one of the most faithful covers on the album, with the bouncy, repetitive main riff given the full treatment. Oddly, it was left off the American release of `Undisputed Attitude', perhaps because it was a track from a British band.

"Violent Pacification" originally by D.R.I. was another oddity, in that the band were contemporaries of Slayer's. Also emerging from the West Coast underground, D.R.I. contributed a great deal toward the development of the Crossover style of Thrash, and often pushed speed barriers as the former holders of the title of fastest band in the world.

Jeff Hanneman contributed a couple of tracks he'd written himself, originally intended for a Punk side project which never eventuated. "Can't Stand You" includes early Thrash style sub-blast passages, while "Ddamm" has strong bass lines and Discharge style soloing. The full project could well have been a Crossover classic had it developed.

The old Iggy And The Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog" caused the most friction, both within the band and among fans. Jeff Hanneman was the only member of the band who actually wanted to record the song. It's masochistic, submissive lyrical bent did not suit Slayer at all, so as a compromise, it was retitled "I'm Gonna Be Your God", and Araya's aggressive vocal attack turned the filthy lyrics on their head, making for an unexpectedly sleazy spectacle, which never quite gets off the ground.

So as to pacify those expecting more traditional Slayer fare, new track "Gemini" was added to the end of the album. A dark, brooding song, in the style of "South Of Heaven", "Seasons In The Abyss" and "Dead Skin Mask", it slowly builds from a pounding mid pace tempo to a percussive climax, and would hold it's place on any post-`Reign In Blood' album.

Anyone expecting a Thrash album from `Undisputed Attitude' is going to be disappointed, and probably deserves a smack around the head for expecting it. Instead, this is an album of reinterpretations of a number of Punk classics, which helped shape Slayer, and by extension, led to the release of albums like `Reign In Blood' and `Seasons In The Abyss'. Take it or leave it.

It's too bad that their best release since RIB would be an album of mostly covers, but the raw anger harnessed on this album fits Tom Araya's increasingly raspy voice better than their traditional releases. Beginning with opening scream "Disintegrate you bastards!", it's one heck of a ride. Verbal Abuse, TSOL, and Minor Threat are some of the bands covered here, and the Slayer versions in general are much heavier and faster.

Some imports came with a cover of GBH's "Sick Boy" and some with Suicidal Tendencies' "Memories of Tomorrow", and the truth is they could easily have just been included on the domestic album, which is a bit short in length (without "Gemini", the one Slayeresque tune, it clocks in at under half an hour). So I would recommend grabbing at least one of the imports for the extra song.

As evidenced by reviews here, this album isn't for everyone that consideres himself or herself a Slayer fan. It doesn't fit anywhere when you look at Slayer's progression over the years, and the only portent of future material is the finale "Gemini", the first recorded Slayer song tuned to D flat (and one of the few songs that is not actually a cover). But it is an explosive burst of fury and the band, especially Araya, enjoys one of its more inspired moments in the 1990's from start to finish. Be warned: if listening to "Angel of Death" while driving made you want to run everyone over at top speed, you may want to be on safe, solid ground the first time you play this.

Undisputed Attitude.

*****

For a cover album - this f*cking rules. I wouldn't expect your average modern Metallica fan to get this album. Not trendy enough. Nor would I expect the Dave Mustaine band aka Megadeth fans to get this either. Not poppy enough. I won't even comment about the hordes of Nu-Metal garbage out there.

So who gets this record? Slayer fans, specifically old school Slayer fans.

Slayer is at times a punk band masquerading as a Metal Band. Most of the time its a fusion of the two. Thats why going back to the 80s they've always been so different from the bands who turned their back on the real deal to be embraced by MTV.

Some Slayer fans don't get this. They are I'd presume just into the metal angle of Slayer. I'm cool with that. I grew up listening to alot of the stuff covered here - Stooges, DRI, Minor Threat. So needless to say I totally dig where they are coming from. Showing thier influences *AND* showing us a cover album can be interesting especially when pulling out deep, deep sh*t from that influenced many of us in the day. Bob Segar covers? Not on this album - go to the Smashing Pumpkins of metal for that.

Now, the music. What can I say but a resounding F*CK YA. The mix is tight the band is on fire. Bustaph earned respect from me here. The man is just rapid fire. Even in the years without Lombardo Slayer still managed to find great drummers. (one of the keys to thier success)

Tunes wise - I love the feracity of the Verb stuff. First four tracks will knock you on your ass both literally and figuretively. The agression, fire and drums are all there. Its some vicious, vicious punk. Perfect - the way its supposed to be. Other highlights include the Minor Threat covers. I hate to say this, but Slayer takes the anger and adds feracity to it. Never thought I'd want to see anyone cover 'Threat, but they take it to another level. The cover of Richard is also very good.

Overall, this album is nothing more than Slayer showing old school roots. For that they should be cheered. The band has never kissed anyone's ass and this is an example of it. I don't expect 20 year olds to get it. This is more something 30-35 year olds will get.

Only odd thing here is the lone new cut. Doesn't fit in with the rest of the album.

Overall, highly recommend this one. To the 20 year old Slayer fan or younger - this release is key to understanding Slayer. This is exactly what separates them from the Smashing Pumpkins of metal - punk roots and not loosing perspective. These covers say who they are, where they have come from and speaks volumes about thier integrity to cover alot of scene stuff while in no way kissing radio or MTV's hind quarters.

Now, if you Metallica fans could get quality like this out of your band..... Poor Cliff is rolling in his grave.

Slayer is the kind of band that can't do anything bad, and this is proof. Taking 80's punk songs and making them great but still able to hear that it's Slayer. Although I'm a bigger fan of traditional Slayer (their actual own material), this is still a good album. Thier cover of "Mr. Freeze" is pretty sick too. Check this out only if you're curious to hear how it is, but if you're someone who doesn't care that they did this c-d, just stick to Slayer's own stuff.

Let me get one thing straight, this album gets way too much flak from fans calling it [insert any negative word here beginning with an S or a C]. Originally this album was going to be a metal covers album but they were afraid of it sounding too 70's or something since they were going to cover Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. So what did they decide to do? Cover the other influence that created them. Punk. Now I'm not talking poser punk like 311, Good Charlotte, Offspring or Green Day or whatever, I'm talking about real punk that seemed to die out after the 80's. Fast and aggressive music, that although simple, it packed a message and was offensive to those that didn't know better and was very underground. I bet that most of you haven't even heard of about half of these bands that Slayer covers. One of the reasons is that bands like Verbal Abuse only made one Studio Album. Slayer took this fast sound and combined it with their Judas Priest type influences to create one of the greatest metal bands in history. I got to agree with some other reviewers, that it was very brave of Slayer to make this cover album, the metal community was most likely to react badly to this release (that's exactly what happened) but they did it anyway as a thank you to those that helped influence them and to have some fun.

I suppose that in order to really appreciate this album, you have to listen to a variety of music. I personally listen to mainly metal, but occasionally explore Industrial, some Punk and more along those lines. Other then a slight style change, if one looks at it closely, a lot of these songs can rank right up there with Necrophobic in terms of speed. While we aren't given any memorable solos necessarily, we have to remember that a lot of the original songs didn't even have solos, so that Slayer didn't just play these songs from a sheet of paper; they took the original versions and Slayerized them, adding the solos, playing them faster and combining them with other songs. Before getting this though, I suggest listening to all of the originals beforehand so you can see Slayer's improvement /take on the originals. Now let's go thru a brief overview of the album.

1. Disintegration/Free Money 9/10: two Verbal Abuse songs, very fast
2. Verbal Abuse/Leeches 9/10: Two more Verbal Abuse songs, see above
3. Abolish Government/Superficial love: 10/10Two T.S.O.L. Songs, Rather fun and fast, hilarious ending.
4. Can't Stand You: 8/10 a Slayer original that came from a scrapped side project of Jeff's from the early days.
5. Ddamm 10/10: Drunk Drivers Against Mad Mothers, See Above
6. Guilty of Being White 10/10: Loved the original Minor Threat version, love Slayer's version too.
7. I Hate You 5/10: Another Verbal Abuse song, this is really the only downer on the album.
8. Filler/I Don't Want to Hear it 10/10: Two more Minor Threat songs, I like the second the best.
9. Spiritual Law 8/10: a cool D.I. Song, they really speed it up.
10. Mr. Freeze 10/10: An Awesome Dr. Know Song, this gets stuck in my head so easily.
11. Violent Pacification 8/10: not much to this D.R.I. song, but it gets stuck in your head easily and starts off fast and has a message.
12. Richard hung Himself 9/10: another D.I. Song, I think the original is better but this comes very close.
13. I'm Gonna be Your God ( I Wanna be your Dog) 6/10: Original by Iggy Pop and the Stooges, you can't possibly take it seriously.
14. Gemini 10/10: The only normal Slayer song here and it kicks. Originally, to be placed on a soundtrack, it was removed and Slayer added it here. Starts off really slow but grows to become a beast. Also this is the only song with Lyrics in the CD sleeve, odd that they don't include lyrics for tracks 4 and 5.

On the imports, there are the additional songs:
Sick Boy 10/10: Very good G.B.H. Song.
Memories of Tomorrow 9/10: extremely fast Suicidal Tendencies song; it's only 54 seconds long!

It's kind of sad that the fans rejected this so quickly. They were so focused in on what Slayer sounded like that they couldn't possibly enjoy experimentation. Let's face it, the Metal community is filled with puritans, so it makes sense in that they could accuse Slayer of selling out, seeing this as a complete change of style. But had they paid attention to early Slayer and know what influence these metal gods, and then pay careful attention to these songs, they would know that this is 100% Slayer. It's fast as hell; there are many, many lyrics about death and violence, and each song is played well enough to the degree that makes one not able to help but smile. Give it a listen soon and you'll see that I'm right, but listen to the originals first. Hoped this helped.

GIVE ME MORE OF THIS!!! As a fan of any music that thrusts a big middle finger into the face of popular music (or a fist up the a** to be more exact), I have to give my big double fingers in the air to Undisputed Attitude. I've been a Slayer fan all the way, and their first couple of albums are only shades away from punk anyway, so the worlds heaviest thrash band covering the worlds nastiest, snottiest, rudest punk only makes the most sense. Rude. Loud. Intense. Ugly. Pissed off. Killer. Put this album on when you're in the mood to hate EVERYONE.

This cd kicked ass! See incause you people didn't know is that Slayer was founded by to fuse what kinda of music? Well lets see here oh I know metal and punk= Slayer. I have been a big fan for along time RIB is still my fav but you people out there that clam to be down with Slayer then you should know where roots are at and thats both old school punk and metal. Wow what do you know. All I have to say is that if you don't like Slayer then you need to just die! Because anything Slayer puts out is number 1 no matter what cd you are talking about. All hail Slayer!

I was a punk rock fan first. This disc turned me into a slayer fan. Tjis is great