Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Comment to who ever wrote "Undisputed Sellouts", July 31, 2006
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!!
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
COVER ALBUM, July 10, 2003
By A Customer
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.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The right attitude, November 19, 2004
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.
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