Various Artists
Straight to Hell - A Tribute to Slayer

July 1999
Released: 1999, na
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: Blake

A fairly good Tribute CD with quite a surprisingly wide variety of bands covering the almighty Slayer's music. Unfortunately, a wide variety doesn't always mean that everyone will like everything on it, or that its all good music, but there is definitely something for everyone on this CD!



The highlights are THE ELECTRIC HELLFIRE CLUB, HECATE ENTHRONED, MORTICIAN, CHAPTER 7, NAKED LUNCH, EMBRAZE and BRUTAL TRUTH. As you can see, these obviously aren't all metal bands. There is everything from hardcore punk to industrial in this tribute, a refreshing change from the usual "Death Metal bands covering a Death Metal band". Brutal Truth play a cover of "Necrophobic". At first I thought this was a bad cover because of its horrible production, but it is actually a good track despite the feeling that it was recorded in a cupboard. The Electric Hellfire Club bad boys play the song "South of Heaven" with their usual touch of Satanic might (including samples of rituals), and there was no disappointment there, in fact its my favorite track on the CD. T.E.H.F.C. managed to take a metal song and play it in a more industrial style well, unlike ABBADON OF VENOM, who should have stuck to metal, as he failed miserably on his version of "South of Heaven", with one of the worst industrial covers I have heard in my life. The bands HYPOCRACY, JUNGLE ROT and DISSECTION play rather generic metal covers of "Black Magic"," Fight Till Death", and "Anti-Christ" respectively. They seem to be more going through the motions, and not really adding any thing new to the covers of SLAYER, at least in my opinion. One Death Metal band that did come through was EMBRAZE, which played a heavy energetic cover of "Chemical Warfare". Other bands didn't do so well, such as the industrial band brood which played a weak version of the classic "Angel of Death" as well as GIGANTOR, which to the best of my knowledge, seemed to play an alternative music version of "Behind the Crooked Cross".



All in all though, a good varied tribute to one of the greatest American Death/thrash bands.



Track Listings 1. NecrophobicBrutal Truth 2. South Of HeavenAbbadon Of Venom 3. South Of HeavenThe Electric Hellfire .. 4. Black MagicHypocrisy 5. Altar Of SacrificeHecate Enthroned 6. Peace By PeaceMortician 7. Mandatory SuicideChapter 7 8. Fight Till DeathJungle Rot 9. Behind The Crooked CrossGigantor 10. Blood RedNaked Lunch 11. Angel Of DeathBrood 12. Anti ChristDissection 13. Chemical WarfareEmbraze