Christ Illusion

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Christ Illusion
American Recordings
ProducerJosh Abraham
Slayer chronology
God Hates Us All
(2001)
Christ Illusion
(2006)
World Painted Blood
(2009)
Singles from Christ Illusion
  1. "Cult"
    Released: June 6, 2006
  2. "Eyes of the Insane"
    Released: November 20, 2006

Christ Illusion is the tenth

American Recordings. It was the band's first album featuring all four original members in nearly sixteen years. Slayer's drummer, Dave Lombardo, performed with the band for the first time since Seasons in the Abyss
(1990).

Depicting a mutilated Christ painted by longtime collaborator

Larry Carroll, the album's graphic artwork courted controversy; an alternative cover was issued to conservative retailers who felt uncomfortable with the original, and the band also put out a censored cover without the offensive artwork. Lyrics, particularly in the song "Jihad", describe the September 11 attacks from the perspective of a terrorist. Following protests, all Indian stocks of the album were recalled and destroyed by EMI India.[3]

Christ Illusion received generally favorable critical reviews, and entered the

" and "Final Six".

Recording

Christ Illusion was recorded via computer between two studios: NRG Studios,

Warner Bros. Records, meaning the recording would have been temporarily shelved until the issue became resolved.[8] For this reason the group did not finish a record at that time,[8] as the distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records was not finalized until late July 2005.[9]

Slayer wished for Reign in Blood producer Rick Rubin to produce the album, and expected him to do so after Rubin expressed an initial interest.[10] Rubin was busy, however, which caused a further delay to recording.[10] While Christ Illusion's recording was finally underway Rubin lent production to Metallica's Death Magnetic, an action later described by King as a "slap in the fucking face."[10] Josh Abraham produced the album instead,[4] and was praised by Blabbermouth's Don Kaye "for capturing much more of the spark than has been apparent on the last few records."[11] Despite missing an opportunity to produce Christ Illusion, Rubin contributed in an "executive production" capacity.[4] King was critical of his involvement, and said he cannot recall Rubin's presence in the studio during the recording, and that Rubin's main contribution was in providing suggestions during the final mix.[5] Jamie Thomson of UK's The Guardian newspaper was scornful of Rubin's contribution, and observed Slayer "seem unwilling to ditch the nu-metal tendencies that have made much of their recent output so resistible, which suggests Rubin's involvement was considerably less hands-on than in his remarkable redemptions of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond."[12]

As with Slayer's previous two albums, all rhythm guitar tracks on Christ Illusion were laid down by King.[5] Using a Marshall JCM 800 as the main guitar sound throughout the album, King wrote roughly 80% of his guitar solo parts prior to the sessions.[5] The song "Catalyst," meanwhile, almost saw inclusion on Slayer's 2001 album God Hates Us All, existing in an alternative version which features former drummer Paul Bostaph on drums.[6] Lombardo's involvement marked the first time he, King, Araya and Hanneman had appeared together on record since the release of Seasons in the Abyss in 1990,[5] a reason cited by guitarist Jeff Hanneman for an alleged clearer punk vibe throughout the songs on the album.[13] Lombardo personally described the album as "a matured Reign in Blood",[14] while King described it as "a mix between God Hates [Us All] and Seasons [in the Abyss]."[15]

Although eleven songs were originally slated for the album, only ten made the final track listing. A song penned by Hanneman,

Punisher: War Zone
the following year.

Marketing and promotion

Being Slayer's tenth studio album, Christ Illusion was originally scheduled for release on June 6, 2006,

Nuclear Blast Records released a 7" vinyl picture disc version limited to a thousand copies.[23]

Not all media attention surrounding the group on June 6 was favorable. National Day of Slayer, LLC, which describes itself as "a non-profit corporation in the State of Wyoming", requested on their website that Slayer fanatics participate in "The National Day of Slayer" by coming together and listening to the group's tracks.

Yonkers, New York, by spray-painting a large pentagram in front of the doors, black inverted crosses in two columns in front of the main entrance, and the number six on three steps leading into the Seminary. The words "Reign in Blood" were scrawled on the seminary landing,[25] while the phrase "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven", taken from Book 1 of John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, was found inscribed on two inside columns.[25] The National Day of Slayer website took credit for inspiring the perpetrator(s), and a media investigation discovered that the site had left instructions that fans "spray paint Slayer logos on churches, synagogues, or cemeteries".[26]

Fans were given an exclusive preview of further tracks culled from the upcoming album before its release. In addition to "Cult", the tracks "Jihad" and "Eyes of the Insane" were made available for streaming on the Spanish website Rafabasa.com in late June.

MySpace profile.[31] AOL Radio complimented this by launching an "All Slayer" station in anticipation of Christ Illusion's release, playing all of Slayer's previously released songs and tracks from the upcoming record.[32]

In late July 2006, bus benches in several Californian cities were decorated with promotional artwork for Christ Illusion.[33] City officials in Fullerton, California, demanded the artwork be immediately removed from seventeen bus benches located throughout the city, and contacted the hired company which had originally put the adverts in place to assume the task.[33] The officials disliked the band's name, which they felt referred to a murderer. They also took offense to the antichrist and skull logo adorning the bench artwork.[33] Eventually, the artwork was removed.[34] However, various Orange County, California areas surrounding the city of Fullerton still had benches sporting the cover artwork.[34]

Commercial performance

Christ Illusion was released on August 8, 2006 by American Recordings / Warner Bros. Records. In its first week of release, the album sold 62,000 copies in the United States and debuted at number 5 on the

50th Grammy Awards.[42] The album won the 2006 Metal Storm Award for Best Thrash Metal Album.[43]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic72/100[44]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[45]
The Austin Chronicle[46]
Blender[47]
Drowned in Sound 8/10[48]
The Guardian[12]
musicOMH[49]
PopMatters 8/10[50]
Spin6/10[44]
StylusB[51]
Uncut[44]

The album was met with mostly favorable reviews. On Metacritic, it was given a score of 72 out of 100 based on 21 reviews.[44] Thom Jurek of AllMusic hailed the album as "raging, forward-thinking heavy metal melding with hardcore thrash", and wrote that Christ Illusion marked a return to "what made them such a breath of fresh air in the first place."[45] Ben Ratliff of The New York Times described the album as possessing "a kind of demented gravity, and the music bears it out: it is the most concentrated, focused Slayer record in 20 years."[52] PopMatters critic Adrien Begrand called it "Slayer's best album in sixteen years and their most thought-provoking work to date",[50] and the album was placed at number 15 on PopMatters' list of The Best Metal Albums of 2006.[53]

Drummer Lombardo came in for particular praise; though Rolling Stone panned the album, the reviewer acknowledged that "at least their awesome drummer Dave Lombardo shows off some chops."

Decibel Magazine gave it a favorable review, stating, "Their hatred for religion in general, Christianity in particular, unwitting Americans, and anyone on the other side of a soldier's gun has inspired Slayer to record their most vital album in years."[57] Chris Campion of The Observer stated that the album is "their most rigorously conceived and focused for years."[58]

Not all critics were positive. Chris Steffen of Rolling Stone magazine dismissed the album, noting that it "mines much of the same territory as its predecessor, God Hates Us All, just without the memorable riffs."[54] Jamie Thomson of The Guardian described the album as "wholly disappointing," and thought the band sounded "unwilling to ditch the nu-metal tendencies that have made much of their recent output so resistible."[12] KNAC.com contributor Peter Atkinson felt that the album "demands OUTRAGE —more calculatingly so than any other album the band has done," and that "that, in a nutshell, is Christ Illusion's glaring weakness."[55]

Album artwork

The censored album cover for Christ Illusion, 2006

Several aspects of Christ Illusion's content and promotion generated adverse attention and publicity. In particular the cover art, painted by

lithographs of the artwork,[62] while an alternative, non-graphic cover was made to appease retailers who had refused to stock the original version.[63]

World Entertainment News Network reported Slayer were attracting controversy through issuing the artwork.[60] Joseph Dias, general secretary of the Mumbai Christian group Catholic Secular Forum, (CSF) took "strong exception" to the original album artwork, and issued a memorandum to Mumbai's police commissioner in protest.[64] Chris Steffen of Rolling Stone magazine commented that "The album art takes it all over the top with an image axeman Kerry King dubs 'Christ in a Sea of Despair'",[54] while KNAC.com's Peter Atkinson deemed the artwork "defiantly sacrilegious".[55]

Lyrical themes

Lyrical themes explored on Christ Illusion deal with terrorism, warfare and religion, which drew criticism from conservative groups. It includes a depiction of the

post-traumatic stress ("Eyes of the Insane").[65] The song "Cult" revolves around King's perception of flaws in American religion,[18] while "Consfearacy" has been described as a "government hating song".[66][67]

Critical reaction to the album's lyrical content was mixed. Thom Jurek of

Allmusic felt the "dark, unrelentingly twisted-as-fuck lyrics reflect a singular intensity," and praised the band for connecting their anti-religion stance with a belief that religion has underscored many wars throughout history.[45] However, Rolling Stone's Chris Steffen mourned that it had become "downright painful to hear Tom Araya — at 45 years old! — continue to belt out the band's increasingly self-parodying, anti-religious lyrics," and singled out lyrics such as "Religion's a whore" and "I've made my choice: six six six!" as over the top.[54] Jamie Thomson of The Guardian wrote that the album left "no blasphemy... unuttered",[12] while Peter Atkinson of KNAC.com observed that "when not fixating on religion, the band revisit their other favorite subject — war — in surprisingly familiar terms," and remarked that Slayer had sunk "to the level of God-repelling dunderheads Deicide."[55] He concluded the review with the opinion that "It's déjà vu all over again from God Hates Us All — and once you've titled something God Hates Us All, haven't you made your point enough already?"[55]

The Catholic Secular Forum condemned the album's lyrical content. Joseph Dias issued a statement in which he deemed the lyrics to "Skeleton Christ" to be an "insult to Christianity."[64] The memorandum was sent to Mumbai's police commissioner, and further expressed concern that the track "Jihad" would offend "the sensibilities of the Muslims... and secular Indians who have respect for all faiths."[64] EMI India met with the CSF, apologizing for Christ Illusion's release and recalling the album with no plans of a reissue.[64] On October 11, 2006 it was announced all stocks had been destroyed.[68] Though Araya had expected "Jihad"'s treatment of the events of 9/11 to create an American backlash, it failed to materialise, in part, he believes, due to peoples' view that the song is merely "just Slayer being Slayer".[13]

Track listing

All tracks (both music and lyrics) written by Kerry King unless noted.

No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Flesh Storm"  4:14
2."Catalyst"  3:07
3."Skeleton Christ"  4:22
4."Eyes of the Insane"Tom ArayaJeff Hanneman3:23
5."Jihad"Araya, HannemanHanneman3:31
6."Consfearacy"  3:07
7."Catatonic"  4:54
8."Black Serenade" (Alternate version in special edition)Araya, HannemanHanneman3:16
9."Cult"  4:40
10."Supremist"  3:51
Total length:38:25
Special edition bonus track
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
11."Final Six"Araya, HannemanHanneman4:10
Special edition DVD
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Slayer on Tour '07" (documentary)N/AN/A5:11
2."Eyes of the Insane" (music video)ArayaHanneman3:53
3."South of Heaven" (from the Unholy Alliance DVD)ArayaHanneman4:46
Total length:13:50

Credits

Writing, performance and production credits are adapted from the album liner notes.[69]

Personnel

Slayer

Production

Artwork and design

  • t42design – art direction, design
  • Josh Victor Rothstein – photography
  • Larry Carroll – cover art
  • Krucified Kittens – art direction, cover design (special edition only)

Studios

  • NRG, Los Angeles, California – recording
  • Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, California – recording
  • Pulse Recording, Los Angeles, California – mixing
  • Sony Music Studios, New York City, New York – mastering

DVD credits

Slayer on Tour '07
  • Matt Weston – direction
  • Dave Wither – direction
  • Brett Jordan – direction
  • Andrew Deerin – production
  • Kevin Flynn – editing
"Eyes of the Insane"
  • Tony Petrossian – direction, production, editing
  • Amanda Fox – production
"South of Heaven"
  • Adam Rothlein – direction, editing
  • Jen Rothlein – production

Charts

Chart (2006) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[70] 9
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[71] 6
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[72] 19
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[73] 48
Canadian Albums (Billboard)[74] 3
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[75] 14
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[76] 8
Finnish Albums (
Suomen virallinen lista)[77]
2
French Albums (
SNEP)[78]
52
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[79] 2
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[80] 11
Irish Albums (IRMA)[81] 10
Italian Albums (FIMI)[82] 18
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[83] 17
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[84] 10
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[85] 10
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[86] 9
Scottish Albums (OCC)[87] 17
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[88] 4
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[89] 11
UK Albums (OCC)[90] 23
UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC)[91]
1
US Billboard 200[92] 5
US
Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[93]
2
US
Top Tastemaker Albums (Billboard)[94]
1

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External links