Forty years ago today, on October 7, 1986, Slayer released Reign in Blood: 10 songs in 28 minutes and 58 seconds that changed what heavy music could sound like. To mark the anniversary, the Los Angeles thrash band has opened pre-orders for a limited "blood" filled zoetrope LP, a see-through disc loaded with crimson-red liquid. It arrives November 20, and it costs $79.99 at The Sound of Vinyl, which the band's announcement names as the exclusive seller.
According to that announcement, this is the first "blood"-infused version of the album ever made. For a record whose Larry Carroll cover painting is already swimming in red, it took a surprisingly long time.
What you are actually getting
This is two collector formats stacked into one record. A liquid-filled LP seals colored liquid inside the disc, so the "blood" moves when you tilt it. In the official photos it pools at the bottom of the record in drips. A zoetrope record has artwork printed in rings that appear to animate when the disc spins, an effect that is easiest to catch through a phone camera or under a strobe light. Here the rings are made of Slayer's pentagram logo, repeated around the disc, and the animated preview on the store page shows them coming to life as it turns.
It is a single LP that plays at 33 RPM. The center label carries the American Recordings logo and the UMe mark, short for Universal Music Enterprises, the Universal division that handles the Slayer catalog today. The listing does not say how many copies were pressed, only that it is a very limited edition.
Why Reign in Blood still matters
Reign in Blood was Slayer's third album and their first with producer Rick Rubin. The lineup was Tom Araya on vocals and bass, Kerry King and the late Jeff Hanneman on guitar and Dave Lombardo on drums. Rubin released it on Def Jam, the label he co-founded, and the catalog later followed him to the label now called American Recordings. Columbia Records, which distributed Def Jam at the time, refused to handle it over its lyrics, so it reached stores through Geffen instead.
None of that slowed it down. The record opens with Araya's scream on "Angel of Death" and closes with the rainstorm that fades into feedback at the end of "Raining Blood," and it barely stops to breathe in between. It went gold with the RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America), Rolling Stone ranks it No. 6 on its list of the greatest metal albums ever, and Pitchfork put it at No. 31 among the best albums of the 1980s. Public Enemy even sampled "Angel of Death" on It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. Much of death metal and black metal grew out of the template it set.
Where to hear it live
Slayer retired after a farewell tour that ended in 2019, then came back for festival dates in 2024. This year Araya and King, joined by drummer Paul Bostaph and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt, are playing Reign in Blood in full at a handful of shows. Next up is the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on October 21, then Sick New World Texas in Fort Worth on October 24. The band then plays two sold-out hometown nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, on November 13 and 14, with Cannibal Corpse, Crowbar and Cavalera, the band led by Sepultura founders Max and Igor Cavalera. December brings headline shows in Bogotá, Santiago, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.
Our call
Is a blood-filled Slayer record a gimmick? Of course it is, and that is exactly why it works. Reign in Blood has always been a little cartoonish and completely serious at the same time, and this pressing gets that balance right. At $79.99 it is a splurge next to a standard pressing, so treat it as a display piece that happens to play, and expect it to go fast once fans wake up to it.
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If you just want the album on a record you can play every day, the standard 180-gram black vinyl reissue of Reign in Blood from American Recordings is still in print.
If it is going on the wall, give it something good to sit next to with our gifts for vinyl collectors. If it is going on the platter, start with our picks for the best turntables for beginners, and keep it clean with our record care essentials.
Pre-order at The Sound of Vinyl · Official pre-order link · Slayer
