Totally overrated album and I've always felt this way about this release. The intro is eerie though and I wish that I could say that the guitar riffs and solos were worthy of praise. I'm just not hearing it on here. I don't see the major gaga about this album. Tom Araya's vocals are less intense than on 'Show no Mercy' (1983), but they do fit the music wll. I just think that the guitars could've been better constructed here, but this isn't the case in my opinion. All I hear is monotonous tremolo picked riffs with mediocre solos and production quality that just does not sum it up to being a classic from Slayer.

I'm not one to read the reviews here, just the percentages. It's just not there for me no matter how much I listen to the album. Guitars could've been way better than they are. I'd rather listen to 'Show no Mercy' than this one. It's a hard one to see that much significance in the recording. To me, this is average Slayer work. However, the riffs are original sounding, but nothing that really sticks in my brain into thinking that it's better than it really is. Why people esteem this album better than 'Show no Mercy' is ridiculous. The vocals are just bland here and don't fit as well as on their debut.

The leads were just mediocre by both guitarists. You can't hear the difference better Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King in that department which is good. Im just not hearing riffs that are significant. I mean there are fast picking guitar riffs with chords decently constructed, just nothing worthy of praising the album. The production sound is kind of flat sounding, but you can hear everything in unison. Just a mediocre output by the band and to me it could've been a much better release in my opinion. Their debut and succeeding albums are both way up at the top. But 'Hell Awaits' never did appeal to me.

Their debut had a raw production whereas this one again is flat sounding making the instruments sound less brutal and intense than on their debut. Everything about this album doesn't appeal to me. The riffs could've been way better, the vocals with more screaming, the drums were powerful though and that is the gist of it. Of course I like old Slayer and maybe over time my opinion of 'Hell Awaits' changes. I doubt it though. 'Show no Mercy' really appealed to me.

If you want quality slayer and would like to listen to thrash metal thats totally original sounding and worthy of praise, get 'Show no Mercy'. The riffs are high quality on that album. On 'Hell Awaits', the music didn't interest me. Again, a highly overrated album that to me is just average thrash metal. They really went ballistic on their succeeding album entitled 'Reign in Blood' (1986). Get that one if you haven't already. It's much better than 'Hell Awaits'. Nothing good to say about this one I think it's a total waste of a release. People have told me differently but I'm not convinced. Hold off on buying this, listen to some tracks on YouTube first before you choose to buy 'Hell Awaits'.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
10/20/2012 20:23