Photo courtesy of Slayer

Slayer meant a lot to me when I was younger, and I still have a big ol’ soft spot for the perennial bad boys of Big Four Bay Area thrash. Even if they have mellowed with age, even if Tom Araya—he of the once piercing, Christ-baiting howls—has jumped on the Jesus train, and even left without late guitarist and songwriter Jeff Hanneman’s crucial influence, Slayer still reigns. You don’t make the kind of impact on metal—or on music in general—that they have and then expect fans to just usher you gently into that good night when you release a dud or two.

Yes, their discography’s marred by a handful of clunkers, but, like, they also wrote Hell Awaits, South of Heaven, and Reign in Blood, and are still releasing decent tunes decades after their peers went soft. When it came out in 1983, Slayer’s debut album Show No Mercy offered the most extreme sounds an American metalhead could wish for. Now, in a world ruled by Portal, Deathspell Omega, and Gridlink, would we even bat an eye at “Raining Blood” if it came out today? Maybe not, but at least they’re sticking to their guns and writing dark, potent thrash songs like they never went outta style.

Seasons in the Abyss,

The band has also just announced an appearance as past of Converse’s Rubber Tracks Live festival in Boston later this month—catch them at The Sinclair on April 29 with Doomriders and Rozamov. Order the 7-inch here, or keep an eye out for it at your local brick and mortar record store.

Kim Kelly knows all the words to “Angel of Death”—she’s on Twitter: @grimkim