There's no doubt Slayer knows their thrash metal - visceral grooves, torrid riffs, and brutal vocals are the main elements of their art. Their latest studio effort Christ Illusion doesn't differentiate from this pattern, and with its captious lyrics in regard to religion and politics this album really does have a message. Unfortunately, the song material isn't quite on a par with the lyrical offering. In my view, the few highlights of this album are Jihad, Catatonic, and Supremist.

Josh Abraham (Staind, Velvet Revolver) handled the production and mixing of this album with introduction of few bothersome flaws... for example, some guitar leads get distorted, so apparently Josh didn't even bother to watch the levels while mixing. In addition, Vlado Meller shouldn't have done the squashed master that killed most dynamics and made cymbals sound frail. Nonetheless, I have to admit that the sounds are tight and suit the music fairly well. All in all, I'm not too happy with the new Slayer album - while it definitely has some really good riffs here and there, as a whole the album just isn't that impressive.

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- MAGE (August 20th, 2006)

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LINE-UP:
Araya, Tom: Vocals, Bass Hanneman, Jeff: Guitars King, Kerry: Guitars Lombardo, Dave: Drums
Producer:	Abraham, Josh
Mixing by:	Abraham, Josh
Mastering by:	Meller, Vlado

	TRACKLIST:
	01. Flesh Storm 02. Catalyst 03. Skeleton Christ 04. Eyes of the Insane 05. Jihad 06. Consfearacy 07. Catatonic 08. Black Serenade 09. Cult 10. Supremist Length: 38:29