Diabolus in Musica

Diabolus in Musica (Latin for "The Devil in Music") is the eighth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on June 9, 1998 by American Recordings. Guitarist Jeff Hanneman wrote most of the album's content, which has been described as Slayer's most experimental. It was the band's first album to be played mostly in C♯ tuning, and named after a musical interval known for its dissonance. Lyrical themes explored on the album include religion, sex, cultural deviance, death, insanity, war, and homicide.

For the musical interval, see tritone. For the Spanish symphonic metal band, see Diabulus in Musica. For other uses, see the disambiguation.
Diabolus in Musica
Studio album by
Slayer
ReleasedJune 9, 1998 (1998-06-09)
StudioOcean Way Recording and Hollywood Sound, Los Angeles
Genre
Length40:15
LabelAmerican
ProducerRick Rubin
Slayer chronology
Undisputed Attitude
(1996)		 Diabolus in Musica
(1998)		 God Hates Us All
(2001)
Singles from Diabolus in Musica
  1. "Stain of Mind"
    Released: September 30, 1998

Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, Diabolus in Musica peaked at number 31 on the Billboard 200, selling over 46,000 copies in its first week of sales. By 2006, it had sold over 290,000 copies in the United States.

Writing, music, and recording

Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman described the writing process as, "When we were writing this album I was looking for something to beat; I wanted something to beat, but nothing impresses me right now. Nothing sounded really aggressive or heavy enough to inspire me to beat it, so I just had to come up with my own shit."[1] The album was produced by Rick Rubin and was recorded at Ocean Way Recording.[2]

Adrien Begrand of PopMatters felt Slayer introduced characteristics to its music including tuned down guitars, murky chord structures, and churning beats. He believed these characteristics were adopted in response to the then-burgeoning nu metal scene.[3] Drummer Paul Bostaph claims the album is his favorite as he thought the album was "as experimental as Slayer got".[4] As a result, Diabolus in Musica was described as nu metal,[3][5][6] and has also been described as groove metal and thrash metal.[7][8] Bostaph returned to Slayer after his short-lived side project The Truth About Seafood, and the band entered the recording studio four months later.[4]

Album title and lyrical themes

Diabolus in Musica is a Latin term for "The Devil in Music" or tritone. Medieval musical rules did not allow this particular dissonance.[9] According to one mythology, the interval was considered sexual and would bring out the devil; Slayer vocalist and bassist Tom Araya jokingly said that people were executed for writing and using the interval.[1]

Araya held concern about the lyrics that King penned to "In the Name of God", voicing his opinion to guitarist Hanneman. King's viewpoint was; "It's like, 'C'mon, man, you're in Slayer. You're the antichrist — you said it yourself on the first album!' You can't draw the line like that. Whether he agrees with it or not, he didn't write it — I wrote it. So you have to say, 'Well, it's just a part of being in this band.' Now Jeff and I, we don't give a fuck. If Jeff wrote something I had a problem with, I would never even raise a fucking finger. I'd be like, 'Fuck yeah, let's do it! Gonna piss someone off? Alright!'"[10]

Touring and promotion

Following the release of the album, the band commenced the Diabolus in Musica tour. From 1998 to 1999, Slayer toured with Sepultura, System of a Down, Fear Factory, Kilgore, Clutch, Meshuggah, and Sick of It All.[11] Slayer released a promotional 3-track album called Diabolus in Musica Tour Sampler. The album features 3 tracks, one from Diabolus in Musica ("Stain of Mind"), "Ship of Gold" off tourmate Clutch's The Elephant Riders and "Suite-Pee" (Clean Version) from the debut album by System of a Down.

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[12]
Entertainment WeeklyC+[13]
Metal Forces4/10[14]
Q[15]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[16]
Rock Hard8.5/10[17]
Spin(4/10)[18]

Diabolus in Musica was released on June 9, 1998 by American Recordings. In its first week of release, the album sold 46,000 copies in the United States,[19] and debuted at number 31 on the Billboard 200.[20] By August 2006, it had sold over 290,000 copies in the US.[19]

Reviewing the 2003 Slayer box set Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, Adrien Begrand of PopMatters called Diabolus in Musica "a unique record [...] It's as if they're stepping in to show the young bands how to do it right, as songs like 'Bitter Peace', 'Death's Head', and the terrific 'Stain of Mind' blow away anything that young pretenders have put out."[3] Writing in The Guardian, journalist Joel McIver said although the album was as musically heavy and lyrically dark as any of Slayer's previous releases, it exhibited the groove-based style of the then-popular nu metal sound.[21]

However, not all reviewes were positive. Reviewing a Slayer concert at Irving Plaza during the Diabolus in Musica tour, Ben Ratliff of The New York Times' panned the album for its murky production,[22] saying: "Eight of the 11 songs on Diabolus in Musica, a few of which were played at the show, are in the same gray key, and the band's rhythmic ideas have a wearying sameness too."[23] Reviewing Slayer's 2001 album God Hates Us All, Blabbermouth.net reviewer Borivoj Krgin described Diabolus in Musica as "a feeble attempt at incorporating updated elements into the group's sound, the presence of which elevated the band's efforts somewhat and offered hope that Slayer could refrain from endlessly rehashing their previous material for their future output."[24] Sarah Vowell of Spin gave the album a four out of ten rating, stating that "Fifteen years into Slayer's career, they're still deploying the same fast beats and sluggish riffs and batty banter." concluding that "This is loudness without fun, blasphemy with subversion, darkness with no shades of gray. The drums are milked really well, though"[18]

Songs from the album were rarely played live following the return of drummer Dave Lombardo in 2002, with "Stain of Mind" being the only constant.[25]

Band members' views

In the "Nu Metal" episode of the 2011 VH1 documentary series Metal Evolution, Kerry King said the following in retrospect about the album:

That's the one record that I really paid not enough attention to because I was really bitter about what kind of music was popular. I thought it was, was very frat boy stuff, and maybe that's why it was popular, I don't know. So Diabolus didn't get as much attention from me because, you know, we didn't stay in focus. Looking back we were just saying, "alright, how do we make Slayer fit into today's society?" But, that's probably my least favorite record of our history. That's our Turbo [laughs].[26]

Track listing

All music is composed by Jeff Hanneman, except "In the Name of God", by Kerry King.

No.TitleLyricsLength
1."Bitter Peace"Hanneman4:32
2."Death's Head"Hanneman3:34
3."Stain of Mind"King3:24
4."Overt Enemy"Hanneman4:41
5."Perversions of Pain"King3:33
6."Love to Hate"
  • Hanneman
  • King
3:07
7."Desire"Tom Araya4:19
8."In the Name of God"King3:40
9."Scrum"King2:16
10."Screaming from the Sky"
  • Hanneman
  • Araya
  • King
3:12
11."Point"King4:11

All music is composed by Hanneman, except where noted.

Australian edition
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Bitter Peace"Hanneman 4:32
2."Death's Head"Hanneman 3:29
3."Stain of Mind"King 3:24
4."Overt Enemy"Hanneman 4:41
5."Perversions of Pain"King 3:30
6."Love to Hate"
  • Hanneman
  • King
 3:05
7."Desire"Araya 4:19
8."In the Name of God"KingKing3:38
9."Scrum"King 2:18
10."Screaming from the Sky"
  • Araya
  • Hanneman
  • King
 3:12
11."Wicked" (bonus track)
  • Hanneman
  • King
6:00
12."Point"King 4:12

All music is composed by Hanneman, except where noted.

Japanese edition
No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Bitter Peace"Hanneman 4:32
2."Death's Head"Hanneman 3:29
3."Stain of Mind"King 3:24
4."Overt Enemy"Hanneman 4:41
5."Perversions of Pain"King 3:30
6."Love to Hate"
  • Hanneman
  • King
 3:05
7."Desire"Araya 4:19
8."Unguarded Instinct" (bonus track)King 3:42
9."In the Name of God"KingKing3:38
10."Scrum"King 2:18
11."Screaming from the Sky"
  • Araya
  • Hanneman
  • King
 3:12
12."Wicked" (bonus track)
  • Araya
  • Bostaph
  • Hanneman
  • King
6:00
13."Point"King 4:12

Personnel

Chart positions
Chart (1998) Position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[27] 35
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[28] 40
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[29] 23
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[30] 52
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[31] 18
French Albums (SNEP)[32] 23
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[33] 32
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[34] 15
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[35] 29
US Billboard 200[36] 31
gollark: Also, Prometheus Labs best GoI.
gollark: Some people say they're a Prometheus Labs product, others say they're some weird SCP where their inventor was wiped out by a temporal change but the SRAs kept existing, some say they were invented in the 1800s, some in the 1900s or early 2000s, and some say they run on enslaved reality benders.
gollark: Also, I'm not sure we should trust them when nobody even knows exactly when or where they were made?
gollark: Those really just seem cheaty and overdone.
gollark: How do you detect CK-class events?

References
  1. Chirazi, Steffan (1998-08-06). "Back And Black". Yahoo music. Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  2. Diabolus in Musica album notes, June 9, 1998. American Recordings.
  3. Begrand, Adrien (January 23, 2004). "Slayer: Soundtrack to the Apocalpyse". PopMatters. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  4. "Paul Bostaph of Exodus, ex-Slayer". Metal-rules.com. 2007-02-05. Archived from the original on 2014-10-17. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
  5. Joel McIver (2013-05-03). "Jeff Hanneman obituary | Music | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. London. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  6. Eakin, Marah (2013-05-02). "R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman of Slayer | Music | Newswire". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
  7. "Diabolus Indica Slayer Interview (October 1998)". High Times. 1998-10-21. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
  8. McIver, Joe (2009). "20". The Bloody Reign of Slayer. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780857120380. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  9. Rohrer, Finlo (2006-04-28). "The Devil's Music". BBC. Retrieved 2008-01-16.
  10. Bienstock, Richard (2006-07-01). "Slayer's King says Rick Rubin's collaboration with Metallica was a 'slap in the face'". Blabbermouth.net. Retrieved 2007-06-05.
  11. "Slayer History". Slayerized. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
  12. Huey, Steve. "Diabolus in Musica - Slayer". AllMusic. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  13. Snierson, Dan (1998-06-12). "Diabolus in Musica Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2012-03-28.
  14. Arnold, Neil (1998-06-09). "Slayer - Diabolus In Musica (1998)". Metal Forces. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
  15. "Slayer - Diabolus in Musica CD Album". CD Universe. Retrieved 2012-12-01.
  16. Brackett, Nathan; Christian Hoard (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 741–742. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. rolling stone slayer album guide.
  17. Kupfer, Thomas (July 1998). "Diabolus in Musica". Rock Hard (in German). No. 134. Retrieved October 29, 2017.
  18. Vowell, Sarah (August 1998). "Reviews". Spin. Vol. 14 no. 8. SPIN Media LLC. p. 144. ISSN 0886-3032.
  19. "Slayer: Christ Illusion lands at No. 5 on Billboard chart!". Blabbermouth.net. 2006-08-16. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  20. "Slayer's album chart history". Billboard.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  21. Joel McIver (2013-05-03). "Jeff Hanneman obituary | Music | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2013-05-07.
  22. Eakin, Marah (2013-05-02). "R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman of Slayer | Music | Newswire". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2013-05-11.
  23. Ratliff, Ben (1998-06-22). "It's a Major Metal Band, and Even the Furniture Isn't Safe". The New York Times.
  24. Krgin, Borivoj. "Slayer God Hates Us All". Blabbermouth.net. Retrieved 2007-05-29.
  25. "Slayer's Kerry King: 'We've never tried to be anything we weren't'". Ultimate Guitar. 2007-08-15. Archived from the original on 2012-05-10. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
  26. Dunn, Sam (2011). "Metal Evolution - Nu Metal". YouTube. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
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  28. "Austriancharts.at – Slayer – Diabolus in Musica" (in German). Hung Medien.
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  30. "Dutchcharts.nl – Slayer – Diabolus in Musica" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  31. "Slayer: Diabolus in Musica" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  32. "Lescharts.com – Slayer – Diabolus in Musica". Hung Medien.
  33. "Longplay-Chartverfolgung at Musicline" (in German). Musicline.de. Phononet GmbH.
  34. "Charts.nz – Slayer – Christ Illusion". Hung Medien.
  35. "Swedishcharts.com – Slayer – Diabolus in Musica". Hung Medien.
  36. "Slayer Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.

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