Lady Justice

Released in September 1985, Slayer’s second full length release Hell Awaits expanded on the darkness of Haunting the Chapel, with hell and Satan as common song subjects. The album was the band’s most progressive offering, featuring longer and more complex song structures.  The intro of the title track is a backwards recording of a demonic-sounding voice repeating “Join us”, ending with “Welcome back” before the track begins. The album was a hit, with fans choosing Slayer for best band, best live band, Hell Awaits as 1985’s best album, and Dave Lombardo as best drummer in the British magazine Metal Forces’ 1985 Readers Poll.

Want to go dancing? Sure. And get drunk? Sure. And smoke cigarettes? Always. There's still pleasures in the world, eh? Let's have them. All of them.

Whether by knife or whether by gun, losing your life can sometimes be fun.

“We’ve always been a fighting unit,” he says. “When I broke my wrist skateboarding, I was back out playing the next night.

“You gotta keep jammin’ on,” the 23-year-old headbanger concludes. “You can’t give up, no matter what.”

-James in an interview by Steve Newton, December 26, 1986.