When we’re not passing along
Star Wars parodies on YouTube and, um, working, co-worker D.X. Ferris and I usually argue about music. He’s into metal; I’m not. Most of these “discussions” end with him making some comment about my mom and stalking off to listen to some song about three-horned beasts rising from the depths of hell to set things right here on Earth.
All of that devil-worshipping has paid off for Ferris. One of our all-time favorite book series,
33 1/3 , just published Ferris’
Slayer: Reign in Blood, a 150-page discourse on the metal band’s 1986 album. Other books in the 33 1/3 series have covered such rock-crit faves as
The Velvet Underground and Nico, the Replacements’
Let It Be, and Bob Dylan’s
Highway 61 Revisited.
Reign in Blood is only the second book devoted to a metal album (
Black Sabbath: Master of Reality written by the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle beat it by a couple months).
Ferris interviewed tons of people for the book, including all four band members, producer Rick Rubin, and Henry Rollins. The 33 1/3 books always inspire me to go back and listen to the albums they cover. From what I’ve read of
Reign in Blood so far, I could be a Slayer fan by the time I finish it. And then Ferris will have to find someone else to call an “indie-rock jackass.”
--Michael Gallucci
