Recording
Reign in Blood was recorded and produced in Los Angeles with Rick Rubin. The album was the label boss' first professional experience with heavy metal, and his fresh perspective led to a drastic makeover of Slayer's sound. Steve Huey of Allmusic believed Rubin drew tighter and faster songs from the band, and delivered a cleanly produced sound that contrasted sharply with their previous recordings. This resulted in drastic changes to Slayer's sound, and changed audiences' perception of the band. Araya has since admitted their two previous releases were not up to par production-wise. Guitarist Kerry King later remarked that "It was like, 'Wow—you can hear everything, and those guys aren't just playing fast; those notes are on time.'"
Hanneman has since admitted that while the band was listening to Metallica and Megadeth at the time, they were finding the repetition of guitar riffs tiring. "If we do a verse two or three times, we're already bored with it. So we weren't trying to make the songs shorter—that's just what we were into," which resulted in the album's short duration of 29 minutes. King had stated that while hour-long records seem to be the trend; "You could lose this part; you could cut this song completely, and make a much more intense record, which is what we're all about." When the record was completed, the band met with Rubin, who asked "Do you realize how short this is?" Slayer members looked at each other, and replied "So what?" The entire album was on one side of a cassette; King stated it was "neat," as "You could listen to it, flip it over, and play it again." The music is abrasive and faster than previous releases helping to push the gap between thrash metal and its predecessor hardcore punk, and is played at an average of 210 beats per minute.
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