Christ Illusion - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Christ Illusion was released on August 8, 2006 by American Recordings / Warner Bros. Records. In its first week of release, the album sold 62,000 copies in the United States and debuted at number 5 on the Billboard 200 Chart. Though this ranked as the band's highest chart position to date, and was their first top 10 charting since 1994's Divine Intervention, the album dropped to number 44 the following week. Christ Illusion reached number 9 in Australia, number 3 in Canada, number 6 in Austria, number 8 in the Netherlands, number 10 in Norway, number 9 in Poland and debuted at number 2 in Finland and Germany. The single "Eyes of the Insane" won the "Best Metal Performance" category at the 49th Grammy Awards. The song "Final Six" also won in the same category at the 50th Grammy Awards.

The album was met with mostly favorable reviews. On Metacritic, it was given a score of 72 out of 100 based on 21 reviews. Thom Jurek of AllMusic hailed the album as "raging, forward-thinking heavy metal melding with hardcore thrash", and wrote that Christ Illusion marked a return to "what made them such a breath of fresh air in the first place." Ben Ratliff of The New York Times described the album as possessing "a kind of demented gravity, and the music bears it out: it is the most concentrated, focused Slayer record in 20 years." PopMatters critic Adrien Begrand called it "Slayer's best album in sixteen years and their most thought-provoking work to date", and the album was placed at number 15 on PopMatters' list of The Best Metal Albums of 2006. Drummer Lombardo came in for particular praise; though Rolling Stone panned the album, the reviewer acknowledged that "at least their awesome drummer Dave Lombardo shows off some chops." Blabbermouth's Don Kaye thought that "while flawed", Christ Illusion "proves that the band still has a few tricks up its sleeve and one very potent weapon behind the kit." Peter Atkinson of KNAC.com felt similarly, and reported Lombardo's "performance is top notch throughout and does give the album a looser feel than Paul Bostaph’s technical precision offered." In 2011, Complex Media Network's music website, Consequence of Sound, honored Christ Illusion on a List 'Em Carefully installment dedicated to writer David Buchanan's top thirteen metal records released between 2000 and 2010, citing foreign controversy and overall sonic brutality during drummer Dave Lombardo's powerful return. Decibel Magazine gave it a favorable review, stating, "Their hatred for religion in general, Christianity in particular, unwitting Americans, and anyone on the other side of a soldier’s gun has inspired Slayer to record their most vital album in years." Chris Campion of The Observer stated that the album is "their most rigorously conceived and focused for years."

Not all critics were positive. Chris Steffen of Rolling Stone magazine dismissed the album, noting that it "mines much of the same territory as its predecessor, God Hates Us All, just without the memorable riffs." Jamie Thomson of The Guardian described the album as "wholly disappointing," and thought the band sounded "unwilling to ditch the nu-metal tendencies that have made much of their recent output so resistible." KNAC.com contributor Peter Atkinson felt that the album "demands OUTRAGE —more calculatingly so than any other album the band has done," and that "that, in a nutshell, is Christ Illusion’s glaring weakness."