Divine Intervention
- Release date: October 3, 1994
- Label: American Records
- Running time: 36:38
- US highest chart position: 8 (93,000 - 1st week sales)
| Track listing | Song credits | Time | Lyrics |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01. Killing Fields | (Araya/King) | 3:57 | read |
| 02. Sex, Murder, Art | (Araya/King) | 1:50 | read |
| 03. Fictional Reality | (King) | 3:37 | read |
| 04. Dittohead | (King) | 2:30 | read |
| 05. Divine Intervention | (Araya/Bostaph/Hanneman/King) | 5:33 | read |
| 06. Circle of Beliefs | (King) | 4:29 | read |
| 07. SS-3 | (Hanneman/King) | 4:06 | read |
| 08. Serenity in Murder | (Araya/Hanneman/King) | 2:36 | read |
| 09. 213 | (Araya/Hanneman) | 4:52 | read |
| 10. Mind Control | (Araya/Hanneman/King) | 3:04 | read |
Album credits
Slayer - Producer | Tom Araya - Bass, Vocals | Jeff Hanneman - Guitars | Kerry King - Guitars | Paul Bostaph - Drums | Dave Brock - Assistant Engineer | Jim Champagne - Engineer | Stephen Marcussen - Mastering | Rick Rubin - Executive Producer | Jim Scott - Engineer | Jeff Sheehan - Assistant Engineer | Toby Wright - Producer, Engineer, Mixing | Dirk Walter - Art Direction, Design | Neil Zlozower - Photography | Stephen Stickler - Photography | Brian Pollack - Assistant Engineer | Annalisa - Artwork | Wes Benscoter - Artwork, Cover, Illustration | Rick Sales - Management
Album reviews
The rock & roll landscape changed dramatically between Seasons in the Abyss in 1990 and Divine Intervention in 1994. With the rise of alternative rock, many metal and hard rock bands that had been enormously successful at the dawn of the '90s were struggling by the middle of the decade. Instead of doing something calculated like emulating Nirvana or Pearl Jam - or for that matter, Nine Inch Nails or Ministry - Slayer wisely refused to sound like anyone but Slayer. Tom Araya & Co. responded to the new environment simply by striving to be the heaviest death metal band it possibly could. Less accessible than Seasons but equally riveting, Divine Intervention marked drummer Paul Bostaph's studio debut with the band. Bostaph proved to be a positive, energizing influence on Slayer, which sounds better than ever on such dark triumphs as "Killing Fields," "Serenity in Murder" and "Circle of Beliefs." Characteristically grim and morbid, Slayer focuses on the violently repressive nature of governments and the lengths to which they will go to wield power. And true to form, Slayer's music is as disturbing as its lyrics. - Alex | All Music Guide |
When primitive men and women first stepped out of their caves and looked at the night sky, chances are they probably weren't filled with wonder, awe and joy-they were probably scared witless. And likewise, when the first protohuman conquered fire, he probably immediately started using it not for warmth and security, but to burn the hide off people in the next village. Slayer understands these facts, and its powerful music deals with the elemental forces of darkness that drive life itself: murder, mayhem, sacrifice, carnage, horror and fear of the unknown. Slayer is not bogged down by whether or not its particular brand of black-clad, Satanic speed metal has fallen out of fashion from its heyday in the gloomy gothic `80s; the band deals on a far more colossal scale, presenting drama on an epic level. After all, art forms from opera to ancient mythologies are brimming with blood and gore, and horror-especially unknown horror-is a part of the psychic fabric of every personality. Slayer's mission: to rend that fabric, to rip, to shred, to project terror, agony and darkness onto a larger-than-life screen of its music. Divine Intervention, released three years closer to the impending apocalypse than the band's previous CD, is an even more taut and finely tuned exploration into riffs of death, screams of dismemberment and furious Paul Bostoph (ex-Forbidden) drum cannonades, a masterwork of brilliant, razor-sharp speed metal that stands tall beside such previous Slaytanic opuses as Reign In Blood and South Of Heaven. | cmj.com |
What can you say about a band that can find, to quote one song title, "Serenity In Murder?" And that can write a poetic, detailed observation on the subject?
Nothing that scores of critics haven't said about this shocking heavy-metal band for years, except that they're quite good at it. While their ultraviolent songs are figments of their overactive imaginations, the rage they give voice to isn't; things just may be going down the tubes. The first-person descriptions of rape ("Sex, Murder, Art") and necrophilia ("213") on DIVINE INTERVENTION are merely a leap of the imagination from the album's third-person attacks on war criminals ("SS-3"). Think of it as a character study of a man watching society crumble and crumbling along with it.
Slayer's superfast, supertight metal, propelled by Paul Bostaph's machine-gun drumming, bottles that crumbling psyche into music that's almost as dangerous as the words are alleged to be. The speed-of-light vocal on "Dittohead," an indictment of the justice system, is sprayed out like lead from an automatic weapon. "Serenity In Murder" slows the singing down over a still-fast beat, creating a psychedelic thrash feel for a song that wallows in the deluded spirituality of a psychotic's act. In the title song, he meets his maker, who may just be the devil. "Who am I to judge thy grace?" he asks. And who are you to judge theirs? | mtv |