Undisputed Attitude

Undisputed Attitude
  • Release date: May 28, 1996
  • Label: American Recordings
  • Running time: 33:01
  • US highest chart position: 34
Track listingSong creditsTimeLyrics
01. Disintegration/Free Money(Dodwell/Hansen/Mastrokolas)1:41read
02. Verbal Abuse/Leeches(Dodwell/Hansen/Mastrokolas)1:58read
03. Abolish Government/Superficial Love(Barnes/Emory/Grisham/Roche)1:48read
04. Can't Stand You(Hanneman)1:27read
05. Ddamm(Hanneman)1:01read
06. Guilty of Being White(Baker/MacKaye/Nelson/Preslar)1:07read
07. I Hate You(Dodwell/Hansen/Mastrokolas)2:16read
08. Filler/I Don't Want to Hear It(Baker/MacKaye/Nelson/Preslar)2:28read
09. Spiritual Law(Agnew/Agnew/Calabro/Knight/Royer)3:00read
10. Sick Boy (on Euro/Japan ed.)(Abrahall/Blyth/Lomas/Williams)n/aread
11. Mr. Freeze(Toucher)2:24read
12. Violent Pacification(Brecht/Cassidy)2:38read
13. Richard Hung Himself(Royer/Traccone)3:22read
14. I'm Gonna Be Your God [I. W. B. Y. D.](Alexander/Asheton/Osterberg)2:58read
15. Gemini(Araya/King)4:53read
16. Memories of Tomorrow (on Japan ed.)(Suicidal Tendencies)0:57read

Album credits

Slayer - Producer | Tom Araya - Bass, Vocals | Jeff Hanneman - Guitars | Kerry King - Guitars | Paul Bostaph - Drums | Dennis Keeley - Photography, Inlay | Stephen Marcussen - Mastering | Rick Rubin - Executive Producer | Dave Sardy - Producer, Mixing | Greg Gordon - Engineer | Bill Smith - Assistant Engineer | Dirk Walter - Art Direction, Design | Michael Lavine - Photography, Cover Photo | Wes Benscoter - Artwork, Illustrations | Bryan Davis - Assistant Engineer | Jim Giddenes - Assistant Engineer | Ralph Caccuirri - Assistant Engineer

Album reviews

Look back at L.A. punk-rock posters from the dawn of the '80s, and you're sure to find Slayer playing the same venues as many of the bands covered on this album. Hailing from Huntington Beach, Slayer grew up fans of both more traditional heavy metal and of the increasingly fast and aggressive American hardcore punk movement. The combination of metal's technicality and hardcore punk's flat out aggressiveness and speed are the seeds that Slayer's breakneck sound originally grew out of, and Undisputed Attitude, while not perfect, is a fitting tribute to the bands that inspired Slayer to break from the traditional metal mold. The album includes tracks originally by Minor Threat, Doctor Know, Verbal Abuse, T.S.O.L., D.R.I., D.I., Iggy Pop, and a few originals, all played in the trademark Slayer style. While the original material doesn't compete with the revolutionary and epic proportions of an album like Reign in Blood or South of Heaven, the songs seem to stay in form with the theme of the album. With the exception of "Gemini," they're under two minutes long, and the tempos tend to fall within the mid-tempo to fast realm of most hardcore punk, rarely blazing into a full force thrash assault. The covers are undeniably marked with Slayer's sound, but are played with minimal alteration for the most part. A notable exception is the rewording of Iggy Pop's "I Wanna Be Your Dog" to "I'm Gonna Be Your God." This is a reversal of the song's original meaning. Apparently, a song about being submissive would be a blow to Slayer's tough semi-satanic image. Undisputed Attitude does not serve as a historical review of hardcore and punk of the '80s, and some might argue that the many important punk bands missing from this collection of songs diminish its value. However, this record intends to provide hindsight from the perspective of the band, not popular culture as a whole. For fans of Slayer and all the grindcore, crust, and thrash borne out of the marriage of punk and metal, it's an interesting and sometimes entertaining listen. - Paul Kott   |   All Music Guide   |  

Slayer is the king of thrash-speed-hardcore, so why did the band record this album of punk tunes? Is Slayer jumping on the trendy punk bandwagon? Hell, no! Basically, as guitarist Jeff Hanneman explains, "This record is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but we're only getting around to it now because we're just a bunch of lazy bastards." To all the hair-brained idiots who think Slayer would actually sell out and go the punk-pop-fluff route, he had this to offer: "The songs on this record are real punk, the hardcore punk from the early 1980s, not that Green Day thing." Thank god for that! For those who know their hardcore punk roots and are familiar with the ultimate power of early punk music and the impact it had on its devout followers, it's no surprise that the almighty Slayer was strongly influenced by the pure, raw sound and boisterous attitude of original punkers like the Dead Kennedys, the Adolescents and D.I. In addition to II raucous, blistering and brutal covers of songs by Verbal Abuse, T.S.O.L., Minor Threat, Dr. Know, D.R.I. and Iggy Pop & The Stooges, Undisputed Attitude contains two of Hanneman's punk-era originals, written back in `83 and `84 - "I Can't Stand You" and "DDAMM (Drunk Drivers Against Mad Mothers)" - and a brand new Slayer tune, "Gemini," which is a welcome, although surprising, change of musical direction for the band with its slow, plodding, but nonetheless excruciatingly heavy, doom-encrusted stomps. "Gemini" is undeniably Slayer with its heavier-than-hell grinding crunch, but it's almost as if someone hit the sb-mo button: There are no spit-fire percussive breaks, frantic guitar wails or death-y vocal howls. One of the band's best, and most mature, songs ever, Gemini" proves that Slayer is a multi-faceted, multi-talented, platinum-plus band just waiting to explode on a much wider national scale than ever before. If this isn't the song that breaks Slayer into the mainstream, nothing will. - Jenni Glenn   |   cmj.com   |