Slayer - Christ Illusion

Not that we really need a re-issue of an album that just came out last year, even if there is a bonus track and an extra disc previewing the forthcoming Unholy Alliance DVD, but the fact is that this is Slayer's finest album since Seasons in the Abyss (assuming we discount the punk covers album) and now you can own it with one of those funky covers that animates as you tip it forward and backwards, how cute. Most notable for the return to the drums of The Best Tub Thumper In The Known Universe, Dave Lombardo, Christ Illusion manages to carry Slayer's maelstromic blast beat ferocity into 2007 without sounding (too) ridiculous, even if we've heard it all before. There is something fundamentally re-assuring about Slayer (and comforting to middle-aged metal heads everywhere) in that while so many of their so called contemporaries are limply wiping the floor with a towel they should have long ago thrown in (see Megadeth's United Abominations), Araya and his merry band are still kicking out the sickest of Satanic jams. [Ali Maloney]