SLAYER 'HELL AWAITS' CASSETTE

In March 1985, Slayer dropped their second album, Hell Awaits, onto an unsuspecting world. The band’s debut, 1983’s Show No Mercy, had shown promise, but its heavily NWOBHM-influenced sound was a far cry from the sinister depths that Tom Araya, Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King and Dave Lombardo would plumb on its follow-up. From the title track to “At Dawn They Sleep” to “Necrophiliac,” the album is all killer, no filler, and as such has inspired everyone from Pantera to the innumerable death- and black-metal artists that would follow in its unholy wake.