Angel of Death (Slayer song)

"Angel of Death" is a well known, and controversial, single by the band Slayer and is the opening track from their 1986 album Reign in Blood. The lyrics are based on the Nazi physician Josef Mengele.

Composition and origins

The song begins with one of the genre's most well known guitar riffs. Drums soon enter and Tom Araya then delivers an extremely high-pitched scream.

The song was written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman, after reading about Mengele: "Right before I wrote 'Angel Of Death,' I read a bunch of books about Mengele because he was pretty sick. That was how 'Angel Of Death' came about." [1]. Like many other musicians (including George Harrison, Ozzy Osbourne and Motörhead's Lemmy), Hanneman collected Nazi memorabilia. His interest began when his father, who had fought in World War II (in the U.S. army), gave him a German medal.

In keeping with heavy metal's devotion to tertiary sources and literary influences (see also Iron Maiden or Anthrax), the song was also inspired by Ira Levin's book The Boys from Brazil, in particular the 1978 film adaptation. Phrases such as "sadist of the noblest blood" and "infamous butcher" are lifted straight from Levin's text.

Criticism

Considerable controversy arose over the lack of condemnation in the lyrics, which include the line "destroying without mercy to benefit the Aryan race." Both Tom Araya, Slayer's vocalist, and Dave Lombardo, the band's drummer, are of distinctly Hispanic non-Nordic heritage. The producer of the Reign In Blood album, Rick Rubin, has Jewish roots. The same year that the song was released, Slayer frontman Kerry King collaborated with the Beastie Boys, who are all of Jewish descent. The band addressed the criticisms in "Behind the Crooked Cross", a song from the album South of Heaven. Hanneman on critics misinterpreting the song: "I know why people misinterpret it — it's because they get this knee-jerk reaction to it. When they read the lyrics, there's nothing I put in the lyrics that says necessarily he was a bad man, because to me — well, isn't that obvious?! I shouldn't have to tell you that." [2]

Appearances

The song has appeared in other places since, including on the soundtracks of Gremlins 2 (when the gremlin Mohawk is turning into a spider), Jackass: The Movie (during the car stunt), and the Iraq War documentary Soundtrack to War. The half-time riff was sampled by Public Enemy in their song "She Watch Channel Zero," by KMFDM in numerous versions of their song "Godlike," and by Concord Dawn on their track "Raining Blood". The song was also featured in the multi-platform video game Tony Hawk's Project 8.