Above: Harald Oimoen’s epic raging Hell Awaits back cover jacket photo from the book MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter
ROOTS of SLAYER’s Hell Awaits | on SiriusXM
Week of April 5, 2025
Sat 4/5, 6PM ET
Sun 4/6, 1PM ET
Mon 4/7, 9AM ET
Tues 4/8, 4PM ET
Thurs 4/10, 9PM ET
++ on-command in the SiriusXM app
This week marks 40 years since the release of SLAYER’s April 1985 masterpiece Hell Awaits. We go track by track on Slayer’s most ambitiously evil moment, including bonus cuts from the previous year’s Haunting the Chapel EP. Check out the devils, vampires, killers, and sickness of young Slayer charting out metal’s future, including live material from 1985 and tributes by Cradle of Filth, 16, Sinister, Sadistic Intent, and At the Gates. Join us! Spread your wings—and Know your Roots!
See original Hell Awaits photography and nearly 100 more Slayer photos from that era, along with the earliest pix of Metallica, Exodus, Death Angel, and Kerry King in Megadeth in the massive MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter.
PLAYLIST:
SLAYER – “Haunting the Chapel” from HAUNTING THE CHAPEL EP
CRADLE OF FILTH – “Hell Awaits” from LOVECRAFT & WITCH HEARTS
SLAYER – “Kill again” from HELL AWAITS
16 – “At Dawn They Sleep” from THE FIRST TRIMESTER
SINISTER – “Praise of death” from SLATANIC SLAUGHTER
SADISTIC INTENT – “Necrophiliac” from GATEWAY TO HELL
SLAYER – “Crypts of Eternity” from HELL AWAITS
SLAYER – “Hardening of the arteries” from DYNAMO 1985
AT THE GATES – “Captor of Sin” from SLAUGHTER OF THE SOUL
Roots is Sound of the Beast author and Bazillion Points publisher Ian Christe’s heavy metal history show on Sirius XM Liquid Metal channel 40. Launched in June 2004, each weekly show has examined another subgenre, band, movement, country, or theme in metal, punk, and heavy rock. Past episodes are available on-demand online from SiriusXM.com.
