GOING SOUTH

In my opinion, one of the best album cover of the decade, and staying with their persona....was the cover of 1988's "South of Heaven" by speed/death metal gods Slayer. That album cover when you first see it, is the most evil-looking thing I had ever seen. That huge skull with the pentagram in it, all the blood, the crooked crosses, all the mindless minions walking around.......I think Slayer was trying to make a political statement at the time. The song titles on the album all sound pretty bad too, with titles like "Mandatory Suicide", "Behind the Crooked Cross", "South of Heaven", "Silent Scream" etc. But when the lyrics were read it was never "bow down to Satan" or "kill yourself". It was more like "look at what we have done and how we are living, its starting to get scary!" Kudos to slayer for creating an album that was not about evil religious symbolism, but evil social symbolism.