Show No Mercy is the debut studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released in December 1983 by Metal Blade Records. Brian Slagel signed the band to the label after watching them perform an Iron Maiden cover. The band self-financed their full-length debut, combining the savings of vocalist Tom Araya, who was employed as a respiratory therapist, and money borrowed from guitarist Kerry King's father. Touring extensively promoting the album, the band brought close friends and family members along the trip, who helped backstage with lighting and sound.

Although Show No Mercy was criticized for its poor production quality, it became Metal Blade's highest-selling release.

Background and recording

thumb|Slayer in 1983. From left: Kerry King, Dave Lombardo, Jeff Hanneman, and Tom Araya

Slayer was the opening act for Bitch at the Woodstock Club in Los Angeles, performing eight songs—six being covers. The band's appearance on the compilation created underground buzz, which led to Slagel signing the band with Metal Blade Records. and money borrowed from guitarist Kerry King's father. King says the album is "fuckin' Iron Maiden here and there". Vocalist Araya asserts Venom, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Mercyful Fate were big influences on the record, as guitarist King was into the Satanic image.

Lombardo said in 2015 that he was not pleased with how the drums were recorded. The engineer at the time had difficulties getting the right mix between the toms and the cymbals because they were too loud. The solution was to dampen the cymbals with towels and record the toms and cymbals separately. As such, Lombardo called Show No Mercy his least favorite Slayer album, although he emphasized that the songs were great, just not his performance.

Gene Hoglan, later known as the drummer for bands like Dark Angel and Death, provided backing vocals on the song "Evil Has No Boundaries". "Back at the time it was Jeff [Hanneman] and Kerry doing the 'Evil!' You know, it didn't sound too heavy and I mentioned to like Tom or Jeff or somebody like, 'You know you guys should consider...maybe consider doing like big gang vocals on that, make it sound evil like demons and stuff,' and they were like 'Good idea.' But how about now, we got about eight dudes sitting around in the studio, and now everybody jumped up and yelled 'EVIL!!!' So I was like 'Cool' because I'm like, 'I wanna sing on this record somehow, that's how I can do it,' totally unplanned you know?! Sure enough they were like, 'Fuck we have the time, let's do it.' So I was like 'Yeah, I got to sing on it!'" On recording the drums, Slagel wanted drummer Dave Lombardo to play without using cymbals due to the amount of noise they made, as he was unsure if he could siphon the noise out, which he eventually did.

The band used Satanic themes in both lyrics and live performances to gain notice among the metal community and "to fuck with people". The back cover featured 'side 666' and inverted crosses, with Hanneman playing his guitar. The album produced the songs "The Antichrist", "Die by the Sword", and "Black Magic", which were played at Slayer's live shows regularly.

Music and lyrics

Jeremy Ulrey of AllMusic characterized the sound on Show No Mercy as "basically amounting to a cleaned-up version of black metal stalwarts Venom." The album's lyrics explore themes including Satanism.

Release and promotion

After the album's release, the band went on their first US tour. Slagel gave the band a list of venue addresses and contact numbers. Araya was still working at the hospital and called the members, saying, "Today's the day. Are we gonna do this?"

| rev3 = Kerrang!

| rev3Score = unfavorable

| rev4 = Metal Forces

| rev4Score = 9/10

| rev5 = Rock Hard

| rev5score = 9/10

| rev6 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

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| rev7 = Sputnikmusic

| rev7score = 4/5

Although the band did not have enough time to sell any records while touring, Terry Butler of Obituary and Death defined the album as "the blueprint for the beginning of death metal" and said: "When I heard Show No Mercy I wanted to play that way....It was a whole new level of mayhem. I wanted to play that way".

System of a Down's Daron Malakian has praised Show No Mercy as an influential album that helped shape him as a person and artist. He claimed he introduced heavy metal to the people of Iraq with this album when he lived there at age 14.

In 2023, Metal Hammer included the album cover on their list of "50 most hilariously ugly rock and metal album covers ever".

Track listing

Note

  • The writing credits for "Metal Storm / Face The Slayer" only apply to "Face The Slayer". No credits for "Metal Storm" appear in the liner notes.

The 1987 re-issue also features songs from the Haunting the Chapel EP. except where noted.

;Slayer

  • Tom Araya – bass, vocals
  • Jeff Hanneman – guitars, backing vocals on "Evil Has No Boundaries"
  • Kerry King – guitars, backing vocals on "Evil Has No Boundaries"