Close Album Cover Analysis - Slayer - Repentless

This album cover is very close to me as the first concert I ever attended was a Slayer one on the "Repentless" tour in the September of 2015. There is so much to this album cover however it could be deemed as offensive to some older, old fashioned or more religious audiences due to the graphic nature of Jesus being grievously tortured. This is Slayers sixteenth studio album released on the eleventh of September 2015.


Firstly I am going to talk about the huge circle with the swords cutting through it making a pentagram or satanic star in the background. This has been an on-going theme since their debut album back in 1983. This is sort of their logo just as Iron Maiden have Eddie the Head and Motorhead have Snaggletooth as I have stated in my earlier posts. However as technology has developed so has the appearance of Slayers albums, this is the first album where the star has been on fire and glowing orange and gold due to the flames, this suites the rest of the album cover and fits in perfectly.

Slayer have been the topic of controversy over the years, one of the reasons is down to the graphic nature of their songs, art and lyrics. One song that was deemed "vile" by the music industry was a song entitled "Angel of Death". The song talks about the brutality of the holocaust and the awful fate of the jewish people during world war 2. The term "angel of death" refers to the nazi doctor known as Josef Mengele who performed unspeakable war crimes and crimes against humanity, after the war he fled to South America where he lived out the rest of his days avoiding detection from MI5, CIA and KGB. Slayer were branded Nazi sympathisers for creating this song highlighting his atrocities. Of course Slayer are not Nazi sympathisers. 

To the left of Jesus' face is a man with a beard holding a knife and the satanic bible. The fact he is next to the left of the album cover could suggest that he is the left hand of God as he has been referred to as my christians globally and throughout time, as the angel Gabriel is seen as the right hand of God. This adds to the whole anti religion outlook Slayer have maintained throughout their years as one of the most influencial thrash metal bands of all time. 

The centre piece of the album is obviously Jesus crying on the cross as he is crucified with the iconic crown of thorns on his head. I believe that the illustrator of the album cover, Marcelo Vasco of Brazil, was heavily influenced by the work of historical painter Francisco Goya. Vasco quoted in an interview with Nuclear Blast magazine that he "wanted it to look like one of the classics!". Some of Slayers classic albums such as Seasons in the Abyss, Reign in blood and South of Heaven all have the same blasphemous discourse to them. I will put up a post with pictures of these albums as my computer will not allow me to put them on this post, apologies.

I believe that the work of Goya heavily influenced the work of Marcelo Vasco when he started to work on Slayers 16th studio album. The painting that I feel looks most influencial is "Saturn Devouring His Sons". I will post a separate post from the album post and write up why I feel the painting connotes and reflects the album cover overall.