Divine Intervention (album)
| Divine Intervention | ||||
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| Studio album by Slayer | ||||
| Released | September 27, 1994 | |||
| Recorded | During 1994 | |||
| Studio | Oceanway, Los Angeles, California Sound City, Van Nuys, California |
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| Genre | Thrash metal | |||
| Length | 36:33 | |||
| Label | American | |||
| Producer |
Rick Rubin (exec.) Toby Wright Slayer |
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| Slayer chronology | ||||
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| Serenity in Murder EP | ||||
Cover for Serenity in Murder single/EP released on August 28, 1995.
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The Deseret News | favorable |
| Entertainment Weekly | B |
| Metal Forces | 7/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Rock Hard | 8.5/10 |
Divine Intervention is the sixth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer. Released on September 27, 1994, through American Recordings, it was their first album to feature Paul Bostaph, replacing the band's original drummer Dave Lombardo. The production posed a challenge to the record company, as its marketing situation drew arguments over the album's explicitness. The band used the Decade of Aggression live album to give them time to decide the album's style. Since it was released nearly four years after Seasons in the Abyss, vocalist Tom Araya said that there was more time spent on production compared to the band's previous albums. The cover was painted and designed by Wes Benscoter as a re-imaging of the group's early "Slayergram" graphic.
Even though so much time was spent on production, Kerry King said that the mixing and mastering should have had more attention. The song's origins came not only from television shows, but were also inspired by various other things, including Rush Limbaugh, and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. In 1998 the album was banned in Germany due to the lyrics of "SS-3", "Circle of Beliefs", "Serenity in Murder", "213" and "Mind Control".Divine Intervention received mixed reviews by critics. The album sold 93,000 copies in its first week. It peaked number eight on the Billboard 200 and charted at number 15 on UK Albums Chart. It was rewarded gold in the United States and Canada. An EP entitled Serenity in Murder was released shortly after the album.
Tom Araya said that "when we did Divine Intervention, this was the last conference we ever had with a record label where they sat us down and sold us the idea of how they wanted to do "Divine", and how they were going to do this with the cover... and all these different ideas for the album. Then one guy looked at us and said, 'But we need a hit song.' And we said, 'But you've got eleven songs, and if you can't find a hit in one of them then you're shit out of luck because that's what we're giving you.' So we're like saying to them, 'Right, you write the fucking hit song and we'll record it.' That shut the guy up and that was the last time we had any kind of meetings like that!"
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