The devil really does have all the best tunes: Johnny Cash for the lighter moments, Roy Orbison if he's feeling a bit melancholy, and Slayer for all the bits in between, including those times when he's firing the wrath of hell onto Earth, messing with people or just feeling really, really angry. Finding each other in Orange County, California in 1982, Tom Araya (bass/ vox), Kerry King (guitar) and Jeff Hanneman (guitar) joined forces with a manic young drummer named Dave Lombardo, fused the best parts of punk rock, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and went on to fly the flag for a genre called "thrash metal."

To simply write off Slayer as pure speed would be churlish. Their primary strength might well be their pace and power, but the group is also widely recognized as having written some of the best metal guitar riffs in the last two decades, and have made one album, Reign In Blood, which could qualify as an art installation at any of the world's most famous galleries, so brutally relentless is every second of its 29 minutes. Plus, in all honesty, where else can you go one-stop-shopping to satiate that lurking desire for lyrics dealing in death, wars, murder and Satan?

It took Slayer a little while to get to their destination. Their 1983 debut album, Show No Mercy, had some great moments (such as "Black Magic") yet still contained too many cartoon elements. In 1985, the same year Slayer played the infamous New York disco Studio 54, they released Hell Awaits to popular acclaim, and it was this release that prompted label owner and producer Rick Rubin to snap them up for, first, Def Jam and, subsequently, American Recordings. Placing himself firmly at the production helm of their 1986 classic Reign In Blood, Rubin made sure the players maximized their strengths, seeking extremity on every possible level. They even managed to successfully cross over into other genres without trying, as both the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy availed themselves of Slayer's talents via sampling on Licensed To Ill and It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back, respectively.

Live, Slayer became a legend, their shows often turning into furiously combustible affairs full of police, drunkards and fights. Indeed, Slayer were banned from playing Los Angeles for a period after a 1988 riot at the Hollywood Palladium. Yet they continued to make brutally strong, and terminally successful, albums. South Of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss and Decade Of Aggression were all well-received, and they even survived a split with drummer Lombardo, replacing him with the equally proficient Bay Area skinsman Paul Bostaph. By the time Slayer rolled into the later '90s, they were comfortably placed with a solid fanbase and little pressure. Divine Intervention signaled a dash of laziness, and it took 1998's excellent Diabolus In Musica to find the band back in full swing and enjoying their music again. Their reputation as one of hard rock's most extreme bands is, once again, back to full strength.