Slayer ~ Angel of Death

Slayer ~ Angel of Death
from the 1986 album 'Reign In Blood' is said to be the most controversial song of Heavy Metal history.  The song treats about the holocaust and the expirimentations of World War II Nazi physician Josef Mengele.

Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman wrote "Angel of Death" after reading books about Nazi physician Josef Mengele while on tour with the band: "I remember stopping someplace where I bought two books on Mengele. I thought, 'This has gotta be some sick shit.' So when it came time to do the record, that stuff was still in my head—that’s where the lyrics to 'Angel of Death' came from." The lyrics detail Mengele's surgical experiments on patients at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Mengele's explorations were conducted on such groups as dwarfs and twins, and included both physical and psychological examinations. Among the tests he performed that are mentioned in "Angel of Death" are experimental surgeries performed without anesthesia, transfusion of blood between twins, isolation endurance, gassing, injections with lethal germs, sex change operations, the removal of organs and limbs, and abacination. "Sewn together, joining heads. Just a matter of time 'til you rip yourselves apart", a line from the penultimate verse, is a reference to the allegation Mengele stitched together twins, one of them deformed; "the hunchback was sewn to the other child, back to back, their wrists back to back too." This claim was first made by Auschwitz survivor Vera Alexander at the 1961 trial of SS-Hauptscharfuehrer Adolf Eichmann the "architect of the Holocaust", where it was asserted that Mengele "sewed the veins together" and turned "them into Siamese twins." This allegation became more widely known when Vera Alexander was featured in the 1985 documentary The Search for Mengele, which has been cited by several authors including Gerald Posner, an expert on Mengele. Towards the end of the song, there is a line "Feeding off the screams of the mutants he's creating", which was taken from the film The Boys from Brazil in which Dr. Mengele was the villain.

The lyrical content of "Angel of Death" contributed to the delay of the release of Slayer's 1986 album Reign in Blood. The band were signed to Def Jam Records whose distributor, Columbia Records, refused to release the album due to lyrical themes and artwork concerns, deeming the artwork "too graphic".] Reign in Blood was eventually distributed by Geffen Records on October 7, 1986. However, due to the controversy, Reign in Blood did not appear on Geffen Records official release schedule. "Angel of Death" caused outrage among survivors of the Holocaust, as well as their families and the general public. The controversy led to accusations of Nazi sympathizing which have followed Slayer throughout their career. People took Hanneman's interest in Nazi history and his collection of Nazi medals as evidence of sympathizing – his most prized item being a German Knight’s Cross.

According to guitarist Kerry King: "Yeah, 'Slayer are Nazis, fascists, communists'—all that fun shit. And of course we got the most flak for it in Germany. I was always like, 'Read the lyrics and tell me what’s offensive about it. Can you see it as a documentary, or do you think Slayer’s preaching fucking World War II?' People get this thought in their heads—especially in Europe—and you’ll never talk them out of it."  from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_of_Death_(song)

Slayer ~ Angel of Death

LYRICS:

Auschwitz, the meaning of pain
The way that I want you to die
Slow death, immense decay
Showers that cleanse you of your life
Forced in
Like cattle
You run
Stripped of
Your lifes worth
Human mice, for the angel of death
Four hundred thousand more to die
Angel of death
Monarch to the kingdom of the dead
Sadistic, surgeon of demise
Sadist of the noblest blood

Destroying, without mercy
To benefit the aryan race

Surgery, with no anesthesia
Fell the knife pierce you intensely
Inferior, no use to mankind
Strapped down screaming out to die
Angel of death
Monarch to the kingdom of the dead
Infamous butcher,
Angel of death

Pumped with fluid, inside your brain
Pressure in your skull begins pushing through your eyes
Burning flesh, drips away
Test of heat burns your skin, your mind starts to boil
Frigid cold, cracks your limbs
How long can you last
In this frozen water burial?
Sewn together, joining heads
Just a matter of time
til you rip yourselves apart
Millions laid out in their
Crowded tombs
Sickening ways to achieve
The holocaust
Seas of blood, bury life
Smell your death as it burns
Deep inside of you
Abacinate, eyes that bleed
Praying for the end of
Your wide awake nightmare
Wings of pain, reach out for you
His face of death staring down,
Your blood running cold
Injecting cells, dying eyes
Feeding on the screams of
The mutants hes creating
Pathetic harmless victims
Left to die
Rancid angel of death
Flying free

(leads: hanneman, king, hanneman, king, hanneman)

[ angel of death
Monarch to the kingdom of the dead
Infamous butcher,
Angel of death

Angel of death]

SLAYER - JIHAD