Christ Illusion

Christ Illusion is the tenth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on August 8, 2006 by American Recordings. It was the band's first album featuring all four original members in nearly sixteen years. Slayer's drummer, Dave Lombardo, performed with the band for the first time since Seasons in the Abyss (1990). Depicting a mutilated Christ painted by longtime collaborator Larry Carroll, the album's graphic artwork courted controversy; an alternative cover was issued to conservative retailers who felt uncomfortable with the original, and the band also put out a censored cover without the offensive artwork. Lyrics, particularly in the song "Jihad", describe the September 11 attacks from the perspective of a terrorist. Following protests, all Indian stocks of the album were recalled and destroyed by EMI India. Christ Illusion received generally favorable critical reviews, and entered the US Billboard 200 at number 5, making it the band's second highest U. S. chart position as of 2015. The album includes the Grammy Award winning songs "Eyes of the Insane" and "Final Six".

Christ Illusion was recorded via computer between two studios: NRG Studios, North Hollywood, with assistant engineer Dave Colvin; and Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, where Brian Warwick assisted. Guitarist Kerry King recalls nine of the eleven songs originally slated for Christ Illusion were demoed in 2004, with Dave Lombardo at the drum kit. However, Lombardo recalls recording with King as far back as early 2003, when two demos were completed at Lombardo's home. In a July 2004 interview, guitarist Jeff Hanneman reported "Me and Kerry have a bunch of songs," and expressed the band's intent to finish the record that year. Slayer's label American Recordings was at the time negotiating a switch of record distributors from Columbia Records to Warner Bros. Records, meaning the recording would have been temporarily shelved until the issue became resolved. Slayer wished for Reign in Blood producer Rick Rubin to produce the album, and expected him to do so after Rubin expressed an initial interest. Rubin was busy, however, which caused a further delay to recording. Despite missing an opportunity to produce Christ Illusion, Rubin contributed in an "executive production" capacity. As with Slayer's previous two albums, all rhythm guitar tracks on Christ Illusion were laid down by King. Lombardo personally described the album as "a matured Reign in Blood", while King described it as "a mix between God Hates [Us All] and Seasons [in the Abyss]." Although eleven songs were originally slated for the album, only ten made the final track listing. A song penned by Hanneman, Questioned about the album's title by Kevin and Bean of Los Angeles KROQ FM, King replied "I'm not positive it's been nailed yet. I think last week was the deadline and I'm not sure where it ended up, so I'm gonna have to take the fifth on that one. The way it was going, my vote was overlooked, so That's why I'm not real thrilled about it." Thus, he was unable to finish the vocals for the song in time for the album's release. Having missed the "Satanic" date, the release was pushed back to July 25; Issued in Europe on June 23, the EP landed at number 48 on the Swedish charts and number 2 on the Finnish charts, while on June 30, Nuclear Blast Records released a 7" vinyl picture disc version limited to a thousand copies. Not all media attention surrounding the group on June 6 was favorable. National Day of Slayer, LLC, which describes itself as "a non profit corporation in the State of Wyoming", requested on their website that Slayer fanatics participate in "The National Day of Slayer" by coming together and listening to the group's tracks. However, vandals attacked St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, New York, by spray painting a large pentagram in front of the doors, black inverted crosses in two columns in front of the main entrance, and the number six on three steps leading into the Seminary. The words "Reign in Blood" were scrawled on the seminary landing, while the phrase "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven", taken from Book 1 of John Milton's poem Paradise Lost, was found inscribed on two inside columns. Fans were given an exclusive preview of further tracks culled from the upcoming album before its release. In addition to "Cult", the tracks "Jihad" and "Eyes of the Insane" were made available for streaming on the Spanish website Rafabasa. com in late June. A listening party event for the album took place on July 22 at Duff's Brooklyn in New York City's Williamsburg neighborhood. Filmed on the set of The Henry Rollins Show, a live rendition of "Disciple" (taken from Slayer's 2001 album God Hates Us All) was posted online, followed by "Cult"'s live performance which aired on the Independent Film Channel a few days later. BBC Radio 1's "Mike Davis Rock Show" gave "Skeleton Christ" a premier airing on August 1, and by August 4 the full album was available for streaming via Slayer's official MySpace profile. AOL Radio complimented this by launching an "All Slayer" station in anticipation of Christ Illusions release, playing all of Slayer's previously released songs and tracks from the upcoming record. In late July 2006, bus benches in several Californian cities were decorated with promotional artwork for Christ Illusion. City officials in Fullerton, California, demanded the artwork be immediately removed from seventeen bus benches located throughout the city, and contacted the hired company which had originally put the adverts in place to assume the task. However, various Orange County, California areas surrounding the city of Fullerton still had benches sporting the cover artwork. Though this ranked as the band's highest chart position as of lc=y, and was their first top 10 charting since 1994's Divine Intervention, Christ Illusion reached number 9 in Australia, number 3 in Canada, and debuted at number 2 in Finland and Germany. The single "Eyes of the Insane" won the "Best Metal Performance" category at the 49th Grammy Awards. The song "Final Six" also won in the same category at the 50th Grammy Awards. The album won the 2006 Metal Storm Award for Best Thrash Metal Album.