Кровавый Дождь: История и Значение Песни Slayer

the Slayer song
Hanneman explained that "it's about a guy who's in Purgatory 'cause he was cast out of Heaven. He's waiting for revenge and wants to fuck that place up." King later said that "the rest of the song explains what happens when he starts fucking people up. The lyrics 'Return to power draws near' is because he's waiting to get strong enough again to overthrow Heaven. And then 'Fall into me, the sky's crimson tears' is everybody's blood flowing into him. So basically, 'Raining Blood' is all the angels' blood falling on him."

"Raining Blood" is four minutes and fourteen seconds long, and it is Reign in Bloods closing track. The song is one of three songs from the album that exceeds three minutes in length. D. X. Ferris, author of the 33⅓ book Reign In Blood, wrote that the song "lunges to life with its core riff, the ten most recognizable notes in metal, a diminished scale run down the fretboard that's the most badass guitar riff since Black Sabbath's 'Sweet Leaf'." Guitarist Kerry King said that "The intro is big with the two harmony and then the first beat that Dave [Lombardo] does, that double kick thing, and it's like this backwards gallop that gets the crowd going wherever you are." The piece ends with a full minute of "rain sound effects," closing Reign in Blood.

"Raining Blood", along with Reign in Bloods opening track "Angel of Death", is an almost permanent addition to Slayer's live set list, and was Hanneman and King's favorite track to play live. At the end of the Still Reigning DVD, there is a finale with the band covered in fake blood during the performance of "Raining Blood". When asked which song holds best, both Slayer guitarists replied "Raining Blood". Hanneman admitted that he "still love[s] playing that song live. You'd think we'd be tired of it – I mean, I'd love to know how many times we've played it live. That would be really interesting." King said "we could be playing in front of Alanis Morissette, and the crowd loves the part."

The song was featured in the 127th South Park episode, "Die Hippie, Die", which aired on March 16, 2005. Slayer guitarist Kerry King found the episode humorous and expressed his interest in the show, mentioning it in an interview, saying "It was good to see the song being put to good use. If we can horrify some hippies, we've done our job." "Raining Blood" is a playable song in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, where it is renowned for being one of the hardest songs in the Career Mode setlist: a 2008 job advertisement for future Guitar Hero playtesters listed the song as one of four that potential applicants had to be capable of playing on the highest difficulty level. The song is also featured in Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, with the first and only five note chord in the series. It was released as a downloadable song for Rock Band 3 on April 10, 2012, along with "South of Heaven" and "Seasons in the Abyss". It was also released as a downloadable song for Rocksmith 2014 on May 19, 2015, as part of the Slayer Song Pack. At the mixed martial arts event UFC 97 on April 18, 2009, fighter Chuck Liddell made his penultimate appearance in the UFC and used "Raining Blood" as his entrance music.

The song has been covered by Malevolent Creation, Havok, Natalie Prass, Body Count, Vader, Diecast, Quiet Company, Reggie and the Full Effect, and Erik Hinds, who covered the entire Reign in Blood album on a H'arpeggione. The guitar riffs from "Raining Blood" and "Mandatory Suicide" were sampled by rapper Lil Jon in the song "Stop Fuckin Wit' Me" from the 2004 album Crunk Juice. It was Rick Rubin's only collaboration with Lil Jon on the record. Jon wanted to create a "black version" of Suicidal Tendencies' song "Institutionalized". The New Zealand drum and bass group Concord Dawn produced a drum and bass cover version on their album Uprising, on which they partially sample the famous opening riff of the song.

In 2001, the song was covered by Tori Amos on her studio album Strange Little Girls. The cover of "Raining Blood" was suggested by bassist Justin Meldal Johnsen, who told Amos that she "had tried pretty much every other genre of music, from rap to new wave to punk to country to pop, why not some metal?" Meldal Johnsen chose the album Reign in Blood, and after listening to it, Amos agreed to make a cover version of "Raining Blood". King states the cover was odd; "It took me a minute and a half to find a spot in the song where I knew where she was. It's so weird. If she had never told us, we would have never known. You could have played it for us and we'd have been like, 'What's that?' Like a minute and a half through I heard a line and was like, 'I know where she's at!" In response, Slayer sent some T shirts to Amos, which she said was appreciated.

Stylus Magazines Clay Jarvis said that the song is fit to be the closing song for Reign in Blood, and also noted that the song, along with other songs from Reign in Blood, has "manic, hacksaw guitars, monsoons of double bass drum rolling and from the throat barking—all note perfect and precise—that still smokes the asses of any band playing fast and/or heavy today". Steve Huey said that it was a classic, and that its "slower riffs offer most of the album's few hints of melody". Derrick Harris, an editor of the official newspaper of University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, said that it had a "blistering solo". It peaked at number 64 in the United Kingdom, where it would stay on the chart for three weeks. and in 2020, Kerrang ranked the song number two on their list of the 20 greatest Slayer songs. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked the song number eight on their list of the 100 greatest heavy metal songs.