Artist · chart history · #749 in indie & aaa artist polls
Slayer
Band Huntington Park United States Formed 1981 US thrash metal band
Slayer formed in 1981 in Huntington Park, United States. Slayer has 44 chart appearances on 24 radio countdowns from 7 stations on RockLists, spanning 1990–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Angel of Death”, which appears on 19 lists with a best position of #5. The station that charted Slayer most often is Studio Brussel (Flanders, Belgium), with 36 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2002.
Slayer came out of Huntington Park, California, in 1981, and they played faster and nastier than just about anyone else on the planet. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman wrote all the music and shredded it on twin guitars, Tom Araya played bass and barked the vocals, and Dave Lombardo drummed like a jackhammer with a grudge. Their lyrics and album art dealt with serial killers, the occult, war, religion and fascism, and they drew bans, delays, lawsuits and the wrath of religious groups.
Reign in Blood, in 1986, is the one that sets the standard, ranked among the heaviest thrash albums ever made: "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood" blast by in a hurricane of riffs and blast-furnace drumming. South of Heaven deepened the dread in 1988, and Seasons in the Abyss followed in 1990. They stand with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax as one of thrash's big four.
The drum stool changed hands between Lombardo and Paul Bostaph more than once, and after Hanneman died in 2013 Gary Holt took over his guitar full time. "Eyes of the Insane" and "Final Six" won them Grammys in 2007 and 2008. Slayer called it quits in 2019 after a farewell world tour, but they have been back for occasional reunion shows since 2024.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Slayer on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angel of Death | 19 | #5 | – | – | |
| 2 | Raining Blood | 19 | #4 | – | – | |
| 3 | South of Heaven | 1 | #299 | – | – | |
| 4 | Born to Be Wild | 1 | #50 | – | 2002 | |
| 5 | Seasons in the Abyss | 2 | #708 | – | – | |
| 6 | Inna Gadda Divida | 1 | #563 | – | – |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
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