God Hates Us All - Reception

Reception

God Hates Us All was set for release on July 10; however, concerns regarding audio mixing, the album cover, and the band's label—American Recordings—changing distributor, caused the release date to be delayed until September 11, 2001. The release drew an unintended connection to the September 11 attacks, which was the second time Slayer caused controversy towards one of their releases—the video for "Seasons in the Abyss" was filmed in Egypt and released prior to the Gulf War. In its week of release, God Hates Us All debuted at number 28 on the Billboard 200, and sold 51,000 copies. It entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number 9, and debuted at number 18 on the top Internet album chart. As of August 16, 2006 the album has sold 304,000 copies in the United States.

God Hates us All received generally positive reviews from music critics. Kerrang!'s Jason Arnopp described the album as "easily Slayer's most convincing collection since Seasons in the Abyss," awarding the album five out of five. Rolling Stone's Rob Kemp wrote the record was "Slayer's most brutal record since 1986's immortal (or undead) Reign in Blood," describing the music as "galloping double-bass-drum salvos" which "switch on a dime to furious double-time pummeling, as ominous power chords and jagged shred solos slice and dice with Formula One precision." Kemp awarded the album three and a half out of five. Allmusic reviewer Jason Birchmeier commented that "nearly 20 years into their evolution, Slayer have abandoned the extravagancies and accessibility of their late-'80s/early-'90s work and returned to perfect the raw approach of their early years. A near flawless album," and that Araya's performance possibly makes "the most exhausting Slayer album yet."

Not all critics were impressed with the album. Blabbermouth.net reviewer Borivoj Krgin dismissively labeled the album as "another failure on the band's part to take the initiative and reinvent themselves." Krgin described King as "the weaker and less inventive of the two main songwriters" (King and Hanneman), feeling the album followed "a familiar direction that almost always sounds tired and forced" as a result of King being the album's main songwriter. Krgin also singled out Araya for criticism, and called the vocalist a "hollow shell of his former self, boasting a singing style that is monotonous, devoid of creativity and at times virtually unlistenable." Krgin awarded the record 6 out of 10, and ended the review by observing that "Slayer's rapidly diminishing record sales (Diabolus In Musica has shifted less than 300,000 copies in the US compared to 600–700,000+) as a sign that the band is in dire need of a new lease on life."

The song "Disciple" received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Metal Performance" at the 44th Grammy Awards, the band's first nomination. The members cared neither about the nomination nor the award ceremony, and although they did not expect to win, thought it was "cool" to be nominated. The ceremony took place on February 27, 2002, with Tool winning the award for their song "Schism".