Raining Blood
Slayer · Reign in Blood · 1986
Reign in Blood is two B.C. Rich guitars with DiMarzio Super Distortion bridge pickups (Jeff Hanneman's Bich, Kerry King's Mockingbird) straight into Marshall JCM800 2203 heads and stock 4x12 cabs. Rick Rubin's big move was stripping the effects and reverb the band had used before, so the main riff is a dry, close-miked, midrange-lean crunch with a hard pick attack. Set the preamp high but not woolly, pull the bass and mids back a touch, keep the treble up, and get the tightness from your palm mute rather than from more gain.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Eb standard (down a half step)
Tuition sources and the pitch of the record put the studio take a half step down, and Tom Araya's bass is down a half step too; some tabs write it in E standard shapes, which will sound a half step sharp against the recording.
Guitar
- B.C. Rich Bich · DiMarzio Super Distortion · bridge pickup
- B.C. Rich Mockingbird · DiMarzio Super Distortion · bridge pickup
Amp
Marshall JCM800 2203 (100W head, stock 4x12)
The 2203 into stock Marshall 4x12s is documented for this album; the knob values here are inferred from the dry, mid-shy, top-heavy sound of the record, while Kerry King's own later-quoted numbers (bass 4-6, mid 8, treble 6-7, presence 7, preamp 8-9) describe his mid-boosted live tone rather than 1986. A Guitar World feature calls the 2203 the amp behind Hell Awaits, Reign in Blood and Seasons in the Abyss; forum accounts claiming JCM900s are not supported by any primary source.
Tone character
dry, no reverb · tight low end · slightly scooped mids · hard pick attack · cutting top end
Continuous fast palm-muted sixteenth-note picking with chromatic power-chord shifts and tremolo-picked bursts, so the picking hand has to stay tight and even for the whole riff.
Want this on your own amp?
These are the record's settings. Tell us what you play through and we'll translate every knob to the amp you actually own — free.
Adapt it to my gearSources
No published source — the settings below are estimated by ear.