Slayer’s “Raining Blood” has received Silver certification in the UK, recognizing 200,000 units from eligible sales and streams. The BPI issued the award on September 25, 2026, adding a British certification to the song that closed Reign In Blood.
The award falls under the BPI’s singles category. Certifications use Official Charts Company data, with qualifying streams counted alongside sales toward the applicable threshold.
“Raining Blood” originally appeared on Reign In Blood, released October 7, 1986, through Def Jam Recordings. The album marked Slayer’s first collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, but the song’s distinctive opening had already taken shape before the recording sessions.
Discussing its origins on the 100 Songs That Define Heavy Metal podcast in 2025, drummer Dave Lombardo credited Jeff Hanneman with arriving at rehearsal carrying a cassette demo on which he had played both guitar and drums. The opening initially puzzled the band. Once the main riff began, Lombardo recalled, the idea made sense. Much of the arrangement was already there.
Rubin helped Lombardo refine how his playing served those arrangements. The drummer described learning to leave room beneath the vocals and place fills where they could push a song into its next section. The decisions gave his parts a purpose beyond displaying speed or technique.
Hanneman remembered recognizing something promising in the main riff as soon as he wrote it. In a Revolver interview excerpted by Guitar World, he recalled immediately recording the idea so he would not forget it. What he did not anticipate was the response it would draw from audiences.
“I think its success is that it’s so simplistic. It just sticks in your head,” Hanneman told Revolver in the interview excerpt.
He described the crowd becoming unusually quiet during the drum buildup, then erupting when the guitars entered. An official live performance of “Raining Blood” is available through Slayer’s VEVO channel.
That opening and release became part of a much larger stage production for Still Reigning. Directed by Dean Karr and filmed at the Civic Center in Augusta, Maine, the concert film featured Slayer performing Reign In Blood in full with their original lineup.
“Raining Blood” completed that performance with a practical effect built around its title. For the final 45 seconds, stage blood fell from the rafters, covering the musicians and their equipment as they finished the album.
