Editing Reign in Blood (section)

===Cover art===
The cover artwork was designed by [[Larry Carroll (artist)|Larry Carroll]], who at the time was creating political illustrations for ''[[The Progressive]]'', ''[[Village Voice]]'', and ''[[The New York Times]]''. Carroll was hired at Rubin's behest.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mudrian |first1=Albert |title=Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces |date=July 14, 2009 |publisher=Da Capo Press |page=54 }}</ref> Despite its warm reception, the band members themselves originally did not like the image. King said, "Nobody in the band wanted that cover. We were stuck with it." He even described the artist as a "warped demented freak,"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wiederhorn |first1=Jon |title=Fascinating Facts You Didn't Know About Slayer's 'Reign In Blood' |url=https://www.ranker.com/list/slayer-reign-in-blood/jon-wiederhorn |website=Ranker |access-date=1 August 2022}}</ref> although Carroll went on to make cover arts for their next two albums, ''[[South of Heaven]]'' (1988) and ''[[Seasons in the Abyss]]'' (1990), as well as ''[[Christ Illusion]]'' (2006). By a differing account, Araya recalled that he "thought it was amazing" and "liked it immediately". He also stated that there were three different variations of the album cover in its conceptual stages, with the final version incorporating elements of all three.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mudrian |first1=Albert |title=Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces |date=July 14, 2009 |publisher=Da Capo Press |page=55 }}</ref>

It was believed that Columbia Records initially refused to release ''Reign in Blood'' because of the disturbing imagery. Araya refuted this claim in 2016 saying that it was because of the song "Angel of Death" and it had nothing to do with the cover art.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Loudwire |title=Slayer's Tom Araya - Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction? |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e0QlzMlO_M |website=YouTube |date=March 9, 2016 |access-date=23 September 2022}}</ref>