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  1. Tracks
  2. Slayer
  3. Postmortem

SINGLE

Slayer

Postmortem

Release date: 1986

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About This Track

Postmortem is a descent into psychological collapse. The song moves through images of death, self-harm, and mental disintegration with clinical precision, each verse tightening the noose of its own logic. Slayer build the track around a simple, devastating question: "Do you wanna die?" It is asked not as provocation but as the only rational endpoint of the narrator's reasoning. The lyrics traffic in visceral metaphor. Blood, tombs, tourniquet, grave, skeleton, sanity torn apart. What distinguishes the song from mere shock-value is its refusal to aestheticise any of it. There is no romance here, no transcendence. The narrator is not seeking oblivion as escape; he is describing it as inevitable consequence, the logical conclusion of a mind that has already surrendered. The final lines collapse all distinction between identity and death: "What I am, what I want, I'm only after death." By that point, the two have become indistinguishable.

"Postmortem" is a single by Slayer, released 1986. Full lyrics are available below. Dork has published 1 article about Slayer.

About the Artist

Slayer

Slayer

Lyrics

Postmortem

Funeral held for the depression of man
Holds the key to his own death
Entering a tomb of a corpse yet conceived
Tighten the tourniquet around your neck

Sifting away the debris of hated life
Cold touch of death begins to chill your spine
Seeking life beyond your perishment
Repeating words echoing through your mind

Chanting lines of blind witchery
To save yourself from extinction
Wanting to die is your reason to live
New life born from the oppressed

Taste your blood as it trickles through the air
Another casualty beyond the shadows you fall
Losing ground, the fate you feel draws near
Fatality, reality, await the final call

My sinful glare at nothing holds thoughts of death behind it
Skeletons in my mind commence tearing at my sanity
Vessels in my brain carrying death into my breath
Come and die with me forever, share insanity

Do you wanna die?!

The waves of blood are rushing near, pounding at the walls of lies
Turning off my sanity, reaching back into my mind
Non-rising body from the grave showing new reality
What I am, what I want, I'm only after death

Lyrics provided by LRCLIB

View full lyrics page →

Track details

Postmortem

1986Single
Listen
Release year
1986

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    • View all tracks by Slayer →

    Credits

    Production & Engineering

    Writer
    Jeff Hanneman
    Producer
    Rick Rubin, Slayer
    Engineer
    Andy Wallace
    Bass
    Tom Araya
    Drums
    Dave Lombardo
    Guitar
    Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King
    Vocals
    Tom Araya
    Executive Producer
    Rick Rubin
    Mastering Engineer
    Howie Weinberg
    READ MORE ABOUT SLAYERREAD MORE ABOUT SLAYERREAD MORE ABOUT SLAYERREAD MORE ABOUT SLAYER
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    Slayer have booked UK, US and Canadian live dates for summer 2025
    News

    Slayer have booked UK, US and Canadian live dates for summer 2025

    Legendary metal band Slayer announces summer 2025 tour dates across three countries, including a special appearance with Black Sabbath.

    4 Mar 2025 • 9:41 am