Slayer: Final World Tour - RockRevolt Mag

Early this year, a devastating blow was delivered which sent shockwaves through the metal community. Slayer is going to hang up the horns and retire. We got to catch up with them in Washington at the Sunlight Supply Amphitheater just a few shows before they played their final North American show.

Opening up for this leg of the tour was Napalm Death, replacing Behemoth from earlier shows. Heavy, raw, and aggressive, Napalm Death came to show Washington that Metal is doing fine. Playing an opening set of 12 songs is a bit unusual, but given that the average Napalm Death song is roughly 2 minutes, it was nice to get a good sampling.

Thrash metal veterans, Testament took the reigns from Napalm Death and kept the party rolling along. Frontman Chuck Billy paced the enormous stage from side to side singing a shorter, eight song set. Shorter, simply by song count of course.

Anthrax also played a shorter, seven song set. Honestly, I would have loved to see them co-headline, or even main support. After all, they too are card-carrying members of the coveted “Big Four”. Sadly, I don’t get to make the rules. In seven songs, Anthrax demonstrated why they too have had the long and successful career that they have had. Heads started rollin’ when Anthrax opened up with a “Cowboys From Hell”/”Caught In A Mosh” medley. The amphitheater was jumpin’ through the entirety of the set which ended with their classic closer “Indians”.

Lamb of God took up residency on the stage opening with “Omerta”. Singer Randy Blythe paced the length of the stage, frequently jumping when crossing center stage. While photographing the band from the pit, I was able to observe crowd surfers beginning a nearly non-stop pilgrimage to the stage, pouring over the barrier, especially when Lamb Of God played “Ruin”. Lamb of God gave us nine songs before relinquising the stage to Tom Araya and Slayer.

Tom was all smiles when Slayer played Sunlight Supply Amphitheater. Despite the plumes of fire and the face melting thrash metal that Slayer has given us for the last several decades, Tom Araya stood front and center, smiling through song after song. His eyes, eyes that have seen the world many times over, glistened with a warm and youthful energy as if looking out over the crowd, knowing that this is the final tour, and just internalizing every face, every jump, every fist held high for these legends of metal. Kerry King, Paul Gostaph, and Gary Holt were all very business-like… as long as your idea of business is getting on stage in front of sold-out venues and shredding non-stop for a couple of hours.

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Slayer has stated that this is their final world tour. But, if we take a moment to reflect on that, the door is completely open for them to still continue rocking through new music, or the occasional festival gig. We are certainly hoping.