Metal
Slayer played «Reign in Blood» in full on Friday 4 September at the Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee, Minnesota, their first show in a year. The record, the band’s third, turns forty. Down, Suicidal Tendencies and Hatebreed opened the night.
The setlist reached twenty-three songs: a conventional opening stretch — «South of Heaven», «War Ensemble», «Seasons in the Abyss», «Dead Skin Mask» — and then, starting with «Angel of Death», the album’s ten tracks in order through to «Raining Blood». «Piece by Piece», «Necrophobic», «Criminally Insane» and «Epidemic» hadn’t been heard live since 2014; «Altar of Sacrifice» since 2015, and «Jesus Saves» since 2019.
The line-up is the same one that reunited in 2024: Tom Araya, Kerry King, Gary Holt and Paul Bostaph.
«Reign in Blood» came out on 7 October 1986, runs twenty-nine minutes, and was the band’s first record with Rick Rubin. Its release was delayed over concerns with the cover art and the lyrics — «Angel of Death» is about Josef Mengele — to the point that distribution had to be resolved through a different route. Kerrang! called it the heaviest album of all time.
The show arrives fourteen months after Slayer sent off Black Sabbath at Villa Park, and eight years after announcing their retirement. Of what’s left on this year’s calendar — Rocklahoma, Mexico City, Fort Worth, two nights at Inglewood’s Kia Forum in November, and a South American run in December through Bogotá, Santiago, Buenos Aires and São Paulo — none of it includes a European date.
Text by Enric Vilaplana