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Retirement is not actually an idea that sticks in metallic. Lured again to the UK by fellow pipe-and-slipper dodgers Black Sabbath for his or her first reveals right here in six years, Slayer‘s headline gigs in Cardiff and London provide an impressively stacked invoice with Hatebreed, Mastodon, Anthrax and Amon Amarth. It sounds nice on paper, however the actuality is a bit more sophisticated.
With gates not opening until 5pm, set lengths are nearly pathetically brief. Add to that an excruciatingly sluggish entrance course of and Hatebreed beginning solely quarter-hour after gates, and there is disgruntlement proper from the off. To their credit score, Jamey Jasta and crew aren’t going to let that cease them. Kicking off with I Will Be Heard, they profit from their brief slot with a relentless pound of hardcore anthems To The Threshold, Destroy Every part, Wanting Down The Barrel Of At present]. But it surely feels prefer it’s barely begun as Jasta is advised they should depart the stage. Bummer.
It turns into a recurring theme. Mastodon‘s first UK gig with guitarist Nick Johnston feels prefer it barely will get began earlier than they’re pulled off-stage after Blood And Thunder. Anthrax‘s set feels even worse because the thrash legends are solely in a position to get away 4 songs – Caught In A Mosh, Delinquent, Acquired The Time and Indians – earlier than they too are off, chants of “yet another music” left unheeded.
It is a disappointing flip of occasions for probably the greatest metallic payments this summer time, begging the query why the present did not have an earlier kick-off (as in London, the place gates open at 12). Fortunately, Amon Amarth redress the stability some: flanked by gigantic statues and enhanced with jets of flame, they kick off with Guardians Of Asgaard and rapidly present how it’s they have been in a position to claw their means as much as headlining festivals like Wacken and Bloodstock.
Granted, it isn’t all clean crusing. Vocalist Johan Hegg takes a nasty spill within the first music and sports activities a bloody elbow for the remainder of the set, however with a cheeky quip (“It is not about the way you fall, however the way you choose your self up!”) there is a sense of triumph as they blast by means of the remainder of their set.
Cynics will most likely level out that Slayer by no means actually went away. The arrival of the pandemic a number of months after their “ultimate” gig in November 2019 means there was solely a few years the band had been really off the highway. The cynics can even, respectfully, do one.
The thrash metallic legends are at their infernal finest in Cardiff, and from the primary notes of South Of Heaven, all grumbles in regards to the afternoon die away. That is, in any case, Slayer and they’re a drive to behold. Drawing from throughout their profession, they energy by means of what seems like a continuous procession of hits. Repentless, Disciple, Jihad, Battle Ensemble, Chemical Warfare…it is an absolute reckoning.
And good god, the pyro. Apparently not content material with flaming inverted crucifixes, Slayer’s on-stage inferno is an ever-changing beast with flamethrowing crosses, napalm-like explosions and stage-covering blazes breaking out all through the set. Chatter is stored to a minimal – although Tom Araya speaks with a disarming sincerity because the thanks followers effusively for exhibiting up – and the band let their songs do the speaking in a set that sinks its tooth deep into a few of the most interesting songs thrash metallic has to supply. By the point the band gear up for finishers Raining Blood – full with fireworks falling from the rafters – Black Magic and Angel Of Dying, there’s an plain sense of awe within the discipline.
At a degree the place we have seen different reformed bands lose steam, it is pure to marvel simply how lengthy this may final with out new materials. But when they proceed to carry out on this stage, with this stage of depth, it is exhausting to think about that ever dropping its efficiency. Moreover, who needs to reside in a world with out Slayer?
Slayer play Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s Again To The Starting present at Villa Park on July 5, and play Finsbury Park in London on July 6.
Slayer Setlist Blackweir Fields, Cardiff 3 July 2025
- South Of Heaven
- Repentless
- Disciple
- Die By The Sword
- Jihad
- Battle Ensemble
- Chemical Warfare
- Reborn
- Necessary Suicide
- Born Of Hearth
- Lifeless Pores and skin Masks
- Spirit In Black
- Hate Worldwide
- Seasons In The Abyss
- Hell Awaits
- 213
- Postmortem
- Raining Blood
- Black Magic
- Angel Of Dying
