Things got positively Slaytanic in Chicago last night (September 22nd), with the mighty Slayer having wrapped the annual Riot Fest with their much-anticipated reunion — their first gig in five years. As you could imagine, all hell broke loose.
The performance at Illinois’ Douglass Park marked Slayer’s first time onstage together since their farewell tour in 2019. Last night, vocalist-bassist Tom Araya and co-founding guitarist Kerry King stepped back into their hellacious legacy alongside guitarist Gary Holt (Exodus) and longtime drummer Paul Bostaph, delivering a 20-song thrash-athon that pretty much covered all eras of Slayer.
The show began with the iconically eerie guitarmonizing of 1988’s “South of Heaven,” from the classic album of the same name, though the night was decidedly more slanted towards the Seasons of the Abyss period, pulling six songs into the performance, including the title track, “War Ensemble,” “Dead Skin Mask,” and more.
Reign in Blood was repped well, too, with the back half of the night featuring eternal bangers “Raining Blood” and a show-closing “Angel of Death.” The band also dipped into the latter half of their career with a performance of Repentless’ title track, but brought things back to the beginning with a run-through of early rager “Black Magic.” The deepest cut of the night was “213,” a Divine Intervention track Slayer hadn’t tackled live since 1998.
If you hadn’t made it out to Chicago last night, you can see Slayer getting up to that old black magic via the fan-shot footage up above and down below, where you’ll likewise find the full setlist details (via Setlist.fm).
Slayer’s reunion phase continues this fall with a performance at Louisville, Kentucky’s Louder Than Life festival on September 27th, and then they play Sacramento, California’s Aftershock Festival on October 10th.
Slayer setlist 9/22/24:
South of Heaven
Reborn (First time live since 2014)
Blood Red
Postmortem
Repentless
Payback
Temptation
Jihad
Seasons in the Abyss
Born of Fire
War Ensemble
Hate Worldwide
Disciple
Dead Skin Mask
Hell Awaits
213 (First time live since 1998)
Mandatory Suicide
Raining Blood
Black Magic
Angel of Death