Thrash metal icons Slayer are back for a reunion after 5 years.
In an Instagram post made last February 21, the metal titans surprised the heavy music world when they announced they would be playing their first shows in five years. The band accompanied the announcement with a simple statement: “It gets you when you least expect it.”
Slayer will be reuniting with its lineup from 2013-2019, composed of frontman and bassist Tom Araya, guitarists Kerry King and Gary Holt, and drummer Paul Bostaph.
Per the announcement, the band will be playing at Riot Fest in Chicago from September 20-22 and at Louder Than Life on September 27 in Louisville. At the time of writing, no additional show dates or news of a tour have been announced by the band.
This announcement comes after the band officially disbanded in 2019 after going on their Final World Tour from May 10, 2018 to November 30, 2019. The farewell tour saw multiple stops in North America, Europe, and South America as well as in Oceania and Asia for a total of 147 shows.
The band last went to Manila in 2019 for the metal festival Pulp Summer Slam XIX: The Second Coming. Coincidentally, this was also their last Asia show before they disbanded later that year and the only other Asia show of the tour alongside Download Japan 2019 in Chiba.
The band’s 39 year-long career up until their dissolution spawned a total of 12 studio albums, including iconic ones such as Reign in Blood, Seasons in the Abyss, and World Painted Blood. Their latest is Repentless, released almost nine years ago in 2015. The band’s notoriety and impact in the metal realm has earned them the title of one of the “Big Four” of thrash metal alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax.
Get your heads banging and throw a celebratory mosh by listening to Slayer’s Repentless below.