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Slayer review – spectacle, gore, mayhem and some of metal’s greatest songs
The thrash legends’ first UK gig in six years is a lean and unforgivingly mean set – no breathers, no ballads, only teeth-rattling bangers
There’s little sense of a sheepish re-emergence, though, with a lengthy video package on the history of the band teeing up South of Heaven’s inimitable riff, which is immediately in the throats of the crowd before drummer Paul Bostaph’s double-kick sparks kinetic mayhem. Guitarist Kerry King plays with punishing intensity, his squalling solos meshing with dextrous leads from a swaggering Gary Holt, the Exodus riffer who took over from the late Jeff Hanneman a little more than a decade ago. Where main support Amon Amarth’s towering Viking warriors and drinking horns are obviously in service of fun, Slayer are still a shocking proposition, their churning riffs punctuated by gross-out gore and grim images from endless war.
Or read this on The Guardian
