(photos were not allowed this evening, so we've put together a collection of archive photos to go with the review)

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu
Another band goes on their farewell tour, and while Slayer aren’t exactly the von Trapp family singers, one can argue that both groups are musicians, and they have both shown an interest in the third reich. That’s about it for similarities though, as far as I know.

I have a reputed mistrust of any band saying they’re on a farewell tour. Honestly, why not just call it a we’re taking a break tour? We all know we’re going to end up seeing you again in two to three years on the comeback tour, when the bills begin piling up.
That being said, Slayer is one of the grand old names of the metal genre, so going to their farewell tour was of course a must. Sadly, so thought a lot of others, hence we can’t offer you new pics, as the photopit was filled - instead you get these good-looking, never-before-seen photos from Lunah Lauridsen’s vaults.

I must admit, my expectations for Slayer were a bit mixed. I’ve long held to the belief that if you’ve seen one Slayer concert, you’ve seen them all. Sure, they had a nice upswing in energy when Gary Holt joined the ranks, but style and substance was still very much the same as it had always been. I saw no reason to expect otherwise from this show, but there might have been a very faint hope. Either way, the overall line-up of the evening was pretty interesting, and I was hoping for the best.
What happened, in short, was that Slayer swung a hefty left hook, and completely caught me off guard. How? By delivering a show that was absolutely Slayer, and at the same time as far away from Slayer as I have ever seen this band! The performance and especially stage-production was unheard of!

Beginning the show with a curtain covering the entire stage, and a video production running on it, we heard extremely loud shouts of appreciation, as the floating crucifixes of said video turned upside down, shortly before the curtain fell, and the band kicked off.
As it fell, an impressive stage-build was revealed. Beginning from the back, there was an awesome looking backdrop (which later would be changed several times during the set, even having one with blacklight effects on it), in front of which was a side-to-side podium, which held Paul Bostaph’s drums in the middle, and large metal art pieces further along to each side, furthest out having huge Slayer logos also wrought in metal. Why was everything in metal? Well, they’re a bad-ass metal band would be the quick answer, but it wouldn’t be the entire truth of it. You see, through the show, it became clear that everything was wrought in metal so as not to burn down! Yep, Slayer had brought along a pyro show almost rivalling those of Rammstein, and with some pretty inventive and fun designs - the flamethrowers spewing out inverted crosses and pentagrams of fire were an especially cool addition. Simple, yet so very effective!
Those Slayer logos being lit on fire were pure eye-candy as well.

On stage were of course also four angry men playing music. Not necessarily the four men we were expecting - due to family issues back home, Holt had been forced to temporarily step away, and starting at this show, Phil Demmel (ex-Machine Head) stepped in to take his place. He had been gruffed up a bit since last I saw him, but that dotted guitar was an instant give-away. I don’t know about Demmel’s history with Slayer, but was impressed to see he handled himself and the music perfectly, delivering both musically and performance ways.
Neither were all four men as angry as we expected - Tom Araya was clearly in a very good mood, up for some fun word exchanges with the audience between songs, smiling several times, and even tried to get a shout along started by requesting the crowd to shout “payback’s a bitch, motherfucker!” to mixed results. Possibly too long a sentence for some to follow.

The audience showed no other signs of being unable to follow the band however - looking out over the hall, there could be no question as to who was the main act here! I’ve already mentioned that the shouting began loud and proud even before Slayer hit the stage, and sure, we’d been expertly warmed up by the support acts, but Slayer’s coming brought it all to a whole new level.
As soon as the music began, so did the action. Good old headbanging in the front and further back, fists in the air, and several moshpits and circlepits grew and collapsed organically as one song after the other was blasted out of the speakers. Hell, there were even some who braved crowdsurfing, even though this is a quite unusual audience activity at this venue, and in Copenhagen overall. At least compared to some of the other places we’ve visited.

When the show came to a conclusion, the von Trapp’s were in a hurry to leave - the von Slayer’s, not so much. In fact, Araya was nearly not to be driven off stage at all. He just kept walking back and forth along the edge of the large stage, stopping once in a while to smile a slightly intimidating grin at someone particular in the audience.
And why not? The band had justs outdone themselves.
Best of the evening? Tough call between Slayer and Anthrax, and that’s saying something (positive) for Slayer.
Best Slayer concert? Quite possibly so. If not, easily in the top three, but yeah, I think it might just top the list for me.
Who knows if they’ll be back or not. Chances are they will. If not, well, they’ll still be touring through the summer of 2019 for festivals and such, so you still have a chance to catch them. And you probably should, if this show was an indicator of how they’ll perform there.

Setlist:

Delusions Of Saviour
Repentless
Blood Red
Disciple
Mandatory Suicide
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Jihad
When The Stillness Comes
Postmortem
Black Magic
Payback
Seasons In The Abyss
Dittohead
Dead Skin Mask
Hell Awaits
South Of Heaven
Raining Blood
Chemical Warfare
Angel Of Death