SLAYER! SLAYER! SLAYER! That was the chant that had heard so many years ago well five and half to be exact and as I was walking into the venue there was that fabled chant once more. It's something that is known around the world that SLAYER fans are some of the most ridiculously diehard fans in the world. It's also known that bands have been totally embarrassed and SLAYER chanted right off the stage. I was very interested to see UNEARTH this evening, but I was even more interested to see if they would get SLAYER chanted off the stage.
My friend and I arrived just as UNEARTH was taking the stage. I had some UNEARTH before the concert, but not that much at all. The crowd started to get going a little in the first song and I was nodding along as I thought to myself, hey these guys are pretty good. Then through the next of couple songs they showed great stage presence by running around the stage and the singer having an overall command of the crowd. There was a one point where I was in full rawk mode, but after the first 4 songs (they played 8 I believe) I found myself thinking, didn?t they just play this song. Everything sounded the same after those first four. It was kind of strange the song would start pretty strong and then it was just a downward spiral for the rest of the song. The rest of the crowd seemed to really enjoy them, so they didn?t get SLAYER chanted off however they probably should have.
Finally it was time for the Metal giants to the take the stage. SLAYER! SLAYER! SLAYER! for literally about 20 mins. They opened with Disciple which was an excellent track to spark the fans in to a frenzied pit and horns raised high above heads. Next they kicked it up a notch with War Ensemble and it was at this point the lights were really on. I was finally able to get a good look at Tom (Araya, bass_vocals) and what did I find? A huge grey beard! I didn't think Tom was that old to have such a big beard, but I think he possibly did it due to all the terrorist oriented songs that are on this album (he kind of looked like Osama Bin Laden).
I was actually surprised by how much material they played off the last two albums because I would think that they would play a lot of older stuff since that is what their fans are truly rabid for. They threw in some of my favorite songs Die By The Sword, Dead Skin Mask, and Mandatory Suicide. The final song of the official set was Raining Blood in typical SLAYER form. It was at this point where I was getting kind of worried they wouldn't play my favorite South Of Heaven. I mean I knew I was getting Angel Of Death last that's just how it goes, but there had to be one or two others beside that one. When the first notes of South Of Heaven started playing I went nuts! There is something about that song that just gets me so fired up; it was truly a fantastic thing. I even had a thought to get in the pit, but knowing how my body deals with that I decided against it. On the whole SLAYER did a much better job this time around then they did when I saw them in 2001. I will definitely go see them again next time they roll through my area.
SLAYER setlist:
Intro: Darkness Of Christ
Disciple
War Ensemble
Jihad
Die By The Sword
Show No Mercy
Captor Of Sin
Cult
Bloodline
Mandatory Suicide
Seasons In The Abyss
Supremacist
Eyes Of The Insane
Post-Mortem
Silent Scream
Dead Skin Mask
Raining Blood
South Of Heaven (Encore #1)
Angel Of Death (Encore #2)
