See Slayer at Riot Fest with “213” and “Reborn”

Almost five Years after the last date of Slayer’s farewell tour, “Final Campaign,” the band reunited on Sunday for a performance at Chicago’s Riot Fest. As any headbanger would expect, the setlist was full of fan favorites – “South of Heaven,” “War Ensemble,” “Angel of Death” – but they also revived a few surprising songs.

The concert marked the first time since 1998 that the band played “213,” an incredibly deep cut from their 1994 album. Divine InterventionFrontman Tom Araya co-wrote the song with guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who died in 2013. It begins with a spidery guitar melody before breaking into an aggressive groove. At Riot Fest, green lights shone behind the musicians, turning them into silhouettes and making the song even creepier. Tom Araya then sings, “Driving compulsive, morbid thoughts come to mind/Sexual release buried deep inside.” He wrote the lyrics about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, whose apartment number was 213.

Another welcome surprise was “Reborn”, a skull-rattling thrasher from the second side of Rule in blood the band last performed a decade ago. Guitarist Kerry King and Hanneman collaborated on this song, with King writing the lyrics about a “condemned witch” sentenced to death who vows to return from the grave. “Death means nothing, there’s no end/I’ll ​​be reborn,” Araya sings. At Riot Fest, King leaned forward and dug his pick deep into the strings as pyrotechnics raged behind him.

After Slayer’s supposedly last performance in 2019, King ceremoniously dropped the chains he had worn for years at Slayer concerts. Earlier this year, he released his debut solo album, From hell I riseand said at the time that he hadn’t received “even a text message, even an email” from Araya since the last concert. So it was a surprise to fans when King and Araya decided to reunite the final lineup of Slayer for a few shows this year. (Original drummer Dave Lombardo fell out with the band, which rehired Paul Bostaph – the drummer from Divine Intervention — in 2013. Guitarist Gary Holt had filled in for Hanneman, who was recovering from an illness at the end of his life, and officially joined Slayer in 2013.)

“Nothing compares to the 90 minutes of being live on stage and sharing that intense energy with our fans, and to be honest, we missed that,” Araya said in a statement when the reunion was announced.

“Have I missed playing live?” King said. “Absolutely. Slayer means a lot to our fans; they mean a lot to us. It will be five years since we last saw them.”