Live footage of Slayer playing 1986 album Reign In Blood in full has made its way online.
The California thrash metal hellraisers kicked off a tour celebrating 40 years of their most lauded release with a show at Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee, Minnesota on September 4. They dusted off an assortment of hits before finishing with Reign… in its 28-minute entirety: the first time they’ve performed the whole thing since 2014.
Watch footage of the complete Reign… section of the show below.
The Reign In Blood 40th-anniversary tour resumed at Rocklahoma in Pryor, Oklahoma on September 6. It will pick back up with a stop at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on October 21, then continue for more North and Latin American dates. See the full list of dates below.
Slayer’s third full-length album, Reign In Blood was produced by Rick Rubin (then known for his collaborations with such hip-hop stars as the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC) and released via Rubin’s label, Def Jam. It charted in the UK and US and won critical acclaim. In 2017, Rolling Stone put it at number six on their list of the 100 greatest metal albums of all time.
Reign… faced public backlash due to its album art and lyrical themes. Conservative commentators accused Slayer of having Nazi sympathies due to the opening song Angel Of Death, which was about Josef Mengele and his experimental surgeries at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The band have repeatedly denied that they support Nazism.
Guitarist Kerry King said of the controversy during a Loudwire interview in 2015: “My rebuttal to that has been since day one, if you put that on the History Channel and took Slayer out of it, it would be an educational, intriguing ride through World War II. You put Slayer in, and heavy metal, and it’s, ‘Oh, they meant that shit!’”
Slayer retired from touring in 2019 but reunited in 2024 and have since played standalone shows and short tours. Talking to Australia’s Metal Roos in 2024, King dismissed the possibility of a new Slayer album and more extensive touring.
“Mark my words: we’re never gonna make a record again, we’re never gonna tour again," he said. “Because that was the last thing. We said [in 2019], ‘This is our final tour.’ It took five years for us to come and say, ‘Hey, here’s a couple of shows, five-year anniversary.’”
Slayer’s final album, Repentless, came out in 2015. King took his ideas for a scrapped follow-up and used them to start a solo band. His first album under his own name, From Hell I Rise, came out in 2024. A second album is in the works.
Slayer Reign In Blood: 40th Anniversary tour dates:
- Oct 21: Mexico City Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico
- Oct 24: Fort Worth Sick New World, TX
- Nov 13: Inglewood Kia Forum, CA
- Nov 14: Inglewood Kia Forum, CA
- Dec 05: Bogota Vive Claro – Distrito Cultural, Colombia
- Dec 10: Santiago Estadio Santa Laura, Chile
- Dec 14: Buenos Aires Movistar Arena, Argentina
- Dec 17: São Paulo Nubank Parque, Brazil
