Last night, the legendary Thrash Metal band Slayer completed the touring run of “The Final Campaign” with a sold-out performance at the Los Angeles Forum. As most of you already know, this show also marked the end of touring activity for the band as a whole. Fortunately for those of us who could make the trip or get a ticket at all, one of the fans in the front recorded the last minutes of the show and we are sharing their clip for the masses to enjoy.
After the closing number of “Angel Of Death” was performed, the band did the group photo with the audience behind them and then called our their crew who kept things in motion night after night for their own photo. After these photos were taken and a number of guitar picks and drumsticks were thrown to the ravenous crowd, a choked up Tom Araya took to the microphone and offered up these closing words.
“Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to thank you for sharing your time with us. Time is precious. So I thank you for sharing that time with us, thank you. I’m gonna miss you guys. But the most important thing I want to thank you for being a part of my life, thank you. Good night. You guys be safe.”
The full set performed is listed below and appears to be most of the same songs that were performed across this final run of tours. There were seven legs of this unless I am mistaken. The openers for this performance were Philip H. Anselmo and The Illegals, Ministry and Primus. Other legs of the tour found bands like Behemoth, Testament, Anthrax, Lamb Of God, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death and Amon Amarth leading the charge for Metal’s legendary act.
The Set List:
South of Heaven
Repentless
Postmortem
World Painted Blood
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Stain of Mind
Disciple
When the Stillness Comes (Clean intro was skipped)
Born of Fire
Payback
Seasons in the Abyss
Jesus Saves
Chemical Warfare
Hell Awaits
Dead Skin Mask
Show No Mercy
Raining Blood
Mandatory Suicide
Angel of Death
Notables In The Mix: Joe Manganiello (“True Blood”), Jason Momoa (“Aquaman”, “Game Of Thrones”), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Carla Harvey (Butcher Babies), Krik Hammett (Metallica), King Diamond and more as I continue to scan Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds.
PiercingMetal Thoughts: That was The End….my Thrashing Friends, The End, no more Slayer circle pits….The End…. You’ll have to pardon my warping of the classic song by The Doors. Sadly, PiercingMetal was NOT at this show nor did we attend their final NYC appearance a few weeks ago when we couldn’t find ourselves a ticket but that being said, we DID see the band early in this farewell touring run with the show that happened at the Santander Arena in Reading, PA. If you never saw that concert report, you can click HERE to learn my thoughts of the time. Though only just under two years ago it feels as though a lifetime has passed us by and we are really here now at the closing of Slayer live concert activity. Now according to some reports that have been circulating, the band is not breaking up but instead just ending their live touring activity. So maybe we shall find some special recordings being done, or revisited legacy albums being worked up with new technology or even more live concert video releases. I don’t think this is the last that we shall be hearing from Slayer, especially when one considers the recent news about Motley Crue ending their retirement of not even five years ago (discussed HERE). The question remains is what will you do without the presence of Slayer live tours coming to your town and in that statement I offer up this advice. Please go to see something else. Support five to ten more bands based on the Slayer absence and you know that websites like this one exist to keep you informed and help you learn about the other stuff that is out there. Sure you can wait around and hope that they will return and break the rules set in motion but then again the might just stick with the plan and that is that. Whatever the case may be, I was happy to have been a Slayer fan for most of their career and that I was able to use this journalistic medium to help broadcast their activities in music, video and live performance. Thank you Slayer. It’s definitely been one Hell of a ride.
Official Website: http://www.slayer.net