The excruciatingly heart-breaking news of Jeff Hanneman’s death wrenched the hearts of metal fans this month. It was spread over every single social media network, news publication, and message throughout the world. Through all of this devastation, the remaining members of the band, plus a new addition found the strength to perform yesterday at Poland’s Impact Festival. Thus, a new era of Slayer was born.
The band will feature founding members Kerry King & Tom Araya, Exodus’ Gary Holt, and utility drummer Paul Bostaph. This lineup debuted yesterday in Poland despite recent events for fans in the name of Hanneman’s death. The question is not so much how did they manage to perform, but how did the legendary god’s of metal do with their new line up in the wake of such tragedy? They played a stereotypical Slayer set list, that even though would be known to fans, any musician would have one hell of a time playing considering the mass amount of shredding and detail that resides in each song. The set list went as follows:
“World Painted Blood”
“Hallowed Point”
“War Ensemble”
“Hate Worldwide”
“At Dawn They Sleep”
“Stain Of Mind”
“Disciple”
“Bloodline”
“Mandatory Suicide”
“Chemical Warfare”
“Seasons In The Abyss”
“Dead Skin Mask”
“Raining Blood”
“South Of Heaven”
“Angel Of Death”
Pretty heavy stuff going on there. There has been an overwhelmingly positive reaction from fans, and I’m sure that the support has been helping the band through what has been going on. If you think that the sound is going to change due to some lineup changes, there is some bootleg proof from around the internet floating around that will prove you wrong. Judge for yourself and see exactly what went down. Personally I think it sounds like Slayer. I don’t think any major mechanics of sound have been so skewed that one would be so thrown not to see them live anymore. However, like I said previously, be your own judge.