In support of Repentless, the band’s 12th studio album and its career-highest chart debut, Slayer will launch 2016 by pillaging and marauding its way across North America, headlining some two-dozen dates over a five-week period. With Special Guests Testament and Carcass on all dates, the tour starts on February 19 in Chicago and wraps up in Las Vegas on March 26. Confirmed dates are below. Slayer’s Fan Club pre-sale begins today at 12NOON local time, details are at http://slatanicwehrmacht.com/ Ticket presales begin tomorrow, Friday, December 4 at 10AM local time, and the public onsale commences Saturday, December 5 at 10AM local time.
For this tour, Slayer is offering several different limited-availability VIP packages that will include premiums such as watching Slayer’s entrance and first three songs from right onstage, access to the band’s normally off-limits soundcheck, autographed collectibles, and a variety of custom VIP swag. Log onto Slayer’s Facebook for all VIP packages and ticketing details.
Twenty-fifteen has proven to be a pretty darned good year for Slayer. Ignoring the odds and naysayers, the band – Kerry King/guitars, Tom Araya/bass, vocals, Paul Bostaph/drums, and touring guitarist Gary Holt – wrote, recorded and released its first album since the death of founding member, guitarist Jeff Hanneman, and first with producer Terry Date. Slayer proved the doubters wrong with an album that SPIN called “as unrelenting as all of their previous,” Rolling Stone described as “…lean, quick, precise and brutal…” Loudwire deemed “…a potent release that is undeniably Slayer…” and Guitar World simply declared “The Metal Album of the Year.” Repentless sounds like a Slayer album…a sonic assault of brutal, ominous, lightening-fast and heavy-as-hell music, with lyrics that unmask what Slayer knows best – the terror, the corruption and the societal turmoil that dominates our world. As a member of The Big Four, Slayer didn’t just help define the thrash-metal genre, Slayer defines an attitude.
For this upcoming tour, fans can expect to hear many of their favorite Slayer songs selected from the band’s 30-plus year discography, as well as a few of the brand new ones. As the Austin Chronicle put it about one of Slayer’s recent shows, “[It was] one hundred minutes of just plain pummel…the group delivered fast, hard, no-frills bludgeon.”
With more dates to be announced, the first leg of Slayer’s 2016 North American tour is as follows:
FEBRUARY
19 – Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL
22 – War Memorial, Nashville, TN
24 – The National, Richmond, VA
26 – House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, SC
27 – The Ritz, Raleigh, NC
29 – The Fillmore, Charlotte, NC
MARCH
2 – Capitol Theatre, Port Chester, NY
3 – The Fillmore, Philadelphia, PA
5 – The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD
6 – The House of Blues, Boston, MA
8 – LC Pavilion, Columbus, OH
9 – The Orpheum, Madison, WI
11 – Myth, St. Paul, MN
12 – Civic Auditorium, Fargo, ND
14 – MacEwan Hall, Calgary, AB
15 – Shaw Centre, Edmonton, AB
17 – Revolution Event Center, Boise, ID
19 – The Paramount, Seattle, WA
20 – Roseland Ballroom, Portland, OR
22 – Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA
26 – The Joint, Las Vegas, NV
ABOUT SLAYER:
For more than three decades, Slayer’s onslaught has proven the band to be the supreme thrash-metal band on the planet, the band that other heavy acts are measured against and aspire to. The two-time Grammy-winners have also accumulated an abundance of certified Gold Albums along with “Best…” awards from media outlets all over the world, including Kerrang!, SPIN, Metal Hammer, Revolver, and Esquire. Throughout Slayer’s history, the band has never faltered in unleashing its extreme and focused sonic assault, and, unlike many of its contemporaries who “commercialized” their sound, Slayer has remained crushing and brutal, steadfastly refusing to cater to the mainstream. Slayer’s founding member, guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed in 2013, and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt has been filling in for him since. Paul Bostaph, who was Slayer’s drummer from ’94 – ’01, has rejoined bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and guitarist Kerry King, and is back behind the kit.
On 9-11-15, Slayer released Repentless, its first studio album without Hanneman. For the album’s first music video, the title track, Slayer worked with cameraman/director BJ McDonnell (“Jack Reacher,” “Tomorrowland,” “The Interview”). McDonnell, who directed the video, and producer Felissa Rose texted some of their friends who just happened to be some of most recognizable horror actors working today, including Tyler Mane, Danny Trejo and Derek Mears. All big Slayer fans, all showed up to play cameo rolls in the brutal prison-set clip. The video has received more than seven-million views on Slayer’s social sites.
