Slayer This is an American music band, founded in 1981 on the initiative of the guitarist Kerry King. The group is considered one of the most important bands of trash metal – it is included in the so -called big four, alongside Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth. Musicians have already developed the original style, based primarily on intense guitar riffs with solo parts performed using tremol and the characteristic frontman vocal.
In 2019, they announced the suspension of the band’s activities, but five years later information about Slayer’s return to the stage appeared. In 2024 they played several return concerts, and in September 2025 they have already planned a guest performance at Louder than Life in the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville.
What did Slayer’s first concerts look like? The trash metal band started with great confidence
What were the beginnings of Slayer’s stage activity? It turns out that the musicians have long been sure that they play well, which allowed them to show the potential during the first concerts. “We knew that we were good and it was felt when we were on stage,” he emphasizes Dave Lombardoteam drummer.
One of the oldest filmed performances of Slayer took place in March 1983., despite technical problems, it made a huge impression on fans of heavy sounds who demanded a fiery concert. The formation already attached great importance not only to quality music, but also to its stage image and atmospheric scenery.
Drummer Slayer recalls the band’s unique concerts from the beginning of his career
Lombardo recently gave an interview for “Metal Hammer”, in which he returned with memories to Slayer’s initial concerts. He mentioned that from the very beginning the band was one of the most wild, most brutal and most famous in trash metal.
“We had our own decorations, smoke machines, we built our own pyrotechnics. We combined with copper wire nails, and then connected to explode and light dust, which we kept in steel pipes. Thank God that there were no health and safety standards at the time, there was a lot of smoke and chaos on our early concerts! ” Lombardo mentioned.
One of Slayer’s concerts was really crazy! The musician remembers him to this day
When asked about what the craziest thing he did with Slayer’s other musicians was, he told the history of the concert in San Francisco. The drummer does not hide that this performance belonged to the most dangerous he has ever participated in.
“One of the crazy things took place when we went to San Francisco, thrash of a metal epicenter. The excitement was huge, we played with Exodusand at their concert people climbed the speakers and jumped in them. I remember two guests, one called Andy ‘Airman’ Anderson, the name of the other escaped, they literally walked others on their heads during the concerts. They ran out of the stage and checked how far they would be able to reach before they fell into the crowd. I’ve never seen anything similar. Once the kid tried to jump from the balcony on stage, but he sank with her legs. Only his torso protruded outside and tried to get out, “said drummer Slayer.