Slayer’s Farewell Tour Hits BB&T Pavilion Part III: The Almighty Slayer!!! – Camden, NJ 5/24/19

Well…here we are. Part III of our live report on SLAYER’S Farewell Tour. And it’s the final part. Ya know, you don’t realize how impactful these moments can be until you finally sit down to write about them. You all know that Uriel (THE ALCALDE) flew up here from Dallas to catch this show at BB&T Pavilion and that thanks to AMON AMARTH and LAMB OF GOD we were already having an incredible night of metal to remember. But oh man,when the lights went down and SLAYER took the stage I could tell this was gonna be one for the ages.



Opening with title track “Repentless” from the 2015 album of the same name Tom Araya, Gary Holt, Paul Bostaph, and Kerry King were clearly committed to fucking up everyone’s universe. “Evil Has No Boundaries” was next followed by “World Painted Blood.” You kidding me with this setlist already? I thought my fucking head was gonna explode from it all! We’re barely into this concert and SLAYER is taking no prisoners and looking to slaughter everything in sight! “Postmortem” from 1986’s Reign In Blood had a nasty bite as well.



I really love the World Painted Blood album, so to get “Hate Worldwide” live was pretty damn special. Mega-anthem “War Ensemble” from 1990’s Seasons In the Abyss followed suit and HOLY FUCKING SHIT ON ICE is this one of their best tracks ever? I think soooo!! I was screaming along with the chorus, and Uriel was going nuts! “Chemical Warfare” was on fire, and this is without a doubt the best I’ve heard them do it. “Payback” from God Hates Us All put another crater in the ground, then the buzz saw riffage of “Temptation” fired the next salvo.



This would be the first of three in a row from the Seasons album, with “Born of Fire” and the title track right behind it. Now, you wanna get down and dirty? Then look no further than “Hell Awaits” live, ya hear me? When the opening notes of “South of Heaven” rang out into the night everyone, us included screamed bloody murder, and the band responded by laying down one of their best renditions ever. I don’t care how old Tom Araya is, when he screams, “On and on, South of Heaven!” it sounds just as good as it did in 1988.



“Raining Blood” is a goddamn Thrash Metal anthem and when I tell you it tore through the night sky you best believe it did. But the best part was the seamless transition right into “Black Magic” before we knew what the fuck was even happening! Didn’t matter, the band didn’t miss a beat. The strains of “Dead Skin Mask” permeated the night and the crowd went wild. Closing this monumental and career-spanning set was the one and only “Angel of Death,” a track that was many of our introductions to the band. Jeezus Christ, did the boys knock it out of the park!!



That was it. The show was over. After the band took a selfie with all the other groups and crew members something really special happened. Tom Araya stayed on that stage by himself, just looking over the crowd and drinking it all in. You could tell this was affecting him, as this was the next to last night of this final U.S. tour. He walked back and forth across the stage for about ten minutes, then leaned into the one live mic and said, “Gonna miss you guys. Thanks so much. Goodnight.” It was an amazing moment, and I had chills.



Hey Tom, and hey SLAYER. We are going to miss you every bit as much as you are going to miss us. My first time seeing you was Clash of the Titans in 1991 and A&GS was there in Dallas for both the 2013 and 2014 tours. Thank you for over 30 years of intense metal music, and thank you for the many memories you have given to all of us, young and old. May you guys find happiness in your next chapter, and we the fans will raise a glass to you today, 6/6, the International Day of Slayer. I can think of no better day for this to go live, can you?



WE LOVE YOU, SLAYER!!

LIVE IMAGES: ROCKVIEW LIVE

LIVE WORDS: THE MAESTRO