Slayer’s First Show Back Will Be at Riot Fest, Reunion Lineup Revealed

Just moments ago, we reported on the fact that Slayer was headlining one of the nights at Louder Than Life this year. While that’s huge news in itself, it’s not the whole story it turns out, as their actual first show back will be Riot Fest 2024 on September 22 in Chicago.

That will be the band’s literal first show back since they took their final bows at The Forum in 2019. This is despite the fact that it wasn’t very long ago that guitarist Kerry King said in an interview that a Slayer reunion was unlikely. Turns out that was a lie, since he’s going to be playing as part of the reunion.

In fact, if you saw Slayer on their farewell tour then the lineup will be familiar. That’s because Tom Araya will handle bass and vocals, King and Gary Holt will be holding down guitars, and Paul Bostaph will be on drums.

Araya, who apparently hadn’t spoken to King since the end of Slayer’s farewell tour, said he was stoked to get back on stage fronting the band.

“Nothing compares to the 90 minutes when we’re on stage playing live, sharing that intense energy with our fans and to be honest, we have missed that.”

As for King, he had a more to the point statement about the reunion.

“Have I missed playing live? Absolutely. Slayer means a lot to our fans; they mean a lot to us. It will be five years since we have seen them.”

It’s interesting that half of the band is in King’s solo band, which was described as an extension of Slayer, only to be back in the reunion as well. At least we won’t get a Skid Row situation where one guy’s claiming the band is his band while the other dude is doing the same.

Tickets for both shows are on sale now, so if you want to catch this show, you better act quick.