Slayer Farewell Tour in Hershey, PA with Primus, Ministry and Phil Anselmo

The Slayer Farewell Tour is now in its final home stretch with their last stop quickly approaching on November 30 in Los Angeles. Slayer, with a star-studded cast of characters (PRIMUS, MINISTRY and PHIL ANSELMO), stopped on November 6 to delight an enthusiastic audience in Hershey, PA with one of their most dynamic shows to date. This being Slayer’s final tour, the show did not disappoint. We felt that it was a phenomenal send off for one of the greatest and long reigning metal bands of all time.

The opening band started with one of the best guys in the business, the infamous Philip H. Anselmo, who has been the front-man for some of the most widely known names in metal such as Down, Superjoint Ritual and of course, the legendary Pantera.

Phil Anselmo‘s set was more or less a complete tribute to Pantera. The full set list consisted of Mouth for War, Becoming, Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit, Strength Beyond Strength, I’m Broken, Goddamn Electric, Fucking Hostile and Walk. Packed with hard-hitting breakdowns and some face-melting shredding, it would suffice to say that this performance was the next best thing to actually seeing Pantera themselves. At stage front was a circle of continuous moshing, a truly necessary response to the songs that were being performed. Needless to say, this was an epic opener and they received a great response from the crowd.

The next band to grace the stage was one of the pioneers of industrial metal, Ministry. As always, frontman Al Jorgensen displayed remarkable stage presence, as did his fellow band members. Ministry had yet another fantastic line up of songs for us. They played The Missing, Deity, Stigmata, Jesus Built my Hotrod, Just one Fix, N.W.O, Burning Inside and Thieves. Ministry slammed the stage with brutal vocals and head banging riffs. It is always a great pleasure to see this band live, and this was definitely not an exception. 

The next band to appear on stage was the psychedelic heavy rock band that we all know and love, Primus. They had a wonderful set list featuring many of their older and most beloved songs. Primus played Those Damed Blue-Collar Tweekers, Too Many Puppies, Sgt. Baker, The Seven, Frizzle Fry, Professor Nutbutter’s House of Treats, Here Come the Bastards, Cygnus X-1, Welcome to this World, My Name is Mud and Jerry was a Race Car Driver. The legendary and brilliant band consisting of Les Claypool (bass and vocals), Larry LaLonde (guitar) and Tim Alexander (drums), are what can best be described as the ultimate trio. Their performance was a pleasurable tease for the senses, leaving us all wanting more! In our humble opinion (IMHO), PRIMUS is one of the most skilled and unique bands to ever exist.

This, of course, being Slayer’s last and final tour, something big had been expected of the heavy metal band, which is exactly what they delivered. This came in the form of a 20-song set list of epic proportions!

• The full set list consisted of Repentless, Mandatory Suicide, World Painted Blood, Postmortem, Hate Worldwide, War Ensemble, Stain of Mind, Disiple, When Stillness Comes, Born of Fire, Payback, Seasons in the Abyss, Jesus Saves, Chemical Warfare, Hell Awaits, South of Heaven, Show No Mercy, Raining Blood Dead Skin Mask and Angle of Death

The crowd went wild when SLAYER finally took the stage. Kerry King, Tom Araya, Paul Bostaph and Gary Holt showed that they were true professionals at what they do, which in our definition is rocking that stage harder than it has ever been rocked! As always, Tom Araya showed insane stamina on the bass and vocals, with the last song being just as consistent as the first. That man never shows any sign of exhaustion. When Kerry King and Gary Holt share a stage, it is dive bombs galore. They’re two of the best thrash guitarists in the game. Paul Bostaph did excellent work on the drums. Overall, they put on a stellar performance and their hard work and dedication to their fans really showed.