“Slayer has upset people — and they’re still upsetting people!” exclaimed a fan showcased in a lengthy video which ran on screen in Douglass Park prior to a headlining performance by reunited thrash metal icons Slayer Sunday night at Riot Fest. “Slayer is a lifestyle,” explained co-founding guitarist and songwriter Kerry King during that video. “It’s not just a band.”
Alongside full album performances, band reunions have become a calling card by which Riot Fest is frequently judged.
No Chicago festival has grown the way Riot Fest has over the course of nearly 20 years, moving from two nights at Congress Theater (capacity 3,500) in 2005, to Humboldt Park in 2012 and later Douglass Park in the city’s North Lawndale neighborhood, where the still independent festival has hosted nearly 50,000 concertgoers a day since 2015.
Offering a stage to vaunted Chicago punks Naked Raygun in 2006, Riot Fest would continually aim higher, reforming artists like The Replacements in 2012 and Misfits in 2016 while presenting reunited acts like Bikini Kill in 2019 and Sublime this weekend.
This year, thrash metal icons Slayer launched the first in a series of three highly anticipated reunion shows, headlining the Cabaret Metro stage over the course of one hour and 45 minutes Sunday night, returning to Riot Fest following a 2019 split.
“Did you miss us?” joked Slayer frontman Tom Araya on the Riot Fest stage. “You guys ready to have a good time singing and dancing to death and destruction?”
Guitarist Kerry King, a co-founder of Slayer, participates in the band’s reunion Sunday night at Riot Fest.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
No strangers to rain at Riot Fest, Slayer got going Sunday night with “South of Heaven.”
To specify during which performances sparks fell or fire flew would get redundant fast, because pyro is Slayer’s happy place — so suffice it to say there was a lot.
“Seasons in the Abyss” (1990) would prove to be the group’s most revisited body of work Sunday night, with “Blood Red” landing as an early highlight. Longtime drummer Paul Bostaph delivered a pummeling, driving groove throughout, though “Postmortem” still managed to kick things up a notch next.
“I told you, when you least expect it,” Araya said on stage, presumably referencing Slayer’s shocking reunion as he set up “Payback.”
“You know, good things happen to bad people. But I know what karma is,” he continued, with Bostaph’s powerhouse drumming soon giving way to a King guitar assault.
Returning to “Seasons in the Abyss,” Slayer followed with “Temptation,” offering up “Dead Skin Mask” later.
Cruising toward completion, Slayer’s penchant for anti-religion themes was on full display, with imagery of crosses burning visible as the group tore into “Mandatory Suicide,” moving straight into “Raining Blood” before wrapping up with “Angel of Death.”
“Hope you guys had a good time,” King said in the festival’s final moments, flicking picks as the band waved from the foot of the stage.