Slayer Reigns Blood on Ottawa

Ottawa had its flood gates ripped open, torn into pieces, rolled up and smashed down its throat Wednesday night as the kings of thrash metal Slayer came to town.

You think it would be easy to write about your favorite band of all time, especially when you have seen them well over two dozen times and it’s their final world tour.  Thankfully I get to see them once more this summer at Heavy MTL but it’s a festival and not the band’s own tour. But this is it, this is going to be the last hurrah, the last time to ever see them on their own.  After this its nadda, zilch,  no more, no more getting pumped for days in advance knowing they’re coming, no more walking through the venue and parking lot hearing someone yell SLAYER! No more hearing the entire stadium chanting SLAYER! SLAYER! SLAYER!   No More hearing Tom Araya scream WAR ENSEMBLE!!!  No More Kerry King and his evil demonic ear-splitting guitar solos. No more Paul Bostaph killing it on the drums. No more Gary Holt, who has filled in quite nicely for the late Jeff Hanneman ( R.I.P.).  And let’s not forget Dave Lombardo. His contribution to the band should not go unnoticed. But as I said after this, there’s no more Slayer.

 

My final Slayer show started the night before, I was in Montreal for another gig and got home around 1:30 in the morning. It felt like I had just gone to sleep when the alarm went off at 5:30am and off I headed to work. No rest for the wicked right? Thankfully the job site wasn’t far from where the venue. So the plan was to get off work, head straight there and have a solid hour nap in the truck before Cannibal Corpse hit the stage. The plan sorta worked. The parking lot was pretty empty when I arrived, I parked closest to the exit and got settled in for the nap. About a half hour later some dudes from Trois Riviere parked beside me and started cranking Repentless. I got up gave them the metal horns of approval to which they responded with the same and off I went into the venue for some Corpse. The boys from Tampa hit the stage right on time and started blazing a trail of some serious death metal, a perfect way to get the ball rolling.

Next up was Sweden’s Amon Amarth. Everything about these guys is just awesome. The front of the stage is a Viking boat ,which frontman Johan Hegg rides and looks as if he is about crash onto a beach ready to pillage and plunder.  Their most hardcore fans even sit down together in the middle of the mosh pit and pretend to be rowing a boat.  Definitely going to have to see these guys on their own. At this point the venue was starting to fill up and the decibels continued to rise.

As if my brain wasn’t already smashed in from two wicked bands, hitting the stage next was Lamb of God. If I were to say anything about these guys it would be that they are heavy as F*%K! , and their fans don’t mess around. Heads were banging, hair was being whipped around, metal horns were held high in the air. Within no time, a giant circle pit had formed and outright chaos had ensued. The venue’s security guards were literally shitting their pants. Right before the band’s last song, frontman Randy Blythe thanked everyone for coming out to their only Canadian date on the tour and then proceeded to get the audience pumped for Slayer.

Finally the time had come for the main reason we were all there. The building was now completely packed, the stage was set, chants of Slayer were going on. Silhouettes of the band’s logo were flashing through the curtain. The intensity level was through the roof. The curtain dropped and they busted into the same song I heard in the parking lot , Repentless. Flames were shooting all over the stage, strobe lights were going off with fierce intensity. King looked as badass as always. Araya walked up to the mic and belted out the words just as you would hear them on the album.  Holt was blazing a mad trail of destruction and Bostaph was pummeling the drums.

King and Araya have been at this for over 40 years, and in no way have they ever slowed down. They were killing it just as they had the first time I saw them over 20 years ago. If you ask me, I’d say they could keep it up for another twenty. The rest of the set was one nonstop hit after the other. After opening with Repentless, they broke right into Evil has no Boundaries off  ‘Show no Mercy’ followed by Word Painted Blood. A quick pause and then right into Postmortem.  As you would expect the crowd was screaming the words right along with the band.  Araya thanked everyone for coming out then asked the audience at the count of three to scream WAR!!  To which everyone did as asked and War Ensemble was unleashed.

Gemini, Disciple, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warfare, Payback, Temptation, Born of Fire, Seasons in the Abyss, Hell Awaits, South of Heaven, Raining Blood, Black Magic, Dead Skin Mask and finally Angel of Death.  One after another after another after another.  It was one of the most badass sets I have ever seen the band perform. When it was all over I walked out of the venue full of adrenaline and stoked beyond belief.  And for one of the last times ever, I heard people walking through the parking lot yelling SLAYER!!!!