Slayer have announced their only headlining North American show of the year.
The thrash metal aggressors will play at the 16,000-capacity Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on September 20. Support will come from Grammy-nominated hardcore firebrands Knocked Loose, plus a host of thrash favourites: Suicidal Tendencies, Power Trip, the Cavalera brothers (playing 1993 Sepultura album Chaos A.D.) and Exodus (playing debut album Bonded By Blood).
Tickets go on general sale on Friday (April 11) at 10am Eastern Time, although pre-sales start from Tuesday (April 8) at 10am Eastern Time.
As well as the performing bands, Slayer’s Hersheypark show will feature WWE wrestler Damian Priest, who’s emceeing the event. Priest is a known metalhead who uses a finishing move called the “South Of Heaven”, named after Slayer’s 1988 album. Slayer guitarist Kerry King plays guitar on the wrestler’s entrance theme.
Of the upcoming gig, King comments: “Last year, Slayer played only two shows, and those shows affected me like playing The Big Four shows [with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax in 2010 and 2011] did.
“When we played our first show last year in Chicago, I figured it was going to be great for the fans, maybe there would be some people who had never seen us play before, but the reaction was just completely overwhelming. The fans reacted to us like I’d expect them to react to the biggest band on the planet. It was amazing.
“So, for the Hershey concert, we’ll play a Slayer show, we’ll have all of our big fire effects, and just burn everything like we used to.”
Slayer returned from a five-year retirement in February 2024 and announced a string of US festival shows for later in the year. Although King said afterwards that fans shouldn’t expect the band’s concerts to become a “yearly event”, they’ve already announced a number of dates for 2025. They include the first Slayer headline concerts since 2019, taking place at Blackweir Fields in Cardiff on July 3 and Finsbury Park in London on July 6. Support will come from Mastodon, Anthrax, Hatebreed and death metal newcomers Neckbreakker.
In between the Cardiff and London shows, Slayer will perform at Black Sabbath’s farewell show, Back To The Beginning, at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5. Also on the bill will be Metallica, Mastodon, Alice In Chains and many more, plus a “supergroup” composed of Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit), Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins), Papa V Perpetua (Ghost) and others.
Rounding out Slayer’s live schedule for the year so far is a headline spot at FEQ festival in Quebec on July 11 and a set at Louder Than Life in Kentucky on September 18. The band were set to play the US festival last year but had their day cancelled due to adverse weather.
