During the Las Vegas Raiders' home game against the Kansas City Chiefs in the final week of the NFL regular season, the team's house band performed an orchestral cover of Slayer's 1988 track South Of Heaven.
The game on January 7 at Allegiant Stadium served as the season finale and saw the Raiders lose out to the Kansas City Chiefs 31-13 in front of 62,136 attendees.
Although the rendition of the metal anthem was brief, it saw the band - who as Loudwire reports, play in support of NFL's most metal-looking team - perform the haunting track in a sombre key, in keeping with the Raider's unsuccessful season.
The 19-piece house band is led by composer, conductor and trumpeter David Perrico, alongside a six-piece string section, four singers, five horns and a four-piece rhythm ensemble.
During the 2021 season, the band - who clearly have an affinity for heavier music - performed Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine and Sammy Hagar's There's Only One Way to Rock.
Check out the performance of South Of Heaven below:
Recently, Slayer's Kerry King expressed "anger" over the band's split in 2019, which he felt was "premature".
In an exclusive interview in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, the guitarist elaborated on his reaction to the thrash metal band's disbandment, explaining: “Anger… what else? It was premature. The reason I say ‘premature’ is because my heroes from my childhood are still playing! I can still play, I still want to play, but that livelihood got taken away from me.
“But, anyway, on to the next chapter, I guess. We were on top of the world, and there’s nothing wrong with going out on top of the world, it’s a good way to go out. So, bravo for that. But do I miss playing? Yeah, absolutely.”
Speaking of Slayer's final show on November 30, 2019, in Los Angeles, four years after the release of their final album, Repentless, he continues: “Every one of those shows was a bummer! We were going to all these places and all these cities where we have all this history.
"It’s a bummer to think, ‘I’m not gonna see my friends there again.’ You’d get to that country and know you were going to see these people, and you’d see them yearly. I haven’t seen them now in three years. That sucks. And the fans, too. Slayer means a lot to our fans, and they mean a lot to us. I know I will see these people again, but no Slayer leaves a big hole for a lot of people.”
Read the full interview with Kerry King only in the new issue of Metal Hammer. Order it online now and get it delivered straight to your door.
