Speaking to the Los Angeles Times over the summer, Slayer co-founder and guitarist Kerry King conceded that his band’s 2019 retirement was indeed premature. “I wasn’t ready to hang it up,” he stated, while adding that Slayer had exited on a high note. “We won the Super Bowl and we left. That’s pretty cool.” Fast forward five years and Slayer’s retirement proved to be only a hiatus. After their highly-anticipated reunion at Chicago’s Riot Fest last month, tonight they headline the first night of the Aftershock Festival, in Sacramento, California. It would have been their third and final show — for the foreseeable future — but the aftereffects of Hurricane Helene forced them to cancel their headlining slot at Kentucky’s Louder Than Life Festival. But tonight there’s no stopping this juggernaut. The weather is perfect, and it feels like every living soul at Aftershock has converged on the festival’s main stage to witness history. From the sprawling grass pitch in front of the Jack Daniels stage, to the grassy knolls stretching out to the festival gates, the sheer volume of bodies is staggering.
A montage of archival footage plays on the colossal screens flanking the Aftershock stage, until finally the iconic array of white crosses slowly inverts and then Slayer’s infamous logo blazes into view. The raging horde of over 30,000 erupts into raw, unfiltered chaos. It’s as if no time has passed since their 2019 farewell. But tonight is different. This isn’t just a return; it’s a resurrection.
