The first time Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel saw Slayer is burned on his brain like a pentagram. “They were opening for Bitch, which is one of the original bands we ended up signing, in Anaheim,” he says now. “There were a bunch of bands opening for them, none of whom I knew. One of those bands happened to be Slayer, and they were amazing. I could see there was something special about them.”
It was July 1983. Slayer had been in existence for little over 18 months, and they were yet to fully unfurl their black wings. But that gig set off a chain of events that started with a blown-away Brian releasing one of their songs on one of his legendary Metal Massacre compilations, and ended, 36 years later, with Slayer taking their bows at their last ever gig in November 2019, having long ago secured their place among metal’s all-time great bands.
