I first saw Slayer in the late eighties and they hold the dubious honour of being the first band that I ever saw live. It was at the very same venue as tonight and a long forgotten thrash metal / hardcore band by the name of Nuclear Assault were supporting that night. Their performance was ferocious and the crowd that had gathered were equally intimidating. Talking to like minded souls tonight is like old war veterans showing their battle scars. Gigs are remembered, memories of long hair are offered and much lager is consumed. Their clash with the new generation in the form of Slipknot is eagerly anticipated and the divide in the crowd is not as clear cut as you’d expect, there are many teenagers with Slayer t shirts and many Slipknot shirts stretched over expanding waist lines.
Slayer take to the stage first at just after 8pm and immediately we are reassured that nothing much has changed. Whilst Metallica continue to question their identity and place in the modern metal world (culminating in what promises to be their hilarious ‘rockumentry’ ‘Some Kind of Monster), Slayer have no such problems. They remain a brutal, vicious, uncompromising proposition that refuse to be intellectualised. Their main pre-occupations continue to be death, war, Satanism and dodgy flirtations with right wing imagery. The draped flags at the back of the stage suggest a continued use of fascistic imagery (seeming as their fan club has always been called Slaytanic Wermacht this shouldn’t be a major surprise) but if you’re offended you’re only falling into their trap. Like many bands before and since they revel in making the powers that be and the right on uncomfortable and it is a line that can be traced from the Sex Pistols through to Marilyn Manson. To a teenagers mind if it get’s up the nose of your parents then mission accomplished and I for one used to love the reaction wearing their t-shirts used to get with their upside down crosses, pentangles and ‘Reign in Pain’ slogans.
15 or so years on I still love Slayer. Tom Araya still has the voice of a demon and he still looks mean as fuck with his long hair and burly physique. Kerry King may be a lot balder and (ahem) bulkier but the tattoos that cover his arms and raise up onto his bare skull are damn cool and his guitar playing is still as fast and furious as ever. Jeff Hanneman on the left remains a blur of blonde hair and fast fingers as he peels off another devastating solo. At the back is the one, the only Dave Lombardo, a human drumming machine of devastating power. His double bass drum work is untouchable and tonight he once again proves that he is the best thrash metal drummer ever.
Whilst I have not indulged in their recent albums the unfamiliar songs they play are much in the same vein as previous work and stand up well against more familiar moments. But tonight for many of us it’s about the two albums ‘Reign in Blood’ and ‘South of Heaven’, their two greatest moments. Accordingly ‘Mandatory Suicide’ get’s a huge cheer as does ‘South of Heaven’. The latter in particular is as menacing as anything they’ve done with it’s instantly recognisable opening guitar line and slightly slower pace. It remains heavy as hell. When they close the set with ‘Angel of Death’ (a pleasant ditty about Auschwitz) and Tom Araya produces that blood curdling scream at the start I decide yet again that ‘Angel of Death’ is the greatest thrash metal song ever. It’s not over yet either, they come back for an encore and pull ‘Postmortem’ off of ‘Reign in Blood’ out of the bag, faster and heavier than on record it’s devastating live. As the rain sound effects start and Dave Lombardo beats out a creepy tattoo on his drums it can only be time for ‘Raining Blood’. ‘Raining Blood / from a lacerated sky’, the whole crowd are attempting to destroy their vocal chords as Slayer attempt to rip our faces off. Bizarrely one of the greatest communal moments you can experience at a gig.
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To be fair to Slipknot I believe I’m simply too old. Whilst Slayer remain genuinely nasty, evil and brutal, Slipknot veer too close to pantomime to genuinely thrill. Having said that they are quite a spectacle live. As the backing tape reels off ‘Prelude 3.0’ from their latest offering ‘Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses’ the kids at the front go suitably ape. Their entrance is a cue for mayhem and the energy onstage is off the scale. Dick Nose, Spike Head, Hockey Mask bloke (or whatever ridiculous names they go under) and the others career round the stage, jump off the set’s of drums at either side of the stage and generally throw personal safety out of the window to amusing effect. The ballads and slower numbers form the afore mentioned last album are conspicuous by their absence perhaps suggesting a band struggling to find their true identity. ‘The Heretic Anthem’ and a bulldozing ‘Duality’ are the highlights of a brutal set but their performance lacks the power of Slayer and it will be interesting to see how much longer they continue in this form. I find it hard to imagine Slipknot playing Hammersmith in fifteen years time.
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