40 years later Slayer proves why ‘Reign in Blood’ is still a metal classic

As rain fell from the dark clouds over Inglewood on the final Friday the 13th of the year, it rained blood inside the Kia Forum.

Slayer took over the venue for a homecoming on Nov. 13 for the first night of two sold-out, back-to-back shows celebrating the 40th anniversary of the monumental thrash metal album “Reign in Blood.”

Lights around the rim of the Kia Forum spelled out the band’s name in their iconic font as fans screamed “SLAYER” in the parking lot and in lines to get into the venue.

After openers Cannibal Corpse, Calavera Conspiracy and Crowbar warmed up the crowd, Slayer hit the stage running at 9 p.m. in full extreme-metal fashion, with an impressive stage production that drew the audience deep into the belly of the beast.

The band, which rose to prominence from Southern California’s Huntington Park, featured their massive, infamous inverted crucifixes built from Marshall amplifier stacks, combined with high-intensity pyrotechnics and flames that lit up throughout their set.

Slayer’s album covers and production have consistently blended occult symbolism, pentagrams, and provocative anti-establishment and dark religious iconography, and Friday’s show was no different. The animations on the screen primarily featured the Baphomet (half man, half goat) in an underworld or a decimated, war-torn civilization.

While the night honored the 40th anniversary of the group’s third album, fans got a bit of misdirection when the band kicked off the set with the slower but heavy “South of Heaven.” Instead of diving straight into “Reign in Blood,” the band opted to shred through some of their greatest hits, including “Disciple,” “Dead Skin Mask,” “Seasons in the Abyss,” and the thrash metal throwback “Hell Awaits.”

As Slayer neared the middle of their set, they delivered what thousands of fans came to experience. The thrash metal band performed “Reign in Blood” in chronological order, starting with the album’s opener, “Angel of Death.” Frontman and bassist Tom Araya let out one of metal’s most recognizable and primal screams, while guitarists Kerry King and Gary Holt lit up their fretboards with spidery solos, backed by Paul Bostaph’s thunderous drumming.

One of the beauties of “Regin in Blood” and all of its glory is that it feels like its velocity increases with each song that follows. The second song, “Piece by Piece,” features galloping guitar riffs and vicious drums that challenge headbangers to keep up. Watching it performed live, though, fans seemed to have no problem following along, with long hair seen bouncing and swirling from the pit to the highest seats in the arena.

Metal fans familiar with the release know not to go too hard, because the album’s most blistering track, “Necrophobic,” comes next at a whopping 248 beats per minute. Attendees weren’t too intimidated by the speed. Yet, some still tried to bang their heads in sync, while others on the floor were inspired to pick up the pace and stir up the mosh pit.

The rest of the set followed with “Altar of Sacrifice,” “Jesus Saves,” “Criminally Insane,” “Reborn,” “Epidemic,” and, of course, “Postmortem.” Each of these songs holds a special place on the album, but one of the band’s most widely known tracks is the bookend and final song, “Raining Blood.”

As soon as Slayer began performing it at full speed, red fireworks began to fall from the sky, and the band’s logo on the monitor began to animate, making it look as if it were covered in red blood. To add to the spectacle, fire blasted throughout the stage and surrounded the group, creating a hellish ambiance.

Slayer initially announced that they were calling it quits in 2018 and would do one final world tour to thank fans for their support over the years. But in 2024, Slayer announced they would take the stage again for select shows and have since performed only occasionally; if there was ever going to be a special occasion, 40 years of “Reign in Blood” was it.

The album came out in 1986, a year when the “Big Four” of thrash metal all released genre- and career-defining records. “Reign in Blood” was in the company of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” Megadeth’s “Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?” and Anthrax’s “Among the Living.” It was the year that would define thrash’s place in the metal family tree and helped shift the metalheads away from hair metal.

Funny enough, the album, the heaviest of the Big Four’s records, was released on Rick Rubin’s rap label, Def Jam Recordings. Rubin grew up listening to punk rock before falling in love with the counterculture of hip-hop and rap, but when his friend took him to see Slayer play at the New York club The Ritz, he knew he had to sign them. He ultimately poached the band from Metal Blade, their original label, making them Def Jam’s first non-hip-hop signing, and the band took a chance on an outsider with a vision.

Most of “Reign in Blood” was written and demoed before the band met Rubin, and after recording the music, they moved through rehearsals quickly, which affected the final sound. By the end, Slayer had knocked the 10-track album down to just under 30 minutes, making it shorter than its thrash metal counterparts that year and putting them in a heaviness league of their own. Although the album received no radio airplay, metal fans revered it, and it became Slayer’s first release to enter the Billboard 200, and peaked at number 94 in its sixth week.

Each member may be over 60 years old, but Slayer proves that they can still thrash as hard as they did 40 years ago in the prime of “Reign in Blood,” delivering a set with no ballads, breathers, or reprieve. That level of delivery and consistency may not be something most metal bands can sustain long-term, but they aren’t, and will never be, Slayer.