Slayer — Wacken Open Air, 2014

Live capture of Slayer at Wacken Open Air on 1 August 2014, in front of the packed crowd of the world’s largest metal festival in Wacken, Germany. This filmed live concert documents a pivotal moment for the Californian thrash band: a year after the death of founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman, Gary Holt (Exodus) handles second guitar alongside Kerry King, while Paul Bostaph is back on drums behind singer-bassist Tom Araya. The full concert unloads an arsenal of classics — “Hell Awaits”, “The Antichrist”, “Mandatory Suicide”, “Postmortem”, “War Ensemble” and “Raining Blood” — played with the surgical precision and speed that built Slayer’s live reputation. This 2014 performance later served as the basis for the bonus live disc packaged with the album Repentless. For anyone discovering Slayer in concert, this Wacken document is a faithful snapshot of the live energy of one of thrash metal’s four pillars, captured outdoors before tens of thousands of fans.