Express & Star

Metal band Slayer to perform first headline shows in UK in six years

The shows at Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields on July 3 and London’s Finsbury Park on July 6 will mark their only European headline gigs this year.

By contributor Naomi Clarke, PA Senior Entertainment Reporter
Published
Slayer at the Download Festival in 2005
Slayer (Gene Weatherley/PA)

American thrash metal band Slayer have announced their first UK shows in six years, with headline performances lined up for London and Cardiff this summer.

The shows at Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields on July 3 and London’s Finsbury Park on July 6 will mark their only European headline gigs this year.

The group are set to perform a career-spanning set and will be joined by five special guests, including American thrash metal band Anthrax, Swedish death metal band Amon Amarth and American heavy metal band Mastodon.

Hardcore metal band Hatebreed and Danish death metal band Neckbreakker are all on the bill for the shows, which will be the biggest Slayer have ever performed in the UK.

Slayer are celebrating more than 40 years together after forming in the 1980s in California.

In 1983, they released their debut studio album Show No Mercy and went on to release a string of albums, their latest being 2015’s Repentless which went to number 11 in the UK charts.

Their hit songs include Raining Blood, Delusions Of Saviour and Angel Of Death.

Slayer are also in the line-up to perform at the sold-out Back To The Beginning show in July, which will celebrate the legacy of heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath as the original members all reunite for one final time.

Tickets for the Slayer shows at Blackweir Fields and Finsbury Park will go on sale at 10am on Friday March 7.