Slayer in Omaha: November 18, 2019

When it was announced that Slayer would be doing their final tour this year and one of those dates happened to be in Omaha, it was a no-brainer that I had to go.  Slayer was one of the early extreme metal bands that started pulling me away from the mainstream nu-metal in the late 1990's and into true heavy metal.  I picked up Seasons in the Abyss late in high school, based mostly on the title track.  Ever since, I have been a big Slayer fan.  Slayer was accompanied by three other bands.

PHILIP H. ANSELMO AND THE ILLEGALS

Pantera's former lead singer sounds rejuvenated these days.  I was never quite sure about checking out his new band, but sort of enjoyed their tracks on the split I have with Warbeast.  For some reason I never got around to checking out anything else.  I was shocked though when they played at the concert.  All of their songs were Pantera classics, including some of their heavier tracks like "Fucking Hostile", "Mouth for War" and "Becoming".  I guess with neither Dimebag nor Vinnie Paul around any more, someone has to play the Pantera songs.  They were damn impressive.

MINISTRY

Seeing Ministry live is like being run over by a bulldozer.  The band is absolutely crushingly heavy with inhumanly precise riffs and drumming.  Coupled with the frequent usage of samples, they put up a massive wall of sound.  Of course they played a lot of their own classic songs.  "Just One Fix" is still my personal favorite, but they also played "Jesus Built My Hotrod" and "N.W.O.".  They were probably the loudest band of the night, which is not surprising.

PRIMUS

I have never really been a big Primus fan.  There are things I like about them, such as their oddball sense of humor and, of course, Les Claypool's absolutely incredible bass-playing.  But many of their songs are just kind of boring.  The first half of their set was filled with songs that seemed more conducive to a jam band than to a hard rock group.  The second half though featured a number of their better songs.  Songs like "Mr. Krinkle", "My Name is Mud" and "Jerry was a Racecar Driver" are the songs that I have always enjoyed by the band.  My wife showed up late to the concert after getting a flat tire on her way and showed up halfway through Primus's set.  She was surprisingly very impressed by the band.

SLAYER

Slayer's set ran the gamut from their entire discography, pulling songs from almost every single one of their albums.  Not usually one for much talk between songs, they basically bulldozed through their entire set without stopping for more than a few seconds at a time.  Almost all of the classics were played, including "Show No Mercy", "South of Heaven", "War Ensemble" and "Seasons in the Abyss".  They closed things out with the trifecta of "Raining Blood", "Dead Skin Mask" and "Angel of Death".  They sounded terrific.  Tom Araya's voice was up to par, somewhat surprisingly, since he did not sound that well the last time I saw Slayer.  Their set was pretty good, and I did enjoy it more than the last time I saw them.  That time they were touring in support of Repentless, a somewhat subpar Slayer album.  This time, it was all about the band's legacy and that legacy held up well.  Time will tell if this is really the end of Slayer, but if it is, it has been one wild ride.