Slayer to Reunite for Festival Headlining Gigs This Fall

Four years after Slayer wrapped up their farewell tour — and two weeks after guitarist Kerry King said a reunion was unlikely — the thrash metal legends will return this fall for a couple of headlining festival gigs.

The quartet — bassist/singer Tom Araya, guitarists Kerry King and Gary Holt, and drummer Paul Bostaph — have so far booked Chicago’s Riot Fest on Sept. 22 and Louisville’s Louder Than Life on Sept. 27, the band’s first gigs since their goodbye tour concluded in November 2019.

More from Rolling Stone

• Festival Fashion: The Best Music Festival Shoes to Wear This Year

• Green Day, SZA, Noah Kahan Lead 2024 Osheaga Festival

• Black Coffee, Bedouin, Set for Inaugural Dance With Me and Ahabaja Music Festival in Baja Mexico

“Nothing compares to the 90 minutes when we’re on stage playing live, sharing that intense energy with our fans, and to be honest, we have missed that,” Araya said in a statement, while King added, “Have I missed playing live? Absolutely. Slayer means a lot to our fans; they mean a lot to us. It will be five years since we have seen them.”

Slayer is the first act announced for the 2024 Riot Fest, with the rest of the lineup TBD. Louder Than Life, however, has revealed its entire 2024 lineup, which includes Judas Priest, Slipknot, the Offspring, Korn, Mötley Crüe, Tom Morello, Anthrax, Mastodon, Sum41, Evanescence, and dozens more.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Slayer will be reuniting for an earth-shattering performance at Louder Than Life,” organizer Danny Wimmer said in a statement. ”I was at their last show at The Forum in 2019 and have been working since then to bring them back to the Louder stage! With over 140 bands on five stages, we’re celebrating our 10th Louder Than Life with the biggest lineup yet!”

News of the Slayer reunion comes just weeks after Kerry King — on the precipice of his own solo album — told Rolling Stone that he didn’t foresee the group coming back together for the foreseeable future.

“Will Slayer tour again? I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen. Could Slayer play a show again? I’m sure there’s a scenario,” King said, adding that he hasn’t spoken to Araya since that final show. “Am I looking for it? No, I’m just getting ready to start my career. So if that happens, it happens. But I’m going to be doing this for the next 10 years at least.”

Best of Rolling Stone

• The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

• All 243 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked

• Carrie Underwood Was a Teenage Metalhead: Her Best Hard Rock Covers