Slayer Talks About Upcoming Tour with Marilyn Manson

Band Photo: Slayer (?)

This summer, Slayer and Marilyn Manson will co-headline a 25-city North American tour, which will feature both acts with elaborate stage set-ups playing full sets. "Usually we just come out and play, but this time around we're really going to give the fans a show," explains Slayer's bassist/vocalist, Tom Araya. "Our set is going to span our entire career, but we're definitely going to squeeze in some new songs that we haven't performed live yet."

Fresh off winning their first-ever Grammy for their tenth full-length studio album, "Christ Illusion, Slayer couldn't have more momentum going into the tour. "The other guys will tell you it didn't mean anything to them, but it did to me," Araya explains about the band's award for Best Metal Performance for the track "Eyes Of The Insane.." "We're fans of the music we create and if we don't like it, we know the kids aren't going to like it either," Araya continues when asked what has kept Slayer relevant while so many of their peers have disbanded, or worse yet, become parodies of themselves.

"I think people like what they know," adds guitarist Kerry King. "The perfect comparison for Slayer's role in metal is what AC/DC did with rock; they made the same record for 30 years, but just changed the flavor." While musical trends have come and gone, for the past 26 years Slayer have continued to stay true to their thrash roots and loudly defied the music industry's standards.

When bands like Green Day and the Offspring suddenly became ubiquitous in the late-'90s the band released Undisputed Attitude, a collection of hardcore punk covers from acts like Minor Threat and Black Flag-and now that inoffensive pop music rules the charts, in typical Slayer-fashion the band countered with Christ Illusion, a blistering critique of the current administration set to the tune of impossibly heavy riffs, frantic drums and guitar solos that pummel the listener in carefully constructed blasts of noise. In other words, it's just business as usual for Slayer.

"I remember when I was a kid and one of the biggest metal bands at the time came out with a new album - I remember this because I was genuinely offended that they would put that album out," King explains when asked what he thinks has kept Slayer not only relevant but revelatory for the past twenty years. "That band got sidetracked by commercial music and tried to cash in on it," he continues. "Look at me, even now I'm still marred by it," he adds with a laugh. "I don't want to do that to our fans ever."

Tour dates for the Slayer/Marilyn Manson co-headline tour are as follows:

July 25 Sound Advice Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, FL
July 27 Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa, FL
July 28 Hi Fi Buys Amphitheatre, Atlanta, GA
July 30 Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD
July 31 TWCA Tower City, Cleveland, OH
August 2 Tweeter Center, Philadelphia, PA
August 4 DCU Center, Worcester, MA
August 5 PNC, Holmdel, NJ
August 7 Centre de Foire, Quebec, QC CANADA
August 8 Bell Centre, Montreal, QC CANADA
August 10 Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON CANADA
August 11 DTE Music Theatre, Detroit, MI
August 13 Allstate, Chicago, IL
August 14 Xcel, Minneapolis, MN
August 16 TBA
August 18 Coors Amphitheatre, Denver, CO
August 21 Sleep Train Amphitheatre, Sacramento, CA
August 23 Sleep Train Pavilion, Concord, CA
August 24 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre @ Irvine, Los Angeles, CA
August 25 San Diego Sports Arena, San Diego, CA
August 27 Cricket Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ
August 28 Journal Pavilion, Albuquerque, NM
August 30 Nokia Theatre, Dallas, TX
August 31 Reliant Arena
September 1 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, San Antonio, TX