“I’m feeling great and anxious to get back on the road.”
— Slayer’s post-op Tom Araya
“If you missed us playing with our friends Slayer back n the 90s, well, here’s your chance to make it up to yourself. If you miss it this time, well then you ain’t metal anyway!”
— Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine
“We’ve been sitting home for six months…I can’t remember the last time I wanted to tour so bad.”
— Slayer’s Kerry King
Megadeth and Slayer, who last toured the U.S. together 19 years ago on the “Clash of the Titans” extravaganza, have confirmed that they will each perform, start to finish, their 1990 releases – Slayer’s world-wide, million-selling Seasons In The Abyss and Megadeth’s Platinum Rust In Peace – on the upcoming American Carnage Tours. Anthrax will open the show.
American Carnage, featuring Slayer and Megadeth along with Anthrax, pulls into Miami’s Bayfront Park Amphitheatre on Sunday, October 3rd. Tickets are $49.50 for Reserved Seats and $35.50 for the Festival Lawn. They go on sale Friday, July 23rd at 10AM through www.livenation.com and charge-by-phone: (800)745-3000. They are available at the Amphitheater Box Office day of show only.
All dates, acts and ticket prices are subject to change without notice. All tickets are subject to applicable taxes, parking and service and handling charges.
Nineteen hundred and ninety was one stellar year for fans of intense heavy metal, as both Rust In Peace and Seasons in the Abyss are considered to be among the genre’s all-time classics. “War Ensemble,” “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due,” “Dead Skin Mask,” “Hanger 18,” “Seasons In The Abyss” – the preeminent list of metal standards that these two albums spawned has rarely been matched by others. Slayer – guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, and drummer Dave Lombardo – scored a major breakthrough upon the original release of Seasons In The Abyss (Slayer’s fifth studio album overall), as it was the group’ first album to hit the U.S. Top 40, and saw Slayer playing to the biggest crowds of their career sit 91’s “Clash of the Titans” tour.
Megadeth’s fourth album, Rust In Peace, saw the band cement their status as one of the most important metal bands with masterpieces like “Hanger 18” and “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due,” as well as a top 25 debut on the Billboard charts. The album has been hailed as one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time with IGN recently naming it one of the most influential metal albums ever. Megadeth is now rejoined by original bassist Dave Ellefson and are firing on all cylinders.
The American Carnage Tour, originally scheduled to take place in January and February, had to be postponed due to Slayer vocalist/bassist Tom Araya’s treatment for severe back pain, an occupational hazard for the rocker who is known for aggressively swinging his long mane of hair while performing. A surgical procedure in January corrected the problem once and for all, and he felt better almost immediately.
“Right after the surgery,” said Araya, “I could tell that the issue was fixed. There’s no more pain, it just feels really good. I’m really excited and I’m anxious to get together with the rest of the guys and start rehearsing again. We cancelled two tours, and I don’t feel great about that, but I couldn’t deal with the pain anymore, and that’s now completely gone. I know the fans are excited to see the band – the tour is on, we’re keeping our word, there will be no more cancellations.”
Slayer. The Chicago Tribune‘s Greg Kot wrote that Slayer is “one of the great American rock bands of the last 30 years, forget about genre.” Indeed, few bands come close to matching the intensity that Slayer – guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, vocalist/bassist Tom Araya, and drummer Dave Lombardo – bring to its live shows, having been named “Best Live Band” by numerous media outlets including Revolver, SPIN, and Metal Hammer. 2009’s World Painted Blood offers a Slayer-ized point of view of our world – God’s terrifying global genocide, the chaos of our broken political system, the way-too-close proximity of world horrors that technology has brought us, and a chilling hypothesis of how the rest of the world might view America. The album was recorded in Los Angeles over two time periods, during October 2008 and then between late January and March 2009. World Painted Blood was produced by Greg Fidelman who has spent time in the studio with Metallica, the Gossip, the (International) Noise Conspiracy, Slipknot and others, and executive produced by long-time Slayer colleague Rick Rubin, who suggested Fidelman for the project. One reviewer called the album “the heaviest, bloodiest and best album in almost two decades.” World Painted Blood landed on boatloads of U.S. and International “Best of” lists for 2009, and N.A.R.A.S. saw fit to bestow its fourth Grammy nomination on Slayer – Best Metal Performance for the WPB track, “Hate Worldwide.” For “American Carnage,” Slayer’s Tom Araya promises, “no ballads, no acoustic numbers, no slow tempos.”
Megadeth. 2009 saw the release of ENDGAME, which has been heralded as Megadeth’s best album in years. It’s the record where it all comes full circle in a career that has not only set standards in hard rock and metal, but defined them. Megadeth’s signature shredding and rousing lyrics are the hallmarks of ENDGAME, with vocalist/guitarist Dave Mustaine once again musing and making declarations about the world we live in, having named the album after a government document that should strike fear in the hearts of Americans! But that’s Mustaine and Megadeth, using the vehicle of music to shake things up, to make a point and to rattle your brain, literally, figuratively and sonically. Revolver magazine said of ENDGAME, “One of their best albums.” VH1’s ‘That Metal Show’ deemed it “One of the metal albums of the year,” and Popmatters said, “the record positively scorches with an intensity not heard since Rust in Peace.” The band was also awarded the eighth Grammy nomination of its career for “Headcrusher,” which serves as more proof that ENDGAME is quickly earning “essential” status in the Megadeth catalog. Megadeth has teamed with ILoveAllAccess.com to offer Ultimate Fan Packages. For more info, go to www.megadeth.com