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1. World Painted Blood
2. Jihad
3. Hate Worldwide
4. Disciple
5. Beauty Through Order
6. War Ensemble
7. Blood Red
8. Spirit in Black
9. Expendable Youth
10. Dead Skin Mask
11. Hallowed Point
12. Skeletons of Society
13. Temptation
14. Born of Fire
15. Seasons in the Abyss
16. Mandatory Suicide
17. Raining Blood
18. Aggressive Perfector
19. South of Heaven
20. Angel of Death
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Let me start off by saying that I expected this show to be a life-changing experience. Perhaps that is why I was so disappointed after the show. My dad said I should just look at it as a show, a fun experience; nothing more. I don’t want to agree with him, because this is not just any show, it’s fucking SLAYERRR!!!! But he’s probably right.
My family and I walked around Milan during the day. My dad randomly decided that he and my mom would check out the venue and where its general location was. I told them it made no sense, but they wouldn’t listen to me. My mom and I walked by it while my brother and I stood back. They came back horrified. And at what else, the fans! My mom kept saying “you need to give up metal” and “don’t grow up like those people” and “these people are losers, druggies, high-school drop-outs with no jobs.” At that I kinda lost it and told her to shut up. I knew it was kinda true but there was no need for her to be like that.
My dad probably got scared the most. He sat my brother and I down and started telling us “these are not your cute, short-haired Atlanta metalheads. These are the real deal. These people are like the bad people I ran into in New York, but 10x worse.” My brother was rolling his eyes and my dad fucking lost it and was like “that’s it, you’re not going.” Hahahaha.
Once we got to the venue it was clear that this was a regular metal crowd, nothing more. Sure, the guys in the pit were “scary,” but what shirtless pit warriors aren’t? Maybe these guys were worse, but all in all my parents, esp. my dad, completely overestimated the crowd. Those people they saw waiting outside 4 hours before the show were the diehards, and everybody knows what Slayer diehards look like
That was what I was trying to make clear to my parents to no avail.
The Haunted was decent. The few songs they played that I knew (D.O.A., Moronic Colossus) but the rest were pretty average. They did suffer from sound issues.
I was praying, PRAYING, that Slayer wouldn’t suffer from these same sound issues, but alas, they did. They opened with “World Painted Blood” which I screamed along to. In fact I screamed along to every song so there’s no need to mention that. Anyways it was quite a fiery opener.
“Jihad” was next. When they opened with this, I knew what they were doing: Seasons in the Abyss in its entirety. I had been dreading this for a month and now it was basically confirmed. Since it was their 2nd night here I had reasonable belief to believe it anyway. It’s not that Seasons is a bad album- it’s an amazing album- it’s that they would be neglecting to play Silent Scream, Hell Awaits, and fucking Chemical Warfare!!! The latter two songs are pretty much staples so it’s not this would have been my only chance (granting I saw Slayer live again), but Silent Scream is far from a staple, a rare song indeed. And it’s my 2nd favorite Slayer song, so…
Oh yeah, “Jihad.” It was pretty good but not really good or anything.
They continued to play “Hate Worldwide,” “Disciple,” and “Beauty Through Order.” All of them were good but “Beauty” was really great.
“WAR ENSEMBLE!!!!!” Such a great song, and it was no less great live…ok, maybe a little. It was just a little underwhelming, I gotta say.
They paused at this point…I held my breath…what would they play? I heard a riff...for the first couple of seconds I didn’t recognize it…oh shit, it was “Blood Red.” Now it was confirmed. Oh well, I was determined at this point not to let the setlist bother me and to just enjoy the show.
“Blood Red,” “Spirit in Black,” and “Expendable Youth” were all great though I would be lying if I couldn’t notice lackluster sound. Also, it’s worth mentioning, Slayer had no stage show. I had never though about it before the show, but days later I realized that Slayer is known to have some sick fucking stage shows, with upside down crosses, blood, Auschwitz displays, etc. What a shame…
“Dead Skin Mask” was KILLER. I had always considered this song to be pretty meh; a couple of days before the show, I re-listened to it and realized that the song was, in fact, amazing. Still their live rendition blew me away. One of the top three songs of the night, for sure.
“Halllowed Point” and “Skeletons of Society” were great. “Temptation” wasn’t as bad as I or anyone would’ve thought. The second half of that song is really cool anyways. “Born of Fire”… meh. I’m not a fan of that song on record and that didn’t change live.
They closed out with “Seasons in the Abyss.” HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Song of the night without a doubt. Maybe it was just that the crowd was so into it, but this song was so epic live. I had always considered the song to be pretty good, maybe great, but not as good as “Expendable Youth” The two songs are still pretty equal to me but I have more respect for “Seasons” now.
And thus was the end of Seasons in the Abyss. The riff for “Mandatory Suicide” kicked in and the place went nuts. They changed up the riff sorta, but overall I wasn’t that impressed..
The riff for “Raining Blood” started and the place went apeshit. I’m gonna be honest, for the first second or so I didn’t recognize what they were playing. I’m an idiot, no doubt about that. I quickly realized it though and started moshing. It was great but, like “War Ensemble,” a little underwhelming. They didn’t even play the solos- they just cut to “Aggressive Perfector,” which was great, a very fun song. But I still can’t believe that they actually skipped the solos.
They walked out and came back in a minute or two later. No point of that really, but aren’t all encores just an opportunity to stroke one’s ego? Well, it’s Slayer, so they can do as many encores as they want, I’m good. Anyways, “South of Heaven.” This song was fucking amazing, probably the 2nd best song of the night. And then they closed with “Angel of Death,” obviously. This was the 4th best song of the night. Why not in the top three, you ask? It is my favorite Slayer song of all time, isn’t it? True, true- but exactly for that reason alone I was slightly underwhelmed. Only SLIGHTLY- it wasn’t to the same degree as “War Ensemble” and “Raining Blood.” However, it was still amazing and a perfect way to close out the night.
I bought a t-shirt walking out- pretty steep price, at 30 euros (figure about 36 bucks). Oh well. I wanted to remember this show, even if it didn’t exactly meet my insanely high expectations. There were guys selling tons of bootleg shirts outside for 10 euros a pop- pretty cool, if you ask me that they can do that. The bootlegs sucked though.
I’m not gonna rate the show because I really don’t want to. Figure this: best show of my life, just didn’t feel like the best show of my life.
tl; dr: fuck you if you didn't read this, I spent like an hour on this
No, but in all seriousness: "Seasons in the abyss, "dead skin mask, "south of heaven," and "angel of death" were amazing. "War Ensemble" and "Raining Blood" were a bit underwhelming. Great show but I set too high expectations and was thus disappointed, but it was sorta justified: bad sound and no "Hell Awaits," "Chemical Warfare," or "Silent Scream" (which they played on every other date on the tour)