Slayer had their Louder Than Life set, which was to have been their second reunion show of 2024, cancelled due to severe weather, along with the rest of the festival’s second day. Ticketholders were given the option to see Slayer at Aftershock instead, with Danny Wimmer Presents, who puts on both fests, also writing, “this isn’t the only thing we’re working on for you, to make up for” the cancellation. They’ve now announced that Slayer will return to headline Louder Than Life 2025. The festival will happen on September 18-21 at Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center in Louisville, KY.
For 2024 Friday and weekend pass ticketholders, organizers write, “Single-Day Friday pass holders can receive a full refund, or a credit applied to the purchase of 2025 passes while Weekend pass holders can receive a 25% refund or a credit applied to the purchase of 2025 passes. Fans will receive emails with all the details, including how to activate their offer.”
The rest of the Louder Than Life lineup is still to be announced, and sign ups are open now for the Early Bird Presale, which will begin in November.
Slayer began their 2024 reunion at Riot Fest, and they also played Aftershock earlier this month. See pictures from Riot Fest below.
Ahead of the Louder than Life announcement, guitarist Gary Holt and drummer Paul Bostaph discussed the possibility of more shows in two different interviews, as Blabbermouth points out. Holt told Loudwire Nights:We rehearsed really hard for it, like full production rehearsal. In the past, when I did rehearse — Slayer rehearsed in this tiny little music studio room with little half stacks. This was cool ’cause I got to play with the entire rig — three amps, six cabs all on. I got to redesign the rig based on my Exodus rig. So it was the exact same identical thing tone-wise, just three times as large, which was awesome. We were nervous Tom [Araya] was nervous, and he sounded amazing. Sometimes you’ve just gotta forget about the time and how long it’s been and just let muscle memory kick in and just do it. I mean, I only played one song I’d never played, and that was ‘213’. And ‘Reborn’ I’d only played, I think, once, so that was almost a new song — once or twice. Everything else was just refreshers. I started working on the songs a long, long time ago, when the shows were first announced: ‘All right, I’d better make sure I know how to play this shit still.’ And I literally had to like dive into Internet tab on songs I’d played a hundred times. But then I’d [go], ‘Man, I’m playing it wrong.’ Then I just forget about it and just play, and then all right, my hands remember where the notes are. But it was spectacular. Losing the second show [at the Louder Than Life festival] due to the weather, the tail end of the hurricane, was a real, real bummer, especially for all the fans who flew in. I met people at the airport who flew in from England for it. And they had the best attitude about it. Obviously, it wasn’t our fault. We tried everything we could. You can’t control 50-mile-an-hour gusts. The crew had to evacuate, like, three times that afternoon. We never left the hotel. But it was amazing. It was surreal. It was like this moment. The crowd was just very happy. And we were happy, and everything was good. And hopefully we’ll do some more.Bostaph told Nikki Blakk from 107.7 The Bone:
We played our last one… If everybody’s asking that question [about the possibility of more Slayer gigs], I am too, but I don’t have the answer to that question. So, yeah, Aftershock was the last one. And we all hope that there will be more. It’s fun to play Slayer songs. So, hopefully that can happen in the future. But [as of right now], that was the last show.
