My name is Charlie, and I had waited a long long time to see Slayer. I had first heard of them in 1985 and here in England they were very underground, none of the major UK Rock/Metal radio stations would play any Slayer tunes at all.

In fact only one Welsh rock show on Medium Wave dared to play Slayer which is really where I first heard their controversial tracks, a month or so previous to that I'd read their gig reviews and they were getting devastating ratings. Having been totally blown away by their Hell Awaits and Haunting The Chapel records, Slayer released "Reign In Blood" late 1986, I bought the LP the day it was released in England at Shades Records just off Wardour Street in central London.

This was equally breathtaking stuff, no other band was as fast or as aggressive, and I was gasping to see Slayer play live, then came confirmation of this nights gig, yes!!! None of my metalhead friends wanted to go, they didn't like the sound, preferring slower metal, so I went by myself, what the hell! Words cannot explain how intense the feeling was when the ticket arrived in the post, yes the ticket isin my hand and I'm seeing Slayer, fucking SLAYER! As the weeks went by nothing else mattered in my life, I was listening to their records and practising my airdrumming too, yes I airdrum.

I`d heard rumours that Dave Lombardo had left the band which I was gutted about and rumours that Lars Ulrich or Charlie Benante or T.J.Scaglione had taken his place on the tour were rife. Believe me, the totally obesessive excitement and build up to this gig was like nothing I'd experienced before, my heart was beating fast all the time. The lyrics and songs repeating in my mind, yeah!

Finally, it was the night the big one, I was on the train to Hammersmith London W6-many metal bands have played there and I'd seen the likes of Maiden, Motorhead, Dio, Saxon, the list goes on and on but Slayer was a different kettle of fish. Even as I walked into the venue I still couldn`t believe that I was actually going to see them after nearly 2 years of waiting, I bought a Reign In Pain T-Shirt at their merchandise stall inside and put it on before walking into the stalls area downstairs, only 6 rows from the front. This venue has seats upstairs and downstairs and holds about 2500 fans by the way.

The Odeon was full of rampant metalheads bursting to see Slayer, the support band came and went very quickly, now it was Slayer time! The lights dimmed, and I could see Dave Lombardo sneak onstage and he started to bang on the drums Bang Bang Bang! (The start Raining Blood), we all went crazy and I started to shout out "Dave, Dave, Dave" again and again, I was so happy to see he was still with the band (I have a bootleg tape of this gig and you can hear me shouting out his name) Dave had cut his hair really short which I don`t think suits him but it didn't spoil the seamlessness of his performance.

The rest of the band entered the stage and I could see Toms eyes glinting in the darkness, that was an intense sight to me, then all of a sudden they started to play "Raining Blood"!!! I was airdrumming and banging away with adrenaline pumping through my entire body, this was totally fantastic, next sone up was "Angel of Death", and then Tom spoke to us and asked how we all were before going head first into "If you live by the sword, then you must "DIE BY THE SWORD!"

Tom spoke some more to us and asked us if we were into "this death metal?", he said "you know what the definiton of Slayer is don`t ya, it`s lining in PRAISE OF DEATH!!!" Awesome intro to an awesome song, the next song flowed on "CRIMINALLY INSANE" a new song off the RIB album. Tom said some more words to the audience to introduce the next song, asking if anyone in the crowd fucks dead people, the crowd shouted back "YES"! He said "I love fucking dead women, and eating the maggots out of their cunt, they love it". He then asked us if we were a bunch of sickos, we shouted back "YES!", he replied "then you`re all a bunch of fucking NECROPHILIACS!" We all went ballistic as the band sped through this incredible song, so so cool!

Tom spoke some more to the crowd and played their new single "AGGRESSIVE PERFECTOR" which is one of their fastest songs, followed by "BLACK MAGIC", and then a little story about us all being sinners (guilty as charged and proud of it) "we are all CAPTORS OF SIN!!!" During that song I threw a specially prepared t-shirt onto the stage which had some special artwork for them, I'm quite artistic, I'd drawn some Slayer logos and song names on the shirt, it was picked up and taken backstage by security.

Next song up was "REBORN", then "THE ANTICHRIST", I was still airdrumming in time and loving every second of it, then Tom introduced the next song "POSTMORTEM", yes! This flowed into the next song "EPIDEMIC", the crowd was still going wild!!! Tom talked to us for a while (Tom is one of the best frontmen in ANY band, articulate and a very good story teller) before reminding us all that "HELL AWAITS". I just love the build up in this song, it gives me goosebumps every time, then it was time for "ALTAR OF SACRIFICE", I just love the verse "Learn the sacred words of praise hail satan", fanfucking tastic! "JESUS SAVES" flowed in at the end of that song at breakneck speed.

Then Slayer disappeared offstage, was that the end of the set or would they return for one or two more songs? We all chanted "Slayer-Slayer-Slayer-Slayer" over and over again, they finally surfaced much to our delight, I was wishing this gig could just go on forever and ever. Tom introduced us all to their new drummer Dave Lombardo, and we all cheered and shouted!!!

He then told us all a little story about "Blood sucking creatures of the night", it just had to be "AT DAWN THEY SLEEP" yes!!! Another awesome Slayer song that slowly builds up to a speed frenzy, and I was nailing my airdrum to the floor, Tom thanked us all for coming that night and "Thank you for coming tonight, you English fans are very loyal, we appreciate that, we will remain loyal to you, we will always be loyal to each other".

He introduced the next song with a few words "It doesn't matter who you are, where you`re from, if you wear clean clothes whatever, you're all going to die real soon, from "CHEMICAL WARFARE". The band put their all into the song, I was keeping it all together and going crazy with delight, such a damn cool song, you know the words!!!! And then that was it, the gig was over, the band exited and didn't return and the lights came on and I was a bundle of sweat but it was worth it I promise you. We had all just experienced 90 minutes of total bliss!!!

Could the night get any better, yes! Most of the fans left to get their train/bus etc home but about 30 of us including me kind of hung around the backstage for about 20 minutes, then all of a sudden Tom appeared and came to speak to us in person and he signed my gig ticket (see scan) I shook his hand and smiled, this was unbelievable!!! I'd just seen the worlds best ever band live and met the frontman too. Slayer forever!