Metal Anarchy

During an interview with Loudwire Nights, Slayer’s Gary Holt discussed the band’s recent reunion shows. The guitarist also confirmed that he is hoping to do more.

Holt said the following about the concerts:

“Surreal. It was awesome. 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, SLAYER bassist/vocalist] 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.”

[via Blabbermouth]