SLAYER to celebrate 40th anniversary of 'Reign In Blood' at inaugural SICK NEW WORLD TEXAS in October 2026
22-10-2025
California thrash metal legends SLAYER will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their classic third album, “Reign In Blood”, at the inaugural Sick New World Texas, set to take place October 24, 2026 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Also scheduled to appear are SYSTEM OF A DOWN, DEFTONES, EVANESCENCE, THE PRODIGY, Marilyn Manson, KNOCKED LOOSE, AFI, MINISTRY, MASTODON, POWER TRIP and many more. Fans can sign up now at SickNewWorldFest.com/Texas for the official newsletter and SMS list to receive an access code for the presale beginning Friday, October 24 at 10 a.m. CT. A same-day public on-sale will follow for any remaining tickets.
SLAYER‘s only U.S. East Coast performance of 2025 took place on September 20 at Hershey, Pennsylvania’s 30,000-seat Hersheypark Stadium. Two days earlier, SLAYER performed at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky. The Louder Than Life show marked the reunited thrash metal pioneers’ fourth full concert of 2025, following the band’s appearances the 35,000-capacity Blackweir Fields in Cardiff, U.K., London, U.K.’s 45,000-capacity Finsbury Park, and the 100,000-capacity Festival D’été De Québec in Canada. SLAYER also helped celebrate BLACK SABBATH‘s incredible career by playing a six-song set at SABBATH‘s sold-out “Back To The Beginning” final concert on July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, England.
The lineup for all of SLAYER‘s comeback shows in 2024 and 2025 was the same as the one which last toured in 2019: guitarist Kerry King and drummer Paul Bostaph, along with bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and guitarist Gary Holt.
“Reign In Blood” was released on October 7, 1986 through Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band’s first collaboration with record producer Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band’s sound evolve. Kerrang! magazine described the record as “the heaviest album of all time,” and a breakthrough in thrash metal and speed metal.
“Reign In Blood”‘s release was delayed because of concerns regarding its graphic artwork and lyrical subject matter. The opening track, “Angel Of Death”, which refers to Josef Mengele and describes acts such as human experimentation that Mengele committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, provoked allegations of Nazism. However, the bandmembers stated numerous times they do not condone Nazism, and are merely interested in the subject.
Kerry King‘s debut solo album, “From Hell I Rise”, was released in May. All material for the LP was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles last year was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.
Joining Kerry in his new band are Mark Osegueda (vocals; DEATH ANGEL), Phil Demmel (guitar; MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE), Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and drummer Paul Bostaph (SLAYER, TESTAMENT, EXODUS).
“From Hell I Rise” contains 13 tracks that were recorded with longtime LAMB OF GOD producer Josh Wilbur.
King told Rolling Stone that the title track, “From Hell I Rise”, is one of two songs — along with “Rage” — on the album that he has carried over from SLAYER‘s “Repentless” sessions. “It was finished, we recorded it,” he says. “I wasn’t happy with the performance part of it, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll put this in my back pocket until the next SLAYER record.’ And that didn’t happen, so it’s now on my record.”
Asked why he decided to call his band KERRY KING, the guitarist said: “I didn’t. It was going to be KING’S REIGN for a long time, which is really cool. But even with that one, I went to the guys, like, ‘I’m not a vain dude. I don’t want my name to be a part of it.’ We talked about BLOOD REIGN for a while, but it didn’t work. Every time I came up with anything remotely cool, it was taken by some obscure band in Eastern Europe. It became KERRY KING because I love that logo.”
Regarding how he put together his solo band, Kerry said: “I knew Paul was going to be with me. My original intent was to have (SLAYER guitarist) Gary Holt but the farther I got away from SLAYER, the more I thought people would call this band “SLAYER Light” or “Baby SLAYER.” They’re going to say that anyway, so I didn’t need to fuel that fire. There was no falling out between me and Gary.
“Demmel came out with SLAYER at the end of 2018 to fill in for Gary for four shows,” he continued. “What he did for us, I don’t think I could do for any band on the planet. He had basically two days to watch (SLAYER) play so he could know where the pyro was and the tempo of our set. I couldn’t do that for JUDAS PRIEST, and I’m a giant PRIEST guy. With this, Bostaph said, ‘Hey, what about Demmel (for the new band)?’ I texted him. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I just got done with MACHINE HEAD the day before yesterday.’ I went, ‘Well, that’s kind of perfect.’
As for Osegueda‘s addition to the band, Kerry said: “With Mark, he was on board early on. I just didn’t pull that trigger. I was like, ‘Let’s see what happens.’ Say for instance, (JUDAS PRIEST‘s) Rob Halford calls me and says, ‘Hey, I would love to be your singer,’ I’d have to go that way.”
King also confirmed that PANTERA‘s Philip Anselmo was “considered” as a possible singer for his new project. “My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil,” Kerry said. “Phil‘s a good friend of mine, but I always thought he’s not the right guy. That has nothing to do with his ability; I just knew he wasn’t the right guy. When you hear Mark on this record, you know that’s the guy.
“I had to do due diligence, because at the end of the day, had Philip been the guy, we’d be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff, we could play PANTERA, we could play SLAYER, and fans would’ve been happy. It ended when the PANTERA thing came up.
“I saw Mark a few years back singing covers of MINOR THREAT and cameo in THE WEDDING BAND with members of METALLICA. It was different from what he does in DEATH ANGEL, and he sounded great. He’s super versatile. He took steps to make this different than DEATH ANGEL. I don’t touch on probably 50 percent of what he can do on the album.
“Mark knew how I expected the songs to be performed. On my demos, I sing with very good conviction, but I don’t have pipes; that’s why I don’t sing. With ‘Residue’, he sounded so good I had to ask him, ‘Is this sustainable? I don’t want you to blow your load on this record and then blow your voice out every third show.’ And he swore up and down he could do it. He went on to some of the harder ones and did the same thing on those, so I went, ‘Okay.'”
“From Hell I Rise” track listing:
01. Diablo
02. Where I Reign
03. Residue
04. Idle Hands
05. Trophies Of The Tyrant
06. Crucifixation
07. Tension
08. Everything I Hate About You
09. Toxic
10. Two Fists
11. Rage
12. Shrapnel
13. From Hell I Rise
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