Slayer
War At The Warfield

THE REVIEW

On December 7, 2001, Slayer performed at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco during the tour supporting the album "God Hates Us All". The lineup still featured Paul Bostaph on drums, who would leave the band shortly after this date, making way for the return of the beloved Dave Lombardo.

The audio recording, although an official live release, is not the best, and the direction has been criticized multiple times for being filled with quick pans and MTV-style cuts; but despite this, Slayer, approaching 40, once again demonstrate to be a real war machine: Bostaph reveals himself (for the last time) as a worthy replacement for Lombardo on drums, the indestructible duo Hanneman-King relentlessly churns out riff after riff and solo after solo on guitars, while Araya does not deliver his best performance, and this is one of the major flaws of this live DVD: practically, Araya's voice is wrecked, and since he has been screaming since "Undisputed Attitude" and "Diabolus in Musica", here he screams all the time, even in passages where the voice should be calmer. This can add an extra punch to the songs: this is the case with "Die By The Sword", "Captor Of Sin", and "Chemical Warfare", made much more violent than the originals from 1983/84; but it almost completely ruins "South Of Heaven", "Seasons In The Abyss" (unforgivably deprived of the wonderful intro, because it's placed in a medley with the ending of "Raining Blood"), "Mandatory Suicide", and "Dead Skin Mask".

While the old songs don't entirely convince, all those from the post-"Seasons In The Abyss" period turn out to be devastating: the furiously fast "Dittohead" is chosen from Divine Intervention", while the mediocre "Stain Of Mind" is selected from "Diabolus In Musica". Pieces from "God Hates Us All" are obviously not to be missed: the opening duo "Darkness Of Christ"-"Disciple" claims numerous victims and, in the studio trappings, the songs "New Faith", "Here Comes The Pain", "Bloodline" and "God Send Death" prove themselves worthy. In closing, their anthem cannot be missed: "Angel Of Death", during which the audience goes literally insane (as throughout the whole concert: often you see people practically walking on the heads of the crowd), after which the concert ends, testifying to the usual violence of the Californian band despite the age, despite some flaws here and there.

Recommended for fans of Araya & Co.