YOU NEVER FORGET YOUR FIRST TIME

I was a 14 year old nu metal kid, sitting with my mates on a lazy Saturday blaring Limp Bizkit and Korn, thinking I was the baddest gothmaster in Hertfordshire. “Let’s put something heavier on?” suggested my friend James. “Pfft, as if – what’s heavier than Nookie?” was my cocky reply. My friend James reached for a CD called Reign In Blood and stuck it on. Twenty-eight minutes and 58 seconds later, and I would never think about metal in the same way again.

Whenever and however you came to Slayer, the fact is that once you’re in, you’re in for life. Slayer aren’t a band – they’re a cult, a brand, an institution – and it’s incomprehensible to think that as you read these words, they’ll have wrapped up another leg of their final world tour. They come to the UK for the last time at Download next summer. Do. Not. Miss. It.

We decided to pay tribute to Slayer’s legacy with the one thing that has defined their career more than anything else: the fans. Thank you to everyone who sent in a photo to use on this month’s epic cover – it’s testament not just to the power of one of metal’s greatest bands, but to the passion and dedication of the people who have been behind them for the past 37 years.

We’ll miss them dearly when they’re gone, but for now, let’s celebrate a band who helped to define metal itself. Or, to put it another way…

SLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!!!