SLAAAYERRR! Is what it actually sounds like in my head. We’re about to go on a frightening adventure to visit my youth so hang on tight because we’re going back in time. Way back in time. So far back that you might want to pack some snacks. It’s going to be a while because I’m about let go of the bitterness that I’ve been hanging onto for decades because I never got to see this band live. Until now.

I like that it says “Rain or Shine” because it did rain the day of. But lucky for us it stopped as soon as we got there! PTL.

This a band that I listened to and liked but only started to love after I heard the song Seasons in the Abyss. I know it’s a common song and one of the more easy listening in their song lineup and that might be why I actually paid attention to and thought about the lyrics. When it comes to music, I don’t care much about lyrics as I do about how it sounds. Not that I don’t care what a band has to say, it’s just that I don’t pick apart and analyze songs. I like to enjoy them as they are. I’m a person who doesn’t like to get too deep. Besides, back then there were so many people going on about what this song meant and the real story behind that song and then I’d read in magazine interview that those dummies were all wrong because the songs were actually about something totally different. And it got on my nerves because I know those dummies weren’t there writing the songs with the bands so how would they know? That’s another reason why I never bothered to decipher those lyric codes, because it would be my opinion, not a fact. I prefer to let the band tell me in an interview what their songs were all about. They are the ones who wrote them after all. If I could insert an eye-rolling emoji here I would.

Let’s get back to why Seasons made me love Slayer. This song is totally about murder and stuff but let’s focus on this one part. Stay with me. Hold someone’s hand if you need to. Read on:

Close your eyes look deep in your soul step outside yourself and let your mind go…

Close your eyes and forget your name step outside yourself and let your thoughts drain…

This part of the song is what I thought about most. TO ME, in my teenage drama filled angry world, it made me think that whatever stress and problem that I had I could just close my eyes and step outside of myself and be able to relax for a moment and that everything that was on my mind bothering me could just drain away. But this is MY interpretation of that part in the song and what it has done for ME.

I can imagine some people I know personally reading this and saying “You need Jesus!” Well guess what, I do! I’ll never stop needing Jesus so shut up. I am saved now and I was saved back then too. That doesn’t mean I can’t love Slayer, because isn’t that what you’re supposed to do, LOVE EVERYONE?

Anyway, this (picture above) is how I remember them. Unfortunately, Jeff Hanneman is no longer with us. At the end of the show this (picture below) was the background and I almost teared up, not for sadness but for for happiness, because of the love that was being shown for him by his bandmates and fans. When I told one of my cousins that I was finally going to see Slayer after all these years, he asked if I was going to cry at the concert and I jokingly said I probably would. Almost!

Here are more pictures of the show. I wish I took some still shots of the fire they used onstage (but you can watch the video at the end to see it) because we were in the middle of the amphitheater so we weren’t close to the stage at all but every time the flames shot up, it was like we could feel the heat from where we were standing!

The singer, Tom Araya, talking to us Oklahoma fans. He’s so cool.

The next two are my favorite pictures. The first one because it’s a simple black & white and the second because I like glow in the dark.

Slayer fans: My brother, his girlfriend, my cousin, and me.

Watch some SLAAAYERRR!