Slayer will mark the 40th anniversary of their seminal album Reign in Blood at the inaugural Sick New World Texas festival, scheduled for October 24th, 2026 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.
The California thrash metal legends will headline alongside System of a Down, Deftones, Evanescence, The Prodigy, Marilyn Manson, Knocked Loose, AFI, Ministry, Mastodon, and Power Trip.
This announcement follows Slayer’s limited 2025 performance schedule, which included their only US East Coast show at Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark Stadium on September 20th before 30,000 fans. Two days earlier, they performed at Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival, marking their fourth full concert of 2025.
Earlier performances took place at Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields, London’s Finsbury Park, and Quebec’s Festival D’été De Québec, with the London show drawing 45,000 attendees and the Quebec festival hosting 100,000 capacity.
The reunited lineup features original members Kerry King and Tom Araya alongside drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt, the same formation that concluded their farewell tour in 2019. Slayer also contributed to Black Sabbath’s farewell celebration with a six-song set at Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5th.
Reign in Blood, released on October 7th, 1986 through Def Jam Recordings, represented Slayer’s first collaboration with producer Rick Rubin.
Kerrang! magazine famously dubbed it “the heaviest album of all time,” cementing its status as a breakthrough in thrash and speed metal. The album’s release faced significant delays due to concerns over its graphic artwork and controversial lyrical content.
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The opening track “Angel of Death” sparked allegations of Nazism for its references to Josef Mengele and descriptions of human experimentation at Auschwitz. Guitarist Jeff Hanneman addressed the controversy, stating: “‘Angel of Death’ was a big problem. I remember getting a phone call after the album was done: Sony wasn’t going to release it. I didn’t think anything was wrong with ‘Angel of Death’ or anything else we did, it’s a documentary!”
Despite the initial resistance, Reign in Blood became Slayer’s first album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 94. The RIAA certified it gold on November 20th, 1992 for sales exceeding 500,000 copies.
