BACK FROM HELL

Over the past three decades, Slayer have helped define the thrash-metal genre, from their breakneck tempos and jagged riffs to their uncompromisingly controversial death-obsessed lyrics and imagery. Tonight, they’re playing an “old-school set” to celebrate their formative years in the ’80s and early ’90s, when all of their horror-movie lyrics about hell, blood, and necrophilia paved the way for the band to earn gold records and win Grammys with the same subject matter. Recent concerts on this tour have found the band drawing from albums recorded in 1990 and earlier, including their touchstone 1986 LP, Reign in Blood. Beyond the oeuvre, the show is notable for being the band’s first New York concert since the death of founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman in May. The band’s frontman, Tom Araya, has said that he’s not quite sure how the band will carry on after this trek.

Wed., Nov. 27, 7:30 p.m., 2013