Slayer: The Show To Set Donington Ablaze

Thirty-four years since Slayer first unleashed hell upon the UK, this week’s Download Festival will see the band take their final bow on our shores. To kick off our essential preview of the annual Donington extravaganza, Metal Blade Records’ Brian Slagel – who signed the band to their first record deal – introduces our deep-dive into the stories behind the set list that is soundtracking the thrash legends’ own apocalypse…

Feeling glum that this weekend will be the last Slayer show in the uk? Us too. Thankfully, the band will live forever in their music – and now, in a killer art print for your walls, too. Feel free to stand before it every morning as you scream, “Slayarrrrrrgh!”

Elsewhere in the mag: Dallon Weekes gears up for a busy summer and teases new iDKHOW tunes; Alice Cooper's super-freaky LA supergroup Hollywood Vampires bite back; Rage Against The Machine/Prophets Of Rage guitar legend Tom Morello stands up for the electric guitar; Aaron West – aka Dan 'Soupy' Campbell of The Wonder Years – talks us through some life-changing tunes; and Converge legend Kurt Ballou takes our career-spanning K! Interview.

In the reviews section, meanwhile, Baroness herald the end of their 'coloured' era in bold, fearless, experimental fashion, and Perry Farrell finally returns with his superb third solo album. On the live front, Bring Me The Horizon throw a party in the park at All Points East with Architects, IDLES, YONAKA and more…

Oh yeah, and there's an epic poster special featuring some of Download's most iconic sets, including Rammstein, Parkway Drive, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Evanescence, Metallica and Biffy Clyro.

All this and more is available in the new issue of Kerrang!, which you can get anywhere in the world through Kerrang.Newsstand.co.uk. But for UK residents, it hits the shops on Wednesday, June 12 from all good newsagents.