Slayer's Tom Araya Hospitalized, Band Forced to Axe Soundwave Festival Date

BY Josiah HughesPublished Feb 28, 2011

Early this month, it was revealed that Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman had been hospitalized with the flesh-eating disease due to a spider bite. Because of that, the band recruited Exodus founder Gary Holt to fill in on axe duties so that Slayer could honour their slot on Australia's travelling Soundwave Festival tour. Slayer's first show on the tour was cancelled anyway, however, as frontman Tom Araya was hospitalized.


 The group were scheduled to perform on the second date of the tour in Sydney, Australia yesterday (February 27), but Araya was hospitalized with an unspecified illness. A tweet from the Soundwave Twitter [via Triple J] read, "SLAYER are unable to perform at #soundwave today in Sydney. Tom Araya is in hospital and will be kept in overnight."

The details of Araya's illness are unclear but he is expected to recover in time to complete the remainder of the tour. The Soundwave Festival also includes appearances from Iron Maiden, Queens of the Stone Age, Primus, Slash, Sum 41, Third Eye Blind, the Ataris and Fucked Up, among many others. All Slayer dates are available below.

As previously reported, Slayer were forced to call off a North American tour last year due to Araya's back problems. Those dates were eventually rescheduled, however.

Tour dates:


 3/4 Melbourne, Australia - Melbourne Showgrounds (Soundwave)

3/5 Adelaide, Australia - Bonython Park (Soundwave)

3/7 Perth, Australia - Claremont Showgrounds (Soundwave)

3/13 Kiev, Ukraine - Expocenter Of Ukraine

3/15 Moscow, Russia - Olympiiski

3/16 St. Petersburg, Russia - Jubilieniy Small Arena

3/17 Helsinki, Finland - Helsinki Ice Arena

3/19 Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene

3/20 Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene

3/21 Aarhus, Denmark - SCC

3/23 Brussels, Belgium - Forest National

3/24 Bamberg, Germany - Stechert Arena

3/26 Paris, France - Zenith Paris

3/29 La Coruna, Spain - Coliseum

3/30 Lisbon, Portugal - Pavilhao Atlantico

4/1 Barcelona, Spain - Palau Sant Jordi

4/3 Rome, Italy - Atlantico

4/4 Padova, Italy - Gran Teatro

4/6 Zagreb, Croatia - Arena

4/7 Vienna, Austria - Gasometer

4/8 Budapest, Hungary - BudapestArena

4/10 Prague, Czech Republic - O2 Arena

4/11 Lodz, Poland - Sports Hall

4/13 Basel, Switzerland - St. Jakobshalle

4/14 Eindhoven, Netherlands - Klokgebouw

4/23 Indio, CA - Empire Polo Club

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