Metal Injection

Ok, that headline may be slightly misleading. It's not as if Gary Holt's first performance with Slayer, stepping in for the infected Jeff Hanneman, was what led to Tom Araya's hospitalization. No, in fact, Holt's debut performance with the band went off mostly without a hitch (did I hear a fuckup in the intro to Raining Blood?) and Holt brought more stage presence to the stage than Hanneman has since his early days. Judge for yourself with the video clip above.

To be honest, we're not exactly sure why the Slayer frontman checked into the hospital this past Saturday, February 26th. But the organizers of the Soundwave Festival, which Slayer were set to play the following day, announced that the band had cancelled since Araya will be staying in the hospital overnight. Blabbermouth obtained screenshots of Tom's wife's Facebook page where she denied that he is checked in because of an ear infection and mentioned it would be a few days before any 'tests' came back but also added that he's "feeling much better".

History would lead us to believe this has something to do with his back issues, which forced previous cancellations and resulted in Araya no longer being able to headbang for fear of reoccurring injury. I guess we'll find out in a few days.

On a related note, Blabbermouth for one reason or another made sure to mention that Tom's wife is a registered user of the site, with the username is SATANSBITCH.