SLAYER were forced to cancel yesterdays appearance at the Soundwave Festival in Sydney, Australia after singer Tom Araya had been hospitalized. Tom's wife, Sandra Araya, now issued the following statement on her Facebook page:

"SPOKE WITH TOM =) He's feeling much better! it will be a few days before test results come back... That's all I can say for now! whoo hoo!"
"Tom does not have a ear infection! Not sure who came up with this, but it is not true... They are waiting on test results... If [the ear-infection explanation] is coming from the promoter, I am sure he is only saying what he was told!"

According to Soundwave Festival promoter AJ Madda Tom "will be OK" for the next Soundwave show in Melbourne on Friday, March 4th.

Slayer recently recruited Gary Holt from San Francisco Bay Area thrashers EXODUS as a temporary fill-in in for Jeff Hanneman who is currently recovering from surgery. Holt is accompanying Tom Araya (bass, vocals), Kerry King (guitar) and Dave Lombardo (drums) on their Australian Soundwave Festival tour, which kicked off yesterday (Saturday, February 26) in Brisbane.

The first low-quality fan-filmed footage of the Brisbane performance can be viewed below.

Slayer's setlist was as follows:

'World Painted Blood'

'Hate Worldwide'

'War Ensemble'

'Postmortem'

'Payback'

'Hallowed Point'

'Americon'

'Mandatory Suicide'

'Temptation'

'South Of Heaven'

'Raining Blood'

'Black Magic'

'Angel Of Death'

Gary Holt offers the following comments about his upcoming stint as touring guitarist for one of metal’s most venerated bands:

"How can I put into words how excited I am to have been asked to play with Slayer? Hard to describe for sure. Legendary band, check. Old friends since the birth of thrash metal. Check. Get to play ‘Angel Of Death’ live, priceless! I'll do my best to live up to the standard they've set for so many years, while we all wish Jeff a speedy return to health and his rightful place in Slayer.”

Jeff Hanneman is currently recuperating at home after emergency surgery on his right arm after contracting a serious infection, possibly caused by a spider bite. He is expected to make a full recovery and will return to the Slayer line-up as soon as he has fully recovered.

"Jeff is our brother, we've all been friends and together as a band for almost 30 years," said Araya, "so we just want him to completely recover as soon as possible."
"After everything that happened last year," King added, "we all agreed that we just can't let our fans down again," referring to Araya's severe back and neck pain that prompted his January 2010 surgery, unfortunately leading to the band's postponement or cancellation of numerous shows in 2009 and 2010. "Jeff is totally on board with this decision, so we will tour as planned. At this point, we can't pinpoint exactly what day he'll be back, but he'll be back as soon as he possibly can. And we can't wait for Jeff to get better and get his ass back on the road."

(Thanks Slayerized.com)