The metal community has been slammed with ups and downs over the last ten years. The death toll alone requires its own column. We’ve had significant losses throughout the decade, including Peter Steele, Ronnie James Dio, Wayne Static, Lemmy Kilmister, Chris Cornell, Chester Bennington, Oli Herbert, Jill Janus, and many more. We’ve seen bands disband, such as Chimaira. We saw the brief return of Coal Chamber while others such as Despised Icon reformed. There were countless meltdowns, near-breakups, splits, disturbing criminal activity, unnecessary drama, reunions, social media beefs, and more. We’ve also seen a decline in CDs, a rise in Vinyl, and streaming services. We looked back on our shocking moments of the year column and broke everything down to our Ten Shocking Moments of the Decade. In case you missed it, check out our other lists: Elise’s Top Ten Metal Songs of 2019, Top Ten Stories of 2019, Top Ten Shocking Moments of 2019, Top Ten Cover Songs of 2019, Best Albums of the Decade, Stories of the Decade, Black Metal Albums of the Decade, Zenae’s best concerts of 2019, and Chris’, Zach’s, Zenae’s, Bram’s, Matt’s, and Jeff’s top metal albums of 2019.  

10) 2019: Slayer said farewell

By 2013, Slayer lost half of their lineup. The drastic change didn’t stop these thrash legends from releasing new music, which we saw with 2015’s Repentless. However, after quite a few final world tour runs, Slayer finally said farewell on November 30th, 2019, at the Forum in Los Angeles.