Once-and-future Slayer guitarist Kerry King has never been one to shy away from expressing his opinion. And he’s been vocal in his opinion that the band ended years too soon. Thrash metal icon King has spent the time since the Big Four heavy hitters called it a day getting his solo album ready. He pushed through everything from COVID slowdowns to the money guys chiming in on the band lineup.
But finally—after a half-decade wait—Kerry King’s From Hell I Rise is here. The record, which dropped in May, picks up where Slayer’s final studio album, Repentless, left off: a King-driven, scalpel-carved distillation of the classic Slayer years. If anyone doubted that King was calling the shots for the last decade-plus of Slayer, From Hell I Rise will kick those doubts out the door.
Vocalist Mark Osegueda, who paid his dues in Slayer contemporaries Death Angel, turns in a harrowing performance on From Hell I Rise that owes something to Slayer frontman Tom Araya, while also allowing him to leave his own mark on the kind of vocal rhythms King has written forever. Drummer Paul Bostaph—who spent the past decade and much of the ‘90s in Slayer, though is not a founding member—turns in an equally strong performance. Bostaph’s fit is less of a surprise, given that he has shown his mettle on Slayer albums previously.
Roll in bassist Kyle Sanders (formerly of Hellyeah) and Phil Demmel (formerly of Machine Head and Vio-lence) and you’ve got yourself a band. And King wants everyone to know this is a real band. And that he plans to develop the band, with these same members, for the next decade plus. Still, the band is called Kerry King for a reason.
We spoke to King recently via Zoom to find out more about his solo debut and transitioning to his current live role as the guy keeping Slayer’s music alive. Oh, and we asked him to weigh in on the pending election. King was enjoying a day off in Raleigh, NC, where his band was pending a date on the current tour with Lamb of God and Mastodon.
Let’s say you’re sitting with somebody that’s open to metal but, for whatever reason, hasn’t encountered Slayer. They don’t know the old songs. They don’t know “Raining Blood.” What does From Hell I Rise have for that person?
Well, most people that like metal are into aggression. And if you’re into aggression, this record is probably the top one on aggression right now, at this moment in time. So I think if that’s what you’re into, then you should give it a spin.
How do you stay fired up? Didn’t you recently hit 60?
Yep, 60 on our first European show.
So, you’re 60. You’re not the same guy as when you were 20. No one is. How do you keep that level of aggression going for decades, literally?
Well, I was never told I couldn’t (laughs). Let me say when I was 20, you would see people get older—“mature”—in quotation marks. And, you know, they’d be like, well, I’m 30 now. I have a family and I can’t be a metalhead. And I would say to them, why not? There’s no predetermined way for your life to go. It’s however you want it to be, as long as you take charge of it.
You started over with this band. You’ve spoken quite a bit about that previously, that it was a ground-up endeavor. What was the biggest unexpected challenge in putting together this band and the new record?
The biggest unexpected challenge was easily the pandemic. It put a wrench into everything. Paul and I were rehearsing, probably planning on recording in a couple months. And we both got (Covid) from the guy that owns our studio. And it just derailed us because he had that kind that stuck around. He was positive for the better part of a month. And I was positive for like three days. So we had some reason that affected us very differently, but it derailed the rehearsal process. And you know, it just took a while to get back from that.
You created a mystique because you didn’t announce the band members. There was this idea that maybe you and Paul were going to team up with Phil (Anselmo) and Rex (Brown) and do like a hybrid thing where Pantera and Slayer tunes were available, as well as whatever new stuff you guys came up with. Was there ever any thought to that to joining something with some other kind of marquee names? Or was it mostly just a vision you had with this particular group of people?
Well, the Phil connection that was loved by all the suits. And by suits, I mean the booking agents, the promoters, and my manager because they all see dollar signs. And, you know, I’m not upset with that. That’s what they get paid to do. But I told them all along, I’m like, “Phil’s not the guy.” I said, “I’ve got the guy,” and they fought me tooth and nail all the way through. But at the end of the day, you know, I’m in charge. We had conversations with Phil, but it never even got to a point where we played in a room together. He was dragging his feet for a long time because I don’t think he really wanted to do it. And he got some music and I think he realized it was probably too thrashy for him and what his style is these days. So, you know, the Pantera thing came around and that just flew right out the door. Never thought of it again.
And you already had some guys you were thinking about or had talked to. Once you had talked to some guys, once there was interest, did you get everybody in the room for a full band rehearsal just to make sure? Or did the guys come in and lay down their parts in the studio?
You know, the funny part of the answer to that question is we never played together until the video.
Wow.
Yeah, we were all in the studio at the same time, but we didn’t play together. The only people who played together were me and Paul. Phil did his leads, Kyle did the bass, and Mark sang. And then we never actually played together until about a week before the first show at Reggie’s.
You just went on faith. Obviously, you were familiar with their other music. You knew them personally, for years.
Phil played four shows with Slayer, so I knew exactly what I was getting with him. I knew Kyle could do his thing. I knew Mark. He’s the only one who came down and worked on demos with me and Paul. I was pretty confident. I didn’t have to be there, but attaching my name to it, I had to be there just to make sure everything went well. Everybody knew their parts correctly, stuff like that.
Sure. Did you give any thought to going with a death growl kind of guy, maybe taking it in a heavier direction vocally?
Absolutely not. No, it’s not my style. I like the similarity between Tom and Mark, you know, and that’s not why I picked Mark. I just picked Mark because, you know, number one, he’s my friend. Number two, lots of people call him the best singer in thrash metal. And, you know, he’s definitely in there. But he came in, he was hungry, and wanted to do it. And I knew his performance would add to the product.
You mentioned there are some stylistic similarities between Tom and Mark. But it goes farther. As soon as the songs on From Hell I Rise crank up; they are clearly Kerry King songs. What is it stylistically that makes something immediately identifiable as a Kerry King tune?
I don’t know, man. I could do that with other bands. Doing it for myself, I couldn’t just come up with something. There’s a definite intensity to it, even (compared to) people who play the same type of music. Say, for instance, you heard a Kerry King song, and you heard a Megadeth song. There would be no confusion as to which one either was. How do I achieve that? That’s the thing I have a hard time answering.
One thing that I think is part of it is that you have a vocal rhythm that you use sometimes that has a certain cadence to it. But there’s something about your riffs, too, or maybe it’s how it all goes together. It’s very distinct yet hard to enunciate.
You know, it starts with my tone. And I think this album, Josh, really captured the closest to my live sound. I think that’s really cool and important because that’s what you’re presenting to people when they pay to see you play. So, it’s close on the record. I think that’s a good foot in the door because then when they see you live, they’re like, “Oh, sounds just like I want it to sound.” You know, being in the studio, it’s weird because you’re dealing with different people, you’re dealing with different components and mics. Speakers perform differently. It’s got to be a perfect storm to get anywhere near the final product.
How did you choose the setlist for the live shows? There are some Slayer songs in there. You’ve said you avoided the Jeff (Hanneman, late Slayer guitarist) tunes and wanted to focus on yours. What was the criteria for the Slayer songs you chose?
Well, it depends on the set. Like this one with Lamb of God and Mastodon, we’re playing nine total songs. In that set, we played two Slayer songs. We’ve done as many as seven, I believe, when we were headlining some places in Europe. But, like you said, first and foremost, either songs I wrote or co-wrote. And I had to think of, historically, what people are into. The first one is “Raining Blood” because everybody wants to hear that. The second one on my list was “Disciple,” because the chorus is so—the fans want to chant that. It’s really cool to be on stage and see thousands of people screaming, “God hates us all.” I love it! I did “Hate Worldwide” because I like that song a lot. That’s a guilty pleasure. I did “Repentless” because it’s the title track of the last album we put out. We were doing “Chemical Warfare,” we were doing “At Dawn They Sleep,” they’re classics. And I think the other one we did was “Black Magic.” When we go into that after “Raining Blood,” people, once they figure out what it is, they’re blown away that we’re playing that song. Which I love. I love to be able to surprise people.
Last question. In 2016, you endorsed Hillary Clinton, which is up there with the most shocking endorsements ever. Do you have any desire to weigh in on the current political debacle?
I will speak up by saying I don’t think we have a great choice. Up until a week ago, it was two very old men who just bickered, especially Trump. Trump’s not happy unless he’s talking shit to people. But there’s one thing I did say in 2016 that I was fucking spot on with. I said, “Every politician lies.” I said, “Donald Trump lies like no one you’ve ever heard before.” And I’ll stand by that today.
