When it comes to Kerry King, you can’t stop a good headbanger.
Of course, he was Slayer’s singer and guitarist from its formation in 1981 until its farewell tour in 2019 – which, as the 60-year-old King makes clear, was not his idea. Over the course of 12 albums, the band was one of the revered Big Four (along with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax) of thrash metal, and with his shaved head, braided beard and grim demeanor, King shaped the band’s image for many.
This year, meanwhile, he began the next phase, releasing his first solo album, From Hell I Rise. He wrote all 13 tracks and was joined by Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph, and members of Hellyeah, Death Angel, Machine Head and Violence round out the ranks. It’s not something King ever expected or even hoped for, but he’s “risen” and has no plans to disappear from the scene any time soon…
* King says going solo was “out of necessity, just because someone in my band (bassist Tom Arraya) wanted to give up the work ethic. I wasn’t willing to give up mine. Some of those guys (in his band) were just friends of mine; I thought they always would be. But when the time came, I thought, ‘Hey, I need band members. I need guitar. I need bass. I need singers.’ I knew I had drums. I was very lucky to get my A-team together.”
* As for the sound of From Hell I Rise, King says, “It’s pretty standard. I write riffs the way I’ve always done it. I send the demos to Paul so he knows what I want in terms of drums. Then I sent demos to three new people. Creatively, there’s no real difference from before. Maybe I opened my blinders up five percent more, but nothing drastic.”
* King was pleased, if perhaps not surprised, that the Slayer fan base is supporting his solo project. “I think they see the guy from Slayer on his own, still getting new recruits going. Everywhere and every set, depending on how long our set is, we play a different number of Slayer songs, and of course those are the ones that go down best. Some of them are 30, 40 years old. But people seem to like the new material just as much, which I like.”
* King says he’s already thinking about his next album. “I’ve got loads of demos already. Paul and I are very workaholics at work, so we’ve got 10 or 12 different demos, whether it’s from the (Slayer) ‘Relentless’ sessions, the ‘From Hell I Rise’ sessions and stuff I’ve written since then. So we’ve got our foot in the door already. My plan is that when one tour cycle is over, I’ll be in the studio writing, with the momentum of the tour, bang out the next one and put it in the lap of the record company and say, ‘Whenever you’re ready…'”
* Slayer, meanwhile, are reuniting for festival appearances in Illinois, Kentucky and California in the fall. While King says “nothing is planned” beyond that, he adds, “Other than that, I guarantee Europe will be knocking as soon as they happen. I know we’ve been turning down things since the beginning of 2020. I’m not the one who backed out; it was a shock to me that the guy who wanted to back out said yes to those. You can say he’s ‘unbacked’ for three shows, but there’s not going to be a touring situation. It’s just those three shows, and if it ever happens again, it’ll probably be two or three more shows. In my mind, there’s never going to be a recording situation. That’s pretty backed out, I think.”
Kerry King performs with Lamb of God, Mastodon and Unearth at 6 p.m. Saturday, August 10, at the Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre, 14900 Metro Parkway, Sterling Heights. 313-471-7000 or 313Presents.com.