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By Kelley Simms photo by Andrew Stuart
ive years since Slayer played what was to be the band ' s final gig on November 30 , 2019 , on their Farewell Tour during a hometown show at the Forum in Los Angeles , guitarist Kerry King has resurfaced with the release of his first solo album , ** From Hell I Rise ( via Reigning Phoenix Music ).
Recruiting former Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph was a no-brainer , while former Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders , former Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel , and current Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda were also top-shelf choices , making the Kerry King band one lethal unit .
With Bostaph already on board with the project , Demmel became available after his exit from Machine Head in 2018 after 15 years of service and let King know his intent on wanting to join the band . Demmel was already familiar with King as he filled in for guitarist Gary Holt on the last four European Slayer shows in 2018 . Elsewhere , King hit it off perfectly with Sanders while their respective bands performed at the final Mayhem Festival in 2015 . Last but not least , Osegueda threw his name in the hat early on by participating in the recording of the demos with King and Bostaph off and on for eight to nine months .
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STARTING OVER
Post-pandemic , it costs exponentially more to bring a heavy metal show to audiences . Four years after COVID-19 subsided , the inflated touring prices continue to rise and seem to refuse to go back down to where it ' s reasonable enough for bands to get out and tour comfortably . Although King has the built-in name recognition and notoriety from being in Slayer for the past 40 years , he ’ s basically starting all over again with a new band . “ It ' s just a whole other animal ,” King confesses during a recent phone interview . “ I haven ' t started a new band in 40 years — then I was a teenager , and it all seemed easy . I ' ve been riding the headline wave for a long time . It is more difficult ; the way I ' m used to traveling has to change because it ' s too expensive . So I ' m learning how to make that work .”
Work on From Hell I Rise began as early as 2020 . However , King initially created some of the material that made the record during Slayer ’ s Repentless writing sessions , and on the 13 “ Slayer worthy ” tracks , King ’ s thrashy DNA permeates throughout the entire album . “ There were two ( tracks ) left over from Repentance ,” King admits . “ On the next record , there ' s three or four left over from Repentance as well as three or four left over from From Hell
solo time
I Rise , and three or four I ' ve written since then . But you also have to understand that since God Hates Us All , I ' ve been responsible for most of the Slayer stuff . People say it sounds like Slayer and ask me if I ’ m concerned with that . But I ’ d rather be compared to myself than bands I don ' t like .”
THE DEVIL ’ S WORK
Writing all the music and lyrics for From Hell I Rise , King then demoed the songs by playing the bass and the guitar while also laying down scratch vocals before calling in Osegueda to put his magic touch on the tracks . The Death Angel vocalist ’ s dynamic range on the album is second to none . Although his timbre and inflection mimic noticeable Tom Araya similarities , one would be hard-pressed to imagine a more well-suited vocalist than Osegueda on King ' s solo debut . “ I had so many lyric ideas , and we had Pro Tools set up in our rehearsal room , so anytime I had something at the end of practice , we ' d just go for vocals until I got tired of doing it or until I ran out ,” King explains . “ And every time we ' d get together , I would just punch in and make them better . So you got as good of a version ( of vocals ) as I can do — and that ' s not great — but it conveys the thought ; it conveys the conviction . So when
Mark came in , he didn ' t have to find where ( the vocals ) went ; he already knew where ( the vocals ) went .”
Kicking the album off with the brief instrumental opener “ Diablo ,” FHIR comfortably steers in the thrash metal lane , while the track “ Tension ” contains a touch of groove metal , and “ Two Fists ” displays some savage punk / hardcore tendencies . The third track , “ Residue ,” is a mid-paced rager that wouldn ’ t have been out of place on Slayer ’ s ** God Hates Us All . However , a few of the tracks are a bit too repetitive without much musical variation or tempo changes , which ultimately wears out their welcome rather quickly . But for the most part , fans of latter-day Slayer will welcome ** From Hell I Rise * with open arms . The musical chemistry and camaraderie are highly apparent throughout the record , as King was already friends with his bandmates — which made the transition even easier . The guitar histrionics throughout the tracks are just as one would expect from King , but Demmel ’ s solos are highly engaging and complement King ’ s spots rather nicely . Plus , King gave Demmel free rein with his solos and tried to divvy them up equally between the two guitarists . “ I had the opportunity to make up probably 95 % of them ( beforehand ),” King
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