Legendary SLAYER guitarist Kerry King will release his debut solo album, From Hell I Rise, on May 17. First single, “Idle Hands,” can be heard below.
In addition to King, the album features DEATH ANGEL vocalist Mark Osegueda, longtime SLAYER drummer Paul Bostaph, former HELLYEAH bassist Kyle Sanders, and ex–MACHINE HEAD and VIO-LENCE guitarist Phil Demmel.
The guitarist views the album as an extension of his creative journey since Repentless. The title track, “From Hell I Rise,” along with another song, are the two pieces he has retained from SLAYER‘s Repentless sessions.
“It was finished, we recorded it,” King tells Rolling Stone. “I wasn’t happy with the performance part of it, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll put this in my back pocket until the next SLAYER record.’ And that didn’t happen, so it’s now on my record.” (The other Repentless-era song is titled “Rage.”)
King mentions that he’s ready for another solo album, as he still possesses four leftover tracks from Repentless that he can re-record, along with six unused songs from the current album’s sessions. Moreover, he continues to engage in writing new material.
“I’m taking advantage of what the pandemic’s given me,” he says. “I’m not just sitting on my a*s.”
When asked how Osegueda ended up as singer for his solo album, King says: With Mark, he was on board early on. I just didn’t pull that trigger. I was like, “Let’s see what happens.” Say for instance, [JUDAS PRIEST’s] Rob Halford calls me and says, “Hey, I would love to be your singer,” I’d have to go that way.
Regarding the early rumors that Phil Anselmo was consider as the vocalist for the project, he explains: It was considered. “My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil. Phil’s a good friend of mine, but I always thought he’s not the right guy. That has nothing to do with his ability; I just knew he wasn’t the right guy. When you hear Mark on this record, you know that’s the guy.”
“I had to do due diligence, because at the end of the day, had Philip been the guy, we’d be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff, we could play PANTERA, we could play SLAYER, and fans would’ve been happy. It ended when the PANTERA thing came up.
