Former Slayer guitarist Kerry King has finally unveiled his much anticipated new solo project in full, courtesy of a brand new single, title for his upcoming album and the long awaited reveal of the four men that will be joining him in his new band. As first suggested by his appearance on the bill for this year's Welcome To Rockville Festival in May, King's new project will perform under his own name - something which he tells Rolling Stone wasn't the original plan.
"It was going to be King’s Reign for a long time, which is really cool," he explains. "But even with that one, I went to the guys, like, 'I’m not a vain dude. I don’t want my name to be a part of it.' We talked about Blood Rain for a while, but it didn’t work. Every time I came up with anything remotely cool, it was taken by some obscure band in Eastern Europe. It became Kerry King because I love that logo."
The "guys" he refers to are his bandmates in the new project: his former Slayer bandmate Paul Bostaph on drums, ex-Machine Head man Phil Demmel on guitar, Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders and Death Angel frontman Mark Osegueda behind the mic. Osegueda's inclusion may surprise many fans given that it was rumoured for a long time that Pantera's Phil Anselmo would be fronting the band.
"It was considered," King confirms of Anselmo's potential involvement in his Rolling Stone interview. "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."
Kerry King's first solo single comes in the form of the explosive Idle Hands, and serves as a clear sign that, as the guitarist has often suggested in recent months, his new band will pick up where Slayer left off.
"I had the song sequence for this, fuck, for two years probably," King tells Rolling Stone. "I structured it like a song list for a stage show. There has to be an intro, because I got to come to the stage to something, and then there’s the opener that blows the doors off of everything."
King goes on to detail more songs from the new album, which is titled From Hell I Rise and will land on May 17: "Then you back it up with something heavy; on this one, it’s Residue. Then Tension is a spooky one. Two Fists is the Eighties punk one. I call Crucifixation the money shot. That’s like supreme Eighties thrash with the big breakdown in the middle."
King is also asked in the interview if he could ever see Slayer performing again, and his answer suggests his focus is very much now directed on his solo work for the foreseeable future.
"Will Slayer tour again? I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen," he muses. "Could Slayer play a show again? I’m sure there’s a scenario. Am I looking for it? No, I’m just getting ready to start my career. So if that happens, it happens. But I’m going to be doing this for the next 10 years at least."
Listen to Idle Hands below.
