In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone, ex-Slayer guitarist Kerry King let it all out — his time with Slayer, his solo album titled From Hell I Rise, and its first single “Idle Hands.” And it turns out his description of it being an extension of Repentless is pretty much spot on.
While speaking with Rolling Stone’s Kory Grow, King said he immediately began thinking about a solo project as soon as ex-Slayer frontman Tom Araya said he wanted the band to come to an end. We’ve known for a while that King wasn’t a happy camper when Slayer decided to hang it all up and call it a career. The way he tells it, that was the impetus for why he “shifted gears” and began thinking about his next project.
“I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not done.’ The only regret I have is that we finished when we finished. But it’s also like, ‘Hey man, we’re Peyton Manning: We won the Super Bowl and we left.’ And unfortunately the world went to shit right after.”
With his solo project lining up live shows and gearing up for what should be a big 2024, King gave more details into the project itself. Former Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph has been attached to King’s solo effort for a while now, but with the release of its first single, we now know who else will be filling out the band. Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda will be the voice of King’s rage, while ex-Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders and Vio-lence guitarist Phil Demmel fill out the lineup.
As you can hear in the clip below, “Idle Hands” is so Slayer, it almost hurts. In his interview, King doesn’t shy from the fact that it’s basically a continuation of Slayer’s last record. He even admits that the title track was one of two songs that his former band left on the cutting room floor.
“It was finished, we recorded it. 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.”
As for the album itself, From Hell I Rise, we previously reported that Lamb of God’s long-time producer Josh Wilbur was working with King in the studio. But what we do know now, is that King’s had the album’s song list down for two years and that it took just weeks to record the whole thing. Oh and Phil Anselmo was considered to be the project’s vocalist — even though King said he always knew from the start that “he’s not the right guy.”
There’s so much to unpack in the Rolling Stone interview that we’ll likely have at least one or two more things to post about it. But for now, the most important information that you want to know is more about the album. From Hell I Rise will have 13 new tracks and will be released on May 17. Pre-order information and whatnot will be added once we get that info.