"I'M VERY GOOD AT NOT FOLLOWING RULES!!!

As one half of Slayer's fearsome guitar attack, Kerry King shaped the sound of extreme metal. With a new album and a new sparring partner, he hasn't mellowed...

- Amit Sharma

Kerry King’s no-nonsense approach to creating razor-sharp, life-affirming heavy metal has made him one of the world’s most influential players. His work in Slayer with co-guitarist the late Jeff Hanneman set the benchmark for a new kind of murderous noise – sounding thicker and angrier than anything before it. As pioneers of thrash metal in the early ’80s alongside Metallica, Megadeth and a host of other speed-fuelled bands, Slayer would lay the groundwork for the varying waves of metal that followed.

When Slayer announced their retirement and played their final show in 2019, Kerry was certainly vocal about not being happy with the decision. “We quit too early,” he reflected. “I hate not playing.” But now he’s back on the horse and doing what he does best, writing riffs heavy enough to knock the earth off-axis to create From Hell I Rise – the debut offering from a new band under his own name.

Before we get to the music, however, we need to address the elephant in the room. Only weeks after Kerry officially announced his comeback, Slayer were confirmed to be headlining US festivals later in the year. Few could have predicted things turning out like this, including the guitarist himself...

“It caught me off-guard, too!” he admits. “Do I wish the timing was different? Absolutely, but that’s completely out of my hands.”