The word “legendary” is thrown around with reckless abandon these days, so much so that it has lost all currency. However, in the case of guitarist Kerry King no other word will suffice. As part of thrash titans Slayer, he changed the face of popular music and ensured the landscape of heavy metal would never be the same again. Not content to rest upon past glories, he’s back with an eponymously-titled band to sonically assault us once again, and the first offering from that project, From Hell I Rise, stands up against anything in his past, and signposts a bright (if blood soaked) future.
When a chunky, wrecking ball of a riff comes swinging out of the speakers on opening track ‘Diablo’, you know it could only be Kerry King plucking those strings. That’s not to say he’s generic, far from it, yet that grizzly-with-a-sore-head sound could only be his. The great thing about Kerry is that he’s not about to tear up his roots or radically reinvent himself, and subsequently ‘Diablo’ could have come from any one of Slayer’s albums. It suggests a certain stability of spirit to hold onto one’s past, and that’s exactly what’s served up here. It’s a bruising, mood inytroduction and ensures that when ‘Where I Reign’ arrives it’s with the force of an irradiated warhead. While Kerry’s guitar takes a prominent role here, there’s no rampant ego involved and he seems content to take his role within the band, sacrificing himself to the greater good. Throughout the album Kerry and Phil Demmel (formerly Machine Head) make the perfect tag team, riffing in tandem (‘Residue’) or dualling solos wildly (‘Crucifixation’) but always locking in tightly for maximum carnage.
With Paul Bostaph on drums and vocalist Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) evidencing an Araya-type rasp, comparisons will always be drawn with Slayer, but Kerry King (the band) are definitely moving in their own direction. There’s the ninety-second, skin-shredding hardcore blast of ‘Everything I Hate About You’, the groove laden ‘Two Fists’ and the doomy ‘Shrapnel’ to cover all bases, ensuring that if you like the multifaceted approach of bands who blend different types of heavy music, then you’ll find a spiritual home in Kerry King. Featuring a (lucky) thirteen tracks, it’s the monolithic title-track that brings the album to a cataclysmic conclusion, and such is its raw, visceral power that the silence that follows is positively deafening. Rick Rubin once said that you can’t play anything after Slayer, it transpires that the same applies to Kerry King.
Aided by a strong production (courtesy of Josh Wilbur) From Hell I Rise marks a welcome return from one of metal’s most respected guitarists, and one that sets Kerry King on an upward trajectory.
- From Hell I Rise is released via Reigning Phoenix Music on 17th May 2024.
- Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube Channel
Track List:
- Diablo
- Where I Reign
- Residue
- Idle Hands
- Trophies Of The Tyrant
- Crucifixation
- Tension
- Everything I Hate About You
- Toxic
- Two Fists
- Rage
- Shrapnel
- From Hell I Rise
