Kerry King – From Hell I Rise

Label: Reigning Phoenix Music (RPM) release: 17th May 2024

Slayer’s final gig happened on November 30, 2019, in the band’s Los Angeles hometown, which also marked a new beginning for iconic Slayer songwriter/guitarist Kerry King. The band co-founder wasn’t nearly finished; he had much more brutal and provocative music brewing, stages to dominate, heads to roll. King’s sound and vision manifest in the 13 songs on From Hell I Rise, the first solo outing in King’s four decades of slaying the metal universe. Joining the King crusade is Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph, bassist Kyle Sanders (Hellyeah) and vocalist Mark Osegueda (Death Angel). Though the pandemic halted King’s plans to write and release an album quickly, the process was relatively streamlined after rehearsals in Ron Sandoval’s Rev it Up Studios. Producer Josh Wilbur (Korn, Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion) tracked the album at Hollywood’s famous Henson Studios in a little over two weeks.

King himself addresses the most obvious question: “I think people are going to compare it to Slayer. I’m not afraid of that because I think it stands up to anything we’ve done in our history, musically, performance-wise.”

Yes, there is definitely a lot of Slayer stuff (e.g. From Hell I Rise, Crucifixation, Where I Reign, Idle Hands, Trophies of the Tyrant – a South of Heaven era track). But also some tracks that do not match this description, e.g. the mid-tempo grooving “Residue” and “Two Fists”. Let’s be honest, what else did we expect – a tenderly crooning Kerry King to a pure Salsa track, or if the “Toxic” track on the album had turned out to be a Britney Spears cover version…. THAT would have been a REAL surprise 🙂
My conclusion: Slayer fans will be delighted, as will be everybody who enjoys 80s Bay Area Thrash Metal.