Slayer’s Kerry King announces solo album ‘From Hell I Rise’

Slayer‘s Kerry King has announced his debut solo album ‘From Hell I Rise’ and has shared its lead single ‘Idle Hands’.

During Slayer’s final show back in November of 2019 a the Los Angeles Forum in California, King took off his signature chains from his belt, held them high, dropped them onto the floor, turned around and walked off the stage. “I knew early on that I wasn’t done, and I had no intention of not continuing to play,” he revealed in a press release.

Today (January 5), King has announced that his debut LP ‘From Hell I Rise’ is set for release on May 17 via Reigning Phoenix Music. It is available for pre-order / pre-save here. The album marks his first release since Slayer’s disbandment in 2019 and features Mark Osegueda of Death Angel on vocals, Vio-lence and former Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel, Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders and King’s former Slayer bandmate Paul Bostaph on drums.

The album was produced alongside Josh Wilbur (Korn, Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion), with the bulk to the LP recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles.

Speaking about working with King in a press release, Wilbur said: “I didn’t know what to think, you know, it’s Kerry King from Slayer, who I’ve heard a million times. He’s a very strong presence. I wouldn’t say that KERRY has an ego, but he has confidence in himself, which is a good thing. That’s what you want in your rock stars and in your band.

He continued :”He never comes off as a jerk or mean guy. But he does know exactly what he wants. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He’s like, ‘I don’t want to do that, but I want to do this.’ Very direct, but it comes from a place of confidence, and not from a place of anything else. I really enjoyed working with Kerry.”

The album’s first single ‘Idle Hands’ features a pounding guitar riff and intense drums while Osegueda sings: “So begins my revolution / Violence spreads my retribution / Integrate, retaliate / I can’t believe what I see / With my own eyes! / Can’t dissect the truth from all the lies / Ideology is at the core.”

“From Hell I Rise” track listing is:

1. ‘Diablo’

2. ‘Where I Reign’

3. ‘Residue’

4. ‘Idle Hands’

5. ‘Trophies Of The Tyrant’

6. ‘Crucifixation’

7. ‘Tension’

8. ‘Everything I Hate About You’

9. ‘Toxic’

10. ‘Two Fists’

11. ‘Rage’

12. ‘Shrapnel’

13. ‘From Hell I Rise’

“Even with a record in the can, I’ve still got so many songs that need to be finished. This is what I know how to do…number one being music, number two being metal. It’s been a part of my life for 40 years, and I’m nowhere near being done,” said King in a press release.

In other news, King previosuly called his upcoming solo album “an extension” of the legendary thrash metal band’s material. 

King spoke with Metal Hammer to update fans about his album, which is slated for release in the summer. In the interview, he expressed that the album – which was finished in June 2023 – will follow in the sonic footsteps of his former band. “If I wasn’t in Slayer, I would be a Slayer fan,” he said.

“So yes, I think it’s an extension of Slayer, and I think a lot of people will think it might have been the next record. I guess maybe 80 per cent of it would have been, maybe it would have been exactly what I’m putting on this one.”

Slayer’s last release prior to their 2019 disbandment was the film The Repentless Killology. In NME’s review of the part-narrative, part-concert film, James McMahon commented that while the film depicts questionable violence and political imagery, Slayer proved an exceptional live band, stating: “If The Repentless Killology really does mark the end for Slayer, the world without them is undoubtedly a nicer place, but also so much more boring.”