Review by: Alan Ralph @AlanHasPicks
Cover photo by: Jim Louvau @jimlouvau
“It’s gonna sound like Slayer without it being Slayer.” (Paul Bostaph, August 27, 2020, Metal Injection)
“[O]f course it’s gonna sound like Slayer; I wrote 90% of the last record [Repentless].” (Kerry King, May 13, 2024, Revolver)
After an eighteen-month ‘final’ tour, Slayer called it quits on November 30, 2019, and it surprised absolutely no one that Kerry King would be back. Even the guitar picks that he threw out from the stage every night on the final tour said: Kerry King will be “Reborn” in “2020”.
Due to a worldwide epidemic known as Covid-19 and the many lockdowns associated with it, that resurrection was delayed for a couple more years, with the songs finally recorded and ready by mid-2023.
Who would be taking part in the recording of these songs? Would Kerry King start a completely new band with unknowns? That notion always seemed unlikely, especially since it was known very early on that long-time Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph would be part of this new project. From there, he basically cherry-picked the remaining musicians from his vast Rolodex of, well, probably every metal musician that matters over the past 40 years!
One of the worst kept secrets in metal in 2023, Phil Demmel was often rumored to be King’s second guitar player. After leaving Machine Head in late-November 2018, he immediately filled in for Gary Holt for several Slayer shows in Europe, and since then, has become the go-to pinch hitter guitarist, for Lamb of God, Overkill, Nonpoint and Testament, while doing his own thing in Vio-lence, BPMD, Category 7, appearing with Metal Allegiance, as well as his Bay Area cover band The Merkins.
Conversely, one of the best kept secrets in metal, Mark Osegueda of Death Angel emerged as the screaming voice of this band. It is beyond the scope of imagination that anything is able to remain a complete secret these days of leaked albums and TMZ and social media. There were not even any rumors abound, yet on February 5 when the song Idle Hands was released to the masses, upon hearing that first oh-so-familiar scream of Mark’s, it felt like there was no way that absolutely no one (except King and Death Angel) knew about this!
Also unknown until February 5 was that Kyle Sanders of Hellyeah (brother of Mastodon singer Troy Sanders) would be the coveted bass player. “I met Kyle in 2015 on the Rockstar Mayhem tour and we became friends very quickly. I knew that if I ever wanted a bassist, that’s who I’d be calling.” (Kerry King, May 9, 2024, CBS SF)
Historically, album reviews generally hit the streets well before an album is released, and Spinning Platters has been listening to From Hell I Rise for the past six weeks. Due to some unrelated conflicts which caused a long delay in finishing this piece, the eve of its release (May 17) seemed like the perfect moment to publish it!
In addition, YouTube now has videos of the live debut of (The) Kerry King (Band) from Reggie’s and Welcome to Rockville, both of which took place seven to ten days prior. So, this now becomes less of an album review and more of an overall opinion of the entire project.
To be able to see it all come together in a live setting with all of the other handpicked members says way more about the band than just simply listening ad nauseum to the record and trying to conjure up twenty different adjectives and ways to write ‘This song is great’, ‘This song is not as great’, ‘This song sounds like Slayer’, etc.
Just sit back for the next hour, grab a beverage, and watch this video instead!
Mark sounds as amazing and comfortable with Kerry’s songs (and a few Slayer songs) as he always is with his own Death Angel material. Here, he’s not Tom Araya, nor is he trying to be. Substituting Gary Holt’s solos and riffs with Phil’s handiwork is flawless; and of course, Kerry and Paul have worked together seamlessly for decades.
Although Slayer announced three festival shows in the coming months, don’t let that be a distraction from this incredible new band that Kerry King and his new band of brothers will hopefully be doing for a very long time.
See more photos of all of your favorite Metal musicians at Alan Ralph‘s photo portfolio.
