AUSTIN — When the co-founding guitarist of one of thrash metal’s Big 4 walked off stage toward the end of 2019 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, fans had no way of knowing if it was going to be the final time they would see Kerry King shred.
The riveting riff master of Slayer since 1983’s Show No Mercy debut, King eventually made no bones about the fact he still had plenty of music left to get off his chest and onto his Flying V, and that Slayer’s premature retirement was not his call.
Roughly 4 1/2 years and a bunch of well-kept secrets from within later, King hasn’t just re-emerged with a solo band in supergroup form.
He’s risen from hell.
Having unleashed From Hell I Rise on May 17, King brought his new-look musical outfit to the Germania Insurance Amphitheater on Saturday night as a support act for the co-headlining Lamb Of God / Mastodon trek known as the Ashes of Leviathan tour. And though he was relegated to a 40-minute set in the death of Texas’ muggy mid-’90s temperatures, Kerry King the band pulverized the amphitheater the only way its namesake and his cohorts know how.
Basically sworn to secrecy for several months, King’s bandmates came to fruition in the form of Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda, ex-Machine Head and Violence guitarist Phil Demmel, Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders and one-fourth of Slayer in drummer Paul Bostaph.
King’s solo album could very well have served as a new Slayer record. For many fans, that would’ve been just fine. For others, perhaps they’d want something a little different.
But thrash, anti-religion and to-hell-with-political liars lyrics reside like residue in King’s blood, and From Hell I Rise — a strong candidate for metal album of the year — sports many tunes that get heads banging and pits swirling.
King’s band played seven of those tracks, opening with the album’s intro “Diablo” on the P.A. before taking the stage at 6:50 p.m. to “Where I Reign.”
Other album highlights included second tune “Trophies of the Tyrant” and initial single “Idle Hands,” with Osegueda commanding the crowd’s attention and energy as if his life depended on it.
And if for some reason you were in the merch line or, worse yet, the venue’s facilities during King’s set, you should be kicking yourself for missing the intensity of “Toxic.” With the Death Angel frontman spewing out: “Too many people, spend too much time, forcing their opinions on other people’s lives. Toxic rhetoric. Toxic government. Toxic politics. TOXIC. HYPOCRITES,” you may as well have been clinically dead if you couldn’t get fired up after that one.
Not exactly to be confused with the Britney Spears hit.
But of course, it wouldn’t have been a crowning performance without a taste of Slayer, and King obliged with the mandatory “Raining Blood” segueing into “Black Magic.” Watch ATM’s Facebook Live footage of those along with new track “Shrapnel” here.
The danger with supergroups is getting each member’s schedule from his main band to mesh if the new unit has a desire to take its act on the road for longer, non-supporting periods of time. Although Slayer is set to put an end to its time off with a couple of festival gigs that are said to be more reacquaintances than anything permanent, you can bet Slayer fans — and true metalheads in general — would be even happier to see Kerry King on stage more often, bringing the best that 40 years of material plus From Hell I Rise have to offer.
So while King may have been happy to unveil his new gathering as part of a Lamb Of God / Mastodon package, a major jaunt of his own would be just what the metal gods need to order.
Sign us up, San Antonio promoters. It can’t come fast enough.
SETLIST: Diablo (intro), Where I Reign, Trophies of the Tyrant, Residue, Toxic, Idle Hands, Shrapnel, Raining Blood, Black Magic, From Hell I Rise
