In the third video in his series of interviews for his debut album, ‘From Hell I Rise,’ Kerry King talked about reactions to the record.
The guitarist compared it to his Slayer albums, explaining:
“I’ve heard from not only friends, journalists, people I’m doing interviews with that they like this better as a whole than any single record I’ve done in my career. It’s hard for me to say that, because I’ve been a part of all that stuff. But good friends are really fired up about this record that wouldn’t blow sunshine up my a**.”
King Is Satisfied With His Solo Album
He further shared the reactions:
“And journalists I’ve known for a long, long time, but we’re not just acquaintances; they’re friends of mine that I don’t get to see because of the pandemic. And now things are getting fired up. I’m gonna see all my journalist friends again. But people are talking this record up really big.”
King revealed why he likes his debut solo album more than Slayer’s ‘Repentless’:
“And they’ve all heard the whole thing, of course, ’cause they’re doing interviews about it, so they have backup to their story. But I’ve heard people are really stoked about this record. I like this record a lot. I like [Slayer’s final album, 2015’s] ‘Repentless’ a lot. But I think the performance of everybody is better on this one.”
King Wanted To Continue With The Slayer Style
Before ‘From Hell I Rise,’ Kerry said in a Metal Hammer interview that his new band continues where Slayer left off. He mentioned that much of the material could have been on Slayer’s next record if the band had continued. The musician noted:
“If I was ever to try anything different, I guess that would be the time. But no, I really have no desire to do anything different. If I wasn’t in Slayer, I would be a Slayer fan. 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% of it would have been, maybe it would have been exactly what I’m putting on this one. In my eyes, I think it’s a definite extension, a follow-up to ‘Repentless’ for sure.”
‘From Hell I Rise’ arrived on May 17. In a chat with Classic Rock last month, King said his main competition now is Slayer itself. Now, his biggest challenge is doing better than what he achieved with Slayer, even though others expect him to fail.
You can watch Kerry’s full video below.