KERRY KING

The King of thrash is back with his supergroup of hellish henchmen, did he slay Vancouver?

It’s been close to 6 years already since Slayer packed it in and called it quits.   The main voice behind the band Tom Araya had been wanting to retire for sometime already but the other 3 members were not ready to hang up the instruments quite yet.   Gary Holt went back to Exodus, but Kerry King and Paul Bostaph had other plans brewing for years thereafter the demise of Slayer.   Kerry continued to make songs with Paul thereafter and started a new band called Kerry King.   Once they had enough for an album, Kerry recruited guitarist Phil Demmel who had finished his gig with Machine Head and became a super sub for bands like Lamb of God.  Later Kyle Sanders (former Hell Yeah bassist) and Mark Osegueda of Death Angel.   They released their highly anticipated first album in May 2024 called From Hell I Rise.

Tonight at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver we finally get to see Kerry’s latest band with support from Alien Weaponry and Municipal Waste.  With only 1 album so far, what surprises will Kerry and the boys come out with to fill the time?

Looking at the stage, the setup has a definite Slayer-esque feel to it with Marshall cabinets that have Slayer stickers on them .   No balloons or crazy props here,  Kerry has kept it dark and serious, just like he likes it.    At 9:30 the lights go out and the first track of the album “Diablo” is played through the monitors.   They then hit the stage with “Where I Reign” off the latest album, Kerry is on the right side like we expected wailing on his pointy Dean guitar with Demmel on the left with his Jackson Randy Rhoad’s designed guitar.   I am not sure how you felt, but after watching Slayer for all these years and seeing Kerry in a completely different band, just feels odd.

They have a very accepting audience as this is a band that has pretty much the most experienced players in metal.   They don’t make mistakes, after “Rage” and, “Trophies of the Tyrant”, then my favorite song off the album “Residue”.  Lead Vocalist Mark is just a shoe in for this band, as his vocals are very close to Tom Araya’s and just fits this band perfectly, even live.   This was a genius decision to employ Mark into this band, I mean who else would’ve been suitable for this position?   Mark is pretty well liked in the metal community, no controversy, and he still can crank it out vocally.   The only controversy he may be running into is that does Kerry King become priority #1 over Death Angel?   I think Kerry is going places with this band and frankly I must say Death Angel hasn’t released anything exciting since 1987’s The Ultra Violence, arguably Humanicide, but I am remiss of anything standout that compares to Kerry Kings latest.   If I was Mark, I’d know which band is going to pay the bills.

After “Two Fists” and “Idle hands” we get what we all want, and that is a Slayer song with “Repentless” (off 2015’s Repentless).   If you closed your eyes for 10 seconds, you’d swear this was Slayer.  Mark just does an outstanding job of covering this one, and it’s just as intense.   Never really compared but does Demmel look alot like Gary Holt now?  Demmel did fill in for Gary during the Slayer final tour in Europe, as Gary had some family issues at that time.  So he is well familiar with the material.

“Toxic” is next, and those opening riffs are so Kerry King.   Some people would say this is Slayer Jr. Or Slayer Lite, but what else can this guy do?  He wrote most of the songs for Slayer so of course those labels are going to be there, but there is no mistake that all these could’ve fit off the next Slayer album after Repentless.  

“Tension” follows next at song 9, which to me, is the ballad on the album that slows the intensity down somewhat, then thereafter the venomous “Everything I Hate About You”.   Those two songs fuelled the next Slayer song of “Disciple” which was nominated for a Grammy Award  back in 2002.  Near the end what got my attention was the bass sound from Kyle when the song slows down, sounded really good, maybe better than Tom.   But saying all that, what better chorus to sing along with at a show, than the familiar “God Hates us All”, love it.

Alright this next couple of songs is a dedication to Paul Di’Anno of Iron Maiden as Paul pasted away this past October of 2024 of heart failure.   They took on “Purgatory” first, this was ok, not really a good fit for Mark and I wasn’t impressed with this cover at all.  “Killers” was next and this one was a better fit but you gotta hand it to them for the dedication because I am sure no other band would.

Now back to “Crucifixation” then back to another Slayer song, from the Hell Awaits album called “At Dawn They Sleep”, this was a cool changeup, glad they played this one.  Seems like a pattern as they played one or 2 off the album then did a cover song to keep the audience moving as song 16 was “Shrapnel”.  Did we get fire shooting all over like a Slayer show?  No, the Commodore would not allow that, but I bet in the future when (not if) Kerry will make it big.  I wonder if this is the last show at the Commodore for Kerry King, as big arena gigs will be what he is shooting for.

Next was a couple of Slayer classics with Raining Blood (at least most of it) and Black Magic.  Two songs that really defined Slayer and was met by tremendous crowd appreciation as the mosh pit swirled on those 2.   I really though that the fans would be more nutty tonight during Kerry King,  but I think people just kind of held back since this is the first Vancouver visit, and actually enjoyed the music.  Municipal Waste did a great job prior and maybe wore out most of the Generation X crowd, which are in Kerry’s age bracket (he is 60).  They ended with 18 songs, with “From Hell I Rise”, which sounded really good live.

I think this was a really well rounded set, they played the entire From hell I Rise album as well as a nice dedication to Iron Maiden and 4 Slayer songs.   What more can you ask for?  Sure, he could’ve went with some other Slayer songs but its nice to hear the ones that we don’t hear all the time.  This is likely the last time we get the entire From Hell I Rise album in full too, as likely the next time he will come with a sophomore release, so I am glad they played the entire album.  They put on a really good performance, much like Slayer, but a fine tuned version that is sure to be successful in the future if all members remain intact.   Looking forward to what Kerry comes up with on the next album, and see if the momentum continues in the future.