The Los Angeles Forum, just before midnight on Saturday, November 30, 2019. Slayer’s Kerry King stood center stage; his signature chains hung from his belt; he walked over to stage right, unhooked the chains and held them high, dropped them on to 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.” - Kerry King

With enough new material for two full albums, all written by King, if it hadn’t been for the COVID pandemic, his long-awaited solo project would likely have emerged in 2020. For his debut album, From Hell I Rise, due out May 17 via Reigning Phoenix Music, King on guitar, enlisted drummer Paul Bostaph (Slayer), bassist Kyle Sanders (Hellyeah), Phil Demmel (formerly of Machine Head) on guitar, and vocalist Mark Osegueda (Death Angel). Working with producer Josh Wilbur (Korn, Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold, Bad Religion), the vast bulk of King’s solo album was recorded at Henson Studios in Los Angeles in about two weeks and was finished this past June.

“I didn’t know what to think, you know, it’s Kerry King from Slayer, who I’ve heard a million times,” said Wilbur. “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 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.”

According to King, the new music consists of “various religious topics, some war entries, heavy stuff, punky stuff, doomy stuff, and spooky stuff, with Herculean speeds achieved. If you’ve ever liked any Slayer throughout any part of our history," he adds, "there’s something on this record that you’ll get into, be it classic punk, fast punk, thrash, or just plain heavy metal!”

Also announced today is the release of "Idle Hands", the debut track from King’s upcoming solo project. It’s fast, it’s aggressive, it will smash you up against a brick wall and leave you breathless. Check it out below.

"All of us at RPM are very excited to be working with Kerry King, and it's an honor to be working his first solo album," said RPM's co-founder and President, Gerardo Martinez. "The joy of working on Slayer's last album, Repentless, and to be reunited with my brother on his new musical journey doesn't get any better!"

As King admits, “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.”

Listen to/save "Idle Hands" and pre-order/pre-save From Hell I Rise here. A visualizer for "Idle Hands" can be viewed below.

From Hell I Rise tracklisting:

"Diablo"
"Where I Reign"
"Residue"
"Idle Hands"
"Trophies Of The Tyrant"
"Crucifixation"
"Tension"
"Everything I Hate About You"
"Toxic"
"Two Fists"
"Rage"
"Shrapnel"
"From Hell I Rise"

"Idle Hands" visualizer:

Meanwhile, in a candid interview with Rolling Stone, Kerry King looks back on the end of one of thrash metal's most influential bands and ahead with his solo album. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow...

Rolling Stone: Mark Osegueda sounds incredible. Was he the obvious singer?

Kerry King: "With Mark, he was on board early on. I just didn’t pull that trigger. I was like, 'Let’s see what happens.' Say for instance, [Judas Priest’s] Rob Halford calls me and says, 'Hey, I would love to be your singer,' I’d have to go that way."

Rolling Stone: Did you ever consider doing an album like Tony Iommi’s with different singers on every song?

Kerry King: "I was against that because it’s not reproducible. Say Rob Halford sings a song; who’s going to sing that live? Mark would do pretty good, but I want to have an album — like an old-school album with the same band. I don’t want guest musicians."

Rolling Stone: Rumors have circulated that Phil Anselmo would sing on your album. Was that ever a possibility?

Kerry King: "It was considered. My management, my promoter, my record label all wanted Phil. Phil’s a good friend of mine, but I always thought he’s not the right guy. That has nothing to do with his ability; I just knew he wasn’t the right guy. When you hear Mark on this record, you know that’s the guy. I had to do due diligence, because at the end of the day, had Philip been the guy, we’d be in arenas immediately because we could play new stuff, we could play Pantera, we could play Slayer, and fans would’ve been happy. It ended when the Pantera thing came up."

Rolling Stone: I saw Mark a few years back singing covers of Minor Threat and Cameo in the Wedding Band with members of Metallica. It was different from what he does in Death Angel, and he sounded great.

Kerry King: "He’s super versatile. He took steps to make this different than Death Angel. I don’t touch on probably 50 percent of what he can do on the album. Mark knew how I expected the songs to be performed. On my demos, I sing with very good conviction, but I don’t have pipes; that’s why I don’t sing. With “Residue,” he sounded so good I had to ask him, 'Is this sustainable? I don’t want you to blow your load on this record and then blow your voice out every third show.' And he swore up and down he could do it. He went on to some of the harder ones and did the same thing on those, so I went, 'OK.'"

Rolling Stone: The way he sings, it sounds like Slayer.

Kerry King: "Well, that’s me putting the vocals together. Tom could scream his ass off. I’ll never take that away from Tom. His conviction might come and go — and I’m not looking to jab at Tom, that’s not the point — but Mark just showed up every fucking day and is on point every fucking second of every song."

Rolling Stone: Since we’re talking about Tom, how did you find out he wanted to retire?

Kerry King: "We were on tour and some kid was interviewing him, and he said something about, 'I’ve got to get together with Kerry and talk before we talk about the next record.' He should have just said, 'I’m probably not going to do another record,' or had that conversation with me before he mentioned anything like that. I was just assuming, 'Oh fuck, what’s this going to be?' And it was, 'I’m done.' Not what I expected. But if you made that decision, I’m not going to try to talk you out of it because your heart’s not going to be in it anyway."

Rolling Stone: Did he say why he was done?

Kerry King: "I think just the wear and tear of the road. I think he wanted to be home. None of us are real spotlight seekers, but he’s certainly not. And when Jeff [Hanneman] was around, he was like a hermit. He did not want fame. I tolerate fame. Somebody’s got to be that guy."

Rolling Stone: I was wondering if the split was due to you two having different political ideologies. You seemed pretty angry when Tom posted about Trump on Slayer’s Instagram.

Kerry King: "I was super pissed off at that — but not enough to fucking quit my band. I was like, 'Dude, that’s what your personal social media is for. You’re the only one in this band that gives a shit about this idiot, and when you put it up there, we’re all backing him.' And I am not [backing Trump], Gary’s not, Paul is not. That’s your opinion, not ours. I would never do that to you."

Rolling Stone: I wasn’t sure if it was something deeper.

Kerry King: "Well, me and Tom have never been on the same page. Like if I want a chocolate shake, he wants a vanilla shake. 'Kerry, what color is the sky?' Blue. 'Tom, what color is the sky?' White. We’re just different people. The further on in years we got, it just became more. Am I going to hang out with Tom? He likes tequila a little bit and I’m a big tequila-head, so I’ll have my shot with him, and we’ll part ways. We’re not going to hang out or anything because we are very different people. And together, we made great music and a great live show."

Rolling Stone: When did it hit you that Slayer was done?

Kerry King: "It hit me right away because I knew I wasn’t going to change anything about what I do. He said it. When we got to the Forum for the last two shows — especially the last one — I’m like, 'This is the last time I’m going to be doing this in this format.' It was tough. The hardest thing for me probably was keeping my head in the game [during the shows] and not messing up [playing] because your whole life’s in your head.

Rolling Stone: Have you talked to Tom at all since the last show?

Kerry King: "Not even a text. Not even an email. I’ve talked to everybody else from the band on the phone, text, or email. If Tom hit me up, I’d probably respond. It probably depends on what he hit me up for, but I don’t wish him dead at this moment."

Rolling Stone: Did you reach out to Tom about re-recording the songs you’d done in the Repentless sessions for From Hell I Rise?

Kerry King: "Doesn’t matter. I wrote them. Had he wrote any, if I used them, I would’ve changed them, like the Metallica-Mustaine early days. But the leftover stuff was my stuff, so there’s no issues."

Rolling Stone: The only other surviving original Slayer member is Dave Lombardo, but the band fired him in 2013 after he made a Facebook post about the band’s business behind the scenes. Have you talked to him?

Kerry King: "No. Lombardo is dead to me."

Rolling Stone: I didn’t know it was that bad.

Kerry King: "He went on that tirade when we were on a flight to Australia, and he knew we couldn’t retort for 14 hours, and he threw me under the bus. I was the only one keeping him in the band. Tom wanted him out before that, and Jeff had just gotten the spider bite [causing him to contract a flesh-eating bacteria, forcing him off the road], so he wasn’t playing with us much. I said, 'We need [Dave]. The fans won’t get it if we replace him right now.' And then the Australia thing came up. He threw me under the bus, and I’m like, 'I’m the guy that kept you here.' So I thought, 'Fuck that guy.'"

Read more at RollingStone.com.

(Photo - Andrew Stuart Photography)