"From Hell I Rise" - A Conversation with Kerry King

It’s not everyday you get a call like this: “What are you doing this afternoon? Could you interview Kerry King about his new album?” When given the chance to talk to one of the arguably biggest and most influential people in the history of thrash metal, the choice must be yes. I’ll out myself right here and now, I’m a big Slayer fan and have seen them live quite a lot, but I have to also mention that throughout the interview, the word Slayer wasn’t mentioned once. We were there to talk about From Hell I Rise, how Kerry put the band together, how the album was made and briefly touch on his guitars an guitar tone.

How would you describe it overall, from the start to the album coming out? What was that like working on a whole new album without other previous guidelines or constraints or with folks you've been writing with a long time? What was writing this new album like?

Kerry: It was very business as usual because me and Paul were basically doing the same thing for the last two or three records that we've worked on. It was very familiar, I think as far as the content of the music. Say, for instance, all my career, I had blinders on, say, at 95%. I'd say for this one, my blinders are probably 93%. I opened up something very little, but something that I may never done in my previous band that works for this because there's no history. It's just a history of where I've been, but not where I am or where I'm going. So it was just a little bit more free, and I keep those pressures on myself. They're not imposed by anybody because I wanted people to get what they thought I would be doing. That's what I wanted to achieve and deliver to the fans. So that's what I came up with.

Taking the blinders off, like you said, even a 2% difference for someone who's written typically fast, aggressive, the hallmark thrash stuff, that's huge. I hear those changes when I’ve listened to the new record. The subtle little differences along the way really add up to some creative detours in comparison to a lot of the other music you've written. Regarding Paul’s involvement;  the two of you have had a pretty special and productive friendship and relationship. Did you treat any parts of the writing process differently based on the ideas you brought to the table or the ideas he brought to the table?

Kerry: The one thing that stands out to me is the song Two Fists. I wanted it to be... It's definitely a punk tribute song for me, but I wanted it to sound like it was written by a punk band in the '80s, and I wanted it to sound lyrically like it was written by somebody that had their hand in punk in the '80s. That one, more than anything, describes the blinders statement I meant, because early in that song, it says, This fucking ship's about to sink. I think I need another drink Which at times definitely describes me, but it's something I never would have written in Slayer. For whatever reason that is or was, I would never do it. But in this song and in this instance, it fits perfectly, and it does not sound out of place.

I was hoping you were going to bring up that track because I was going to say you've brought up how writing with Jeff in your career, he got you into listening to a lot more of the punk stuff.

Kerry: Yeah, I think this whole record is just a crapshoot of everything that's influenced me in my career. I'm pretty sure I touched on just everything. I don't feel like I've left anything out.

You covered the brooding, and the groovier parts. There's plenty of speed too. There's plenty of aggression in the playing and in Mark's vocal deliveries, which brings me to my next point. Did you have Mark in mind for vocals when you began writing the record, or were there other vocalists you were thinking about? Maybe the more you heard Mark you decided, he was the guy?

Kerry: I was just waiting. When I was making up the music, I was just making up stuff that I liked with no particular singer in mind other than myself. I never wanted to sing on the record because I don't have a great voice. But I've got conviction like a motherfucker, but that doesn't sell songs. I'd sing all the demos, and I sent them to Mark. He threw his name in the hat very early. He's the only singer who ever came down and worked with me and Paul. From the first time he came down, he probably worked with us for 10, 12 months before I even gave him the gig. But he would just come down and see how he can make the demo It was better, and be ready, prepared if he got the gig. And early on in that process, I started transforming him. I might have said, it might have been a sentence, it might have been a paragraph, but every time I would give him some direction on where I wanted him to be. I said, Everything you've done to this point doesn't exist. I said, We have to recreate you. We have to make everything you say, whether you speak it or sing it, it's got to be an event, and you got to make people pay a fucking attention. So from day one, I started recreating him, and I think it really came to a head at the recording when he started singing the final takes.

When you dropped the first single, I didn’t know who else was in the band except for Paul. When I put it on, I couldn’t figure out who the vocalist was, and then we read an article where you named everybody in the band and I was really surprised and pleased that it was him. You’ve got heavy hitters at every position in the band with Phil (Machine Head, Vio-Lence) and Kyle (HellYeah) was there a “getting to know you” phase or with having known those guys for years did it just fit? Did it take a while to get everything glued together?

Kerry: You want to know something that you're not going to believe? We never actually played together until we did the video. Holy shit. Then we weren't [really] playing together. We weren't plugged in, but we were playing together. So visually, that was our first chance to see it all together, people performing together. Then we never really actually played together with volume until rehearsals before Europe. These guys are professionals. They're all really good at what they do. I was never worried about it for a second. That's just how it played out this time.

I need to break up the interview here for a minute as it deserves being mentioned, but whether you like Kerry, his music, his image it doesn’t matter because at face value, he’s been generous with his time, he’s been laid back and considering that we had this interview on his day off showed more of his personality than I could have expected. (And no, his publicists did not ask us or pay us to say that. In fact, I think we could’ve chatted longer had we not had to keep things on a schedule!)

Let’s go back to how the record came together. What was working with Josh [Wilbur] like?

Kerry: I didn't really know Josh at all because in this day and age where CDs aren't as prominent as they used to be, back when they were, maybe I would know more about producers. But now, you hear music on Spotify, Apple Music, Sirius XM, and there's no producer information on any of that stuff. So he was brought up to me by my record company. We met at dinner night after rehearsal, me and Paul, and the record guy and Josh. When we left that meeting, I didn't think we're going to work together because the window I wanted, he didn't have available. And then after the meeting, within 48 hours, he freed up his schedule. When I wanted to record, he was free. I felt good about that. That encouraged me that he was willing to drop what he's doing to do this. For us in the recording, the actual process took 14 days. We ripped right through that stuff. That shows you how prepared myself, Paul, and especially Mark were to get all that done in that amount of time.

If I remember correctly, you said Josh captured your guitar sound the best from anybody you've worked with previously, is that right?

Kerry: Yeah, that's certainly not a dig on people I've used in the past, but it's an artistic It's a classic thing. It's how something is mic'd, how the board hears it and interprets it, and then in mixing, how it's mixed and mastered. I think listening to this record sounds the most like my live sound.

How was getting a tone that you and Josh were both satisfied with? Did that take a long time or were there a lot of steps?

Kerry: Not really. I wouldn't be surprised if once we got down to it, it took a couple of hours. I just want to give different heads a shot. I want to give different cabinets a shot. He might want to mic something differently. And once he gets something that I like, I'll speak up and say, hey, I like what you're doing there. And then once it's recorded, it can take on a whole another identity when it's getting mixed and mastered. I think you just got to have a good starting point and hope is in the building process, it ends up where you want.

Since I’m Lambgoat’s resident guitar dork, I felt it was definitely worth talking to Kerry about his new Dean guitars a bit.

Since we’re talking guitar tones, we need talk about your guitars. I was a little surprised when I saw the Dean guitar announcement, having seen you play BC Rich for so long. How did that come about?

Kerry: It was easy because the guys at Dean had been friends of mine, even though I didn't play their stuff over 10 years when the NAM show still existed. I know it's coming back, but the way we all remember it, I would do my signings, and then I would go hang out in the Dean compound because a couple of my friends are there. We always had good times. Vince was usually there back when he was alive. It was just a family affair for me, they were friends. So I said it’s time to make a move, Dean’s been wanting me forever and I told them to make a guitar you’re proud of.

Was there anything in particular you wanted in the new guitar? Or did you tell them to just go for it?

Kerry: I actually went to the factory. I had hands in on making the new headstock, making the new body style. Dimebag, when he was there, he liked big fucking headstocks that looked like mini-guitars. And I said, Listen, I don't need all that real estate up there. If that's a dime thing, hey, good for dime. I love dime. But these headstocks are just ridiculously too big for me. So we had to shave those down to where look proportionate to what is being done. I didn't want to make up something that people would say, He can make up whatever he wants. He made up this stupid-looking guitar. I made up something that I feel looks pretty cool and that people might want. I was there every time we worked on what we're doing with a neck, what we're doing with the headstock, what we're doing with the new Overlord. I was there when we were designing that, too. I definitely like to have my hands dirty in the situation for sure.

Lastly, I wanted to know who inspires you? Who do you enjoy most as a guitarist these days? Past, present, anybody.

Kerry: I’d be hard-pressed on the up and comers because the only time I hear new music is when I’m on the road and have to rent a car (using Sirius XM or something like that) because by the time you check out a song and you look down to see who it was it’s “sorry, next song!” So I don’t know who’s popular anymore, but I will always take time to hear Zack Wylde play. I will still take time to listen to Dimebag. Probably my guilty pleasure is Glenn Tipton who a lot of people don’t credit much for anything, but he’s done everything under the sun. And of course, Tony Iommi because none of use would be here without him.

Awesome. Well from all of us here at Lambgoat thank you so much for your time and we hope to see you out on the road with the band soon!

If you’ve made it to the end, I commend you. I thought to myself as I was compiling this interview “Will people want to read through the entirety of my conversation with Kerry?” and after a few moments thinking about it, I realized I didn’t care. Chatting with Kerry about his new album, his career and chatting about normal, everyday life was a great experience. I couldn’t be happier with the opportunity I was given to talk to one of the most recognizable, polarizing, and interesting people in the world of metal music. Kerry was generous with his time, taking our interview on his day off and answered every one of my questions thoughtfully. Make sure to check out From Hell I Rise and if you can go see Kerry’s band live, do it.