If you, like us at Revolver HQ, have been dying to hear new music from Kerry King now that Slayer are no more, the guitarist says you won't have to wait much longer. In a recent interview with Metal Hammer, the thrash OG said that he "won't be dragging my feet much longer" when it comes to his new, as-yet-unnamed project. He also confirmed that it sounds very much like — wait for it — Slayer.
"You know me, so you know what it's going to sound like," he commented of the new material, which, he said in 2021, amounts to more than two records' worth. "I played this new song for a buddy, and I said to him, 'If there's anything I've written in the last few years that sounds like Slayer, it's this.' And he said, 'That sounds like you could have pulled it off of any Slayer record.' I actually made that riff up backstage at a Slayer show. We were walking to the stage and I got my phone out and recorded it so I wouldn't forget it.
"That actually ended up being one of the last songs that I finished for the sessions, so when that hits the air, or stores, or Apple, or wherever it is that people buy music from these days, you can all play the guessing game discussion about which one it is."
While King wouldn't name any other members of the project, he did confirm the involvement of former Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph. "We just started rehearsing and the only person I can give away is Paul because I took him from Slayer and we work very well together," the guitarist said. "We didn't start rehearsing until the end of March, and that was the first time since that last Slayer show at the end of 2019 that me and Paul finally got into a room together."
According to King, he had originally intended to launch the project in 2020, but "that thing called the pandemic fucked everything up for everyone." "Have I been dragging my feet?" he added. "Yeah, because I wanted this [pandemic] shit to get sorted. I won't be dragging my feet much longer." No word yet on a release date or any live dates, but stay tuned.
