KERRY KING’s 2025 North American tour ends at HOBLV

February 22, 2025 – For Courtney and I, Slayer had become something of a standing date night over the years. When they’d come to town we would go together. Thankfully this time I didn’t need to fly to Vegas to get to the show. Fly into Vegas for Slayer? Yeah it happened twice – go figure. So when Kerry King was set to perform at the House of Blues she didn’t need to argue that we needed to go. 

First up was Alien Weaponry – a name I’d heard of when metal music media had reason to discuss bands they had figured would soon make tremendous success. Usually those bands write their lyrics in English. Not always of course Baby Metal had made their mark outside Japan just fine without English speaking audiences needing to understand the lyrics. I said that in an appropriately baby voice by the way. 

Funnily enough German band Kreator has fingered Slayer as the reason they wrote lyrics in English. Similarly Sepultura had to translate their lyrics from Portuguese to English to fit their vision of what was needed for a metal band. Likely the first bands I’d heard with vocals not in English were Norwegian bands Dimmu Borgir and Gorgoroth. In the case of Gorgoroth Ghaal should have stuck with Norwegian because he wrote some dog shit English lyrics. 

Alien Weaponry however is still a relatively young band from New Zealand and from their beginnings as a band leaned into their Māori ancestry and wrote their lyrics primarily in the Māori language. That much is interesting but the reason for their popularity has to be because the songs are catchy as fuck. To press the point further I’m surprised to not hear them on terrestrial radio though also not at all surprised because there would likely be complaints about not being able to understand the lyrics. Children. 

I say relatively new band but they formed in 2010 – fifteen years ago.

Municipal Waste on the other hand formed in 2000 – Twenty five fucking years ago. Now I’m not one to hear a statement like that and internally feel old but Municipal Waste was part of a new school of thrash metal when I first heard them in high school. It hits differently than another Richmond, Virginia band, Lamb of God, who may have formed six years prior but released their first album under that moniker also in 2000. 

Municipal Waste took some time for me to get them. Perhaps it was the label of a nostalgia act or I couldn’t relate to songs about drinking and partying when my idea of a good time was playing Final Fantasy games. I was primed for the songs about pizza though. They may have been a nostalgia act but so was most modern thrash I was hearing at the time. I hadn’t yet heard Revocation or Vektor of course but at this time was basically the peak of my Metallica and Megadeth fandom so I did start listening to more Municipal Waste in the end. 

Most recently I really dug their latest full-length release ‘Electrified Brain’ (2022) after Courtney insisted I set aside whatever black metal record I was obsessed over at the moment and was reminded ‘oh yeah I do in fact still love thrash metal’. 

I am admittedly being a bit… facetious is too strong of a word but all the same I have always loved thrash… but for a time I felt wronged in some ways by the genre and right now I’m putting all the blame on Megadeth’s ‘Super Collider’ for being a shittier version of ‘Risk’ but one man who has never done me so dirty was Kerry King. 

The Slayer comparisons are inevitable but what am I expected to do? Act like Kerry King has only just arrived on the scene and the last few decades of the man’s life simply never happened? So let’s get this out of the way – if you’ve not heard ‘From Hell I Rise’ don’t expect it to sound like a Slayer clone. More of a first cousin really. Having recorded a majority of guitar tracks on Slayer records for years Kerry King’s distinct ‘frowny face’ guitar tone is immediately obvious. Moments of the record, I’m reminded of past Slayer records such as ‘Hell Awaits’ or ‘God Hates Us All’ but other times it’s obvious some of the riffs would not have belonged on a Slayer record because it’s more heavy metal rather than thrash or a straight up punk song like “Two Fists”. 

So I was more than happy when in addition to the original music and Slayer songs the band pulled out some Iron Maiden calling back to Slayer’s origins playing Iron Maiden and Judas Priest covers so it was cool to get a taste of that here. 

I do want to mention that the pick of Mark Osegueda of Death Angel, while controversial at the time of the announcement, turned out to be such a great fit. The man does the Maiden songs justice whilst also having a harsher vocal style fitting for this new era of Kerry King’s music without his sound devolving into an impersonation of Tom Araya on the Slayer covers. 

I also want to give individual props to Phil Demmel for lending his own melodic flair to these songs which works incredibly well next to Kerry King’s brand of chaotic solos. It’s a dichotomy that I appreciate on some of my favorite records featuring two lead guitarists such as Chris Poland and Dave Mustaine on ‘Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?’. Also Mr. Demmel thank you for bringing out the polka dot King V on this tour. Couldn’t finish this write up without mentioning that guitar. 

In conclusion I am looking forward to the future of each of these bands and suggest you pick up these records or pull them up on your favorite streaming service and give these bands a listen. You may be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least test the waters and see if you’ve got yourself a new favorite. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Live photos by Courtney Ware for ZrockR Magazine – (c) 2025 – All Rights Reserved.