Fuck yeah the new song fuckin rips! Great lineup and Mark's vocals are insanely awesome, one of the best in metal. Really looking forward to this now and hope they get down this way for some shows.
Cool interview posted above too.

Mark sounds fantastic. Actually managed to keep me engaged for a pretty standard post Jeff Slayer song.

As someone said above. I wasn't expecting much and was still disappointed.
No one will remember this shit 6 months from now.

Also, for those who don't feel like giving away free clicks to rolling stone: https://web.archive.org/web/20240205171 ... 234951010/



Yeah, no shit... another word for "non-existent"

Definitely sounds like Slayer, and the leads are typical Kerry King- I could spot a Kerry King solo anywhere. Overall the song was decent. As many others have mentioned it doesn't really get my blood boiling in the same way that, say, "Reign in Blood" did, but that may simply be because I'm old and jaded. In other words, had it come out back in the late 80s, when thrash was still a vital force, I bet this song would have been better received. I believe the track would not have been out of place on, say, "Season in the Abyss" or "Divine Intervention" but it would certainly not have been one of the more memorable tracks either album.

After reading that interview, I'm even more pumped. How he's envisioned the album has me intrigued.

You know it's not a good sign when the vocals are ,by far, the best part of something written by the guitarist of one of the most legendary thrash bands.

You can almost hear the squeaky sounds between notes because of how clean this sounds (in the worst way possible)

Ugh, that was disappointing. It almost sounded a bit like 72Season era Metallica trying to play Slayer with a guesvocalist

repentless 2.0... Awful sorry KK

Like he says in the interview a couple songs are Repentless leftovers.

Overall, it's better than expected, nothing exceptional though. The gallop riff is awesome. The music around the chorus sucks, generic lousy Slayer stuff. Looks like King will ruin this band' like he did Slayer, by having the vocals do the heavy lifting instead of the guitars. He'll get Mark to scream his lungs out (he sort of mentions this as well) just like Araya, rather than write aggressive music and tone down the silly screams.

KingSlayer!

Sounds like Danish band Hatesphere. Don't need more of this.

This goes harder than it had any reason to. Pleasantly surprised.

Slayer have always been heavily vocal-driven. Yes, they had good riffs and songwriting in the early days but the vocals were usually a very prominent feature. Even on a song that's helped by other elements such as creepy atmosphere like "Hell Awaits", Tom Araya's vocals and that break ("Pray to the moon when it is round, death with you shall then abound...") stands out. "Seasons In The Abyss" is musically fat but that chorus is what carries.

I thought their vocal-driven approach (outside of playing very fast early on) was what made them appealing, accessible. And their fucking lyrics/image: dance with the dead in my dreaaaams lol. Of course all the shitty albums in the discog fail even with prominent vocals because the other elements are quite dire; riffs, songwriting, Kerry's "solos". But they were never a technical thrash band. Megadeth, Testament, Forbidden, Overkill and so on would eat them for breakfast if technicality was your yardstick. Metallica, too. Heck, even Dark Angel's Darkness Descends which can be seen as a challenger for Reign In Blood's sheer speed and menace one-ups it on the technical front.

I expect this album will be vocal-driven like the later Slayer stuff around the time Tom blew his voice. "God Send Death" off GHUA was a good song and this gives me those vibes.

No it's not, and no Mark doesn't. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Mark is the worst part of this song. And the problem is Mark doesn't sound like himself. He sounds like Chester Bennington going "SHUT UP WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU" throughout the whole fucking song.

Again, I can't believe I'm saying Mark Osegueda is the worst part of a thrash song, but that was really annoying to listen to.

I would infinitely prefer Phil doing whatever his vocals sound like these days over Mark here. Hell I would prefer Phil sounding annoying on this than ruining the Pantera brandname.

Good to hear that Kerry put his foot down on Tom's MAGA ramblings. Not something I expected from him.

Not just him, the whole band. Nice to see examples of real men that aren't racist Qanons

This was also amusing:
"Are you ready for November?

I'm ready to leave."

Indeed. That whole interview was pleasantly surprising.

^ Who do you think Tom is being racist against by voting for Tr**p? Hispanics or something? He's literally hispanic lol.

Song absolutely sucks. Sounds like every forgettable plasticky Slayer song since the new millennium. Imagine getting the Death Angel singer and just telling him to imitate Tom's post-2000s vocal style.

Trump voter hates democracy. Makes sense.

Trump is an awful force in a lot of ways, but making the mistake of doing the whole "supporting him = racist" thing again isn't really gonna get anyone anywhere.

King should consider a Halford type singer in the future. If not for this project, then for something else.

Fuckin hell. This whole post is a steaming pile of shit, from Hispanics can't be racist to Mark being told to imitate Tom.

This may be weird to some fellas but there are A LOT of far-right Hispanics living in the USA, most of them were forced into exile and come from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and other socialist countries of the region. Tom is from Chile and Pinochet governed that place with an iron fist for almost 17 years. Is no surprise that he has right-wing views, neoliberalism and anticommunism have been part of Latin American culture for most of the XX century. One of the fiercest Trump supporters from Texas who are against illegal immigration and border crossing immigrants are Hispanics who gained the green card and are living legally in the States, I know is weird and counterintuitive, but it happens.

Dont know why random tribal political mud-flinging ends up in this part of the forums but it is the internet after all. But god damn, people sure do love throwing the “trump supporter = racist” around a lot and generalizing a whole group of people you have no clue about why they voted for him and would rather let your elephants run wild instead of letting the writer keep control, if you don’t know what I mean, go read Jonathan Haidt. But anyways, most of this crap has been pinned onto Tom by association with his wife who was the one posting the stuff. It’s all really stupid, I hate Trump as the next guy but I’m not going around on witch hunts, making claims and thinking I can mind read a person I don’t even know just because they voted for Trump.

Let’s talk about the music and not some tribal bullshit.
Songs ok, not bad, not good. It’s pretty mediocre but passable, not really a song I’m going to seek out.

The music isn't anything super special, but I'm not sure I get where you're hearing that Osegueda is imitating Araya's vocals, let alone what he did after the 90s. He sounds almost exactly like he did on Humanicide. My only complaint about his involvement is that it's probably the reason why Death Angel hasn't put a new album out in almost 5 years.

I'd rather hear a new DA album than a KK album. King has written some good songs in the past no doubt but I general I find him to be a mediocre songwriter and this isn't changing that opinion.

Let's get some positivity in here instead of this doom-and-gloom BS. Favourite Kerry King tracks, people. Let's go.



That riff at the 3-minute mark—holy fuck!



An absolutely vicious song. One of those blink-and-you-miss-it tracks!



Probably my favourite Slayer album. Love every track on here but Kerry's offerings in particular are quite catchy. Fantastic riffs on "Expendable Youth" and I love how they flow together.



One of their best openers. This was the first new Slayer album that released after I'd become a fan. I remember the anticipation my metalhead friend and I had for Christ Illusion. When the song "Cult" (another Kerry King track) dropped, we were so in. Slayer were back! I do feel this album is a bit hit and miss, but "Flesh Storm" is still a big hit for me. Love that melodic riff in there.

Solo King penned great songs.

Show No Mercy
Praise of Death
Piece by Piece
Dittohead
Point
Supremist

He is listed as co-writer with Jeff on some of the others but based on solo output I'm inclined to assume Jeff did the bulk of those.

What doom and gloom? Are you really gonna bemoan people-on-the-internet being people-on-the-internet? Kerry King is a shit-stirrer when he says things like "Dave Lombardo is dead to me" in interviews so he is not exactly a bastion of positivity either. I agree that Trump is terrible but I am not looking for King to give astute political takes...and he didn't. Like most Americans, it's more like supporting a favorite team at this point than caring about actual change beyond the politics. I like that he is a JP fanboy though and Slayer's cover of "Dissident Aggressor" makes me smile.



I remember reading him saying he was disappointed by Point of Entry back in the day and realizing how deeply familiar he was with the whole catalog. Really cool. On Halford:

"Rob [Halford] is what I call a vocal ninja. The stuff he does in the '70s, '80s, even '90s, and even today, he can't hit the notes from his heyday, but he goes out and puts on a hell of a show. But the thing he does, the shrill crazy Rob Halford scream is I think what got me. It wasn't about wearing leather and chains, but, of course, PRIEST are idols of mine, and I think you spend the early part of your career emulating your idols, and we were definitely guilty of that."

Also, "Stained Class" is his favorite Priest album.

Citation: https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/s ... 17-9581112

Divine Intervention was mostly a King album and I like it a lot, the last great Slayer record

Agreed, Death Angel has been on a solid tear since reforming and I'm kind of bummed out that we haven't gotten a follow up to Humanicide yet. I'm not as pessimistic as some others about the upcoming Kerry King album, but at best it will most likely be inferior to what Osegueda would otherwise be doing right now.

Evil Has No Boundaries
Kill Again
Piece By Piece
Jesus Saves
Epidemic
Ghosts Of War
Skeletons Of Society
Born Of Fire
Dittohead
In The Name Of God
New Faith
Cult
Supremist
Snuff
Public Display Of Dismemberment
Repentless
Cast The First Stone
When The Stillness Comes
You Against You
Pride In Prejudice

What can I say, I'd enjoy that setlist at a KK gig.

He's not bad, but I think without Jeff Slayer would have been a mid tier thrash band with an amazing drummer. Though Jeff had some stinkers on DiM, but then he wrote my favs on GHUA which is a very mediocre album.

That's a hard one to beat.

Kerry King wrote some awesome songs. Evil Has No Boundaries, Show No Mercy, Praise of Death, Piece by Piece, Temptation.
And co-wrote many classics with Jeff, incluiding Hell Awaits.

The 'Jeff Hannemann wrote all the good stuff" ranting is just cult of personality bulshit, like people saying Dave Mustaine "wrote 'em all".

King and Hanemann did have some great co-credits, but King's solo credits are on average a big drop off in quality. On average I say as he did write some crushers to be sure. But as King became more and more the primary songwriter Slayer albums got shittier. I think he pretty much spent what creativity he had left on Divine. Though Jeff didn't have a ton left after that either. They were both a lot more hit or miss at that point, though I will still give the nod to Jeff. Though Kerry was probably the stronger guitarist.

Repentless and this are just by the numbers Slayer.

The Hanneman–King writing partnership is for me one of the best in thrash. So many of the classic Slayer songs are the ones they both wrote music for. King has said in the past that although they were never best friends, he felt his relationship with Jeff was the closest in the band. Here's a neat little article from around the release of "Repentless":

"The weirdest part for me about Jeff not being here anymore and the part I miss the most is just musical input from somebody that I wrote all the music with for, at that point, 30 years.

"And that was a big question mark doing 'Repentless.'

"I knew I'd written roughly the same amount of songs and riffs as he had, but it had been a long time since I'd attempted to do anything spooky and haunting, and [writing the song] 'When the Stillness Comes' was proof to myself that I can cover that base.

"I knew, putting the record out, there would be people that just hated it because Jeff's not on it, hated it because however the recording thing was done was different this time.

"But I'm proud as hell of that record. I think it's better than anybody... it's better than I expected it to be, actually.

"We had a long time to write it, we had a long time in between records. But if there was any naysayers out there that thought Slayer wasn't gonna be the same, I beg to differ, because that sounds like every Slayer record I've ever heard.

"Unfortunately, my friend Jeff wasn't on it, and his input was missed for sure, but, you know, he's there in spirit."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/ge ... neman.html

I had to listen to this a few times to really get a good feel for it.

The start of the song is so by-the-numbers it hurts. But around the 2 minute mark just before the solo, it does transition into what I consider a good song. Sure, it's very much classic King, but it is mostly enjoyable from then to the end.

What isn't enjoyable is the vocals. In this case, I think Mark sounding too much like late era Araya is the failure point. Mark isn't a bad singer or anything, it's just the vocal delivery and the sound of the music itself really don't mesh together very well.

Call me crazy or something, but I think if King had gone for a Death or even Black metal singer/vocal delivery, this could have been a much, much better song. I cringe at myself to suggest it, since calling it a 'death metal' album rubs me the wrong way...but vocals more reminiscent of Possessed's on 'Seven Churches' would have probably been an absolute match made in hell. (In a good way!)

Nah death or black vocals would suck. Marks vocals are perfect for this and his range gives Kerry options.

Those vocals are great. He nails the razor-thin line between a harsh kinda aggression and more melodic singing that Araya didn't do for decades. That's how thrash singing should sound.