In the late 70’s, early 80’s most bands weren’t playing songs that dealt with controversial material. Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper are most credited for playing darker content while other bands going in to the 80’s were singing about sex, drugs and well, rock and roll. Sure AC/DC was on the highway to hell but it wasn’t quite heavy enough for people that really wanted to be pushed over the edge. Sabbath had some dark songs and kept it extremely heavy without playing really fast. There really wasn’t any American bands brave enough to go that route…until Slayer.
 

I’ve liked BC Rich guitars for a long time. Most of them have a cool shape and some of them sound good. Uncomfortable at best though. I’ve had a Mockingbird and a Beast. The mockingbird was comfortable to play but was unbalanced as any BC Rich guitar is. The Beast was extremely uncomfortable to play. Lately it seems like they’ve been fighting for cool shapes. The Warbeast was ok and the Virgo wasn’t too bad either. The Zombie was ugly and Kerry King’s new signature model that fuses a Beast and a KKV together looks horrible. Appropriately it’s call …read more

Kerrang! Magazine interviewed Slayer’s Kerry King before the holiday. He doesn’t set his goals high and he’s honest about how he’s going to spend his time during Christmas. Of course he’s not going to set up a nativity scene in his front yard and watch Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. He’s going to watch football and drink tequila.
“I’m gonna spend the holiday season watching American football and drinking,” he added. “I live pretty close to Mexico so it’s not too difficult to find a good bottle of tequila.”

They just haven’t said what it’s going to be yet. I’m sure it will be about hell, Satan, Jesus-hating, etc. That’s their schtick. Kerry King talked to Metalhammer.de, the German Metal Hammer in a video interview that can be seen here. The questions are translated in English and the video quality is really good.
King says that the summer 2009 release date of their next album is “Optimistic” he also expresses his dislike for Rick Ruben’s producing style, being a “Phantom” producer. Well he’s not the first to say this. Corey Taylor talked about Ruben not being there as often …read more

Even as most of the members of Slayer are in their mid 40’s, there has been no sign of them slowing down. Tommy Araya made a statement a while ago saying that he couldn’t see himself going on much longer but then started to write another album and head out on another chapter of Unholy Alliance, so you never really know.
The Quitus recently posted an interview with Kerry King and talked about the future of the band. Here is a short excerpt.
We’re talking of going in the studio next February and getting the next record out so if we …read more

As I mentioned in the Tyranny And Bloodshred Tour post, Soldiers Of Scrape opened before Firewind. If you have never heard of S.O.S., then let begin by asking this: Do you like Pantera? Do you like Lamb Of God? Do you like Slayer? And lastly, do you like ass kickin’ heavy F**kin’ Metal? If you said yes to any of those, especially the last one, then you will dig the Soldiers Of Scrape!

Hell no!There is no doubt that DragonForce’s Through The Fire And Flames is a song of insanely complicated guitar work and in the early 80’s every new kid playing guitar was out to learn Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption note for note. However Through The Fire And Flames to me may be a bit too long and overly noodled. I can’t play Eruption or TTFAF and I wouldn’t give either a try. If anything I consider myself a rhythm guitarist and the most complex licks I have probably ever made an effort to learn are the intro to Crazy Train, …read more

If you could change place with any Metal Musician I’m sure your list would be a mile long as would mine. We’re not going to go there. We are going to do just the opposite and keep it shorter. Here is a list of Metal Musicians I WOULDN’T want to switch places with and the reasons why.
1. Dave Mustaine: Although with his musical genius comes the fact that he is one of the most hated metal musicians in the industry. Over the years he has made more enemies than friends. However, I would love to be credited with writing …read more

Here is a video interview with Slayer’s Kerry King from Buzznet. Kerry talks about all sorts of shit from Dave Mustaine, to A7X. Says he doesn’t get Lamb OF God. You know what I don’t get? This dude that calls himself “The Reaper”. You know what else I don’t get? Sunglasses inside. Anyway, check out the video and make your own call.

No, not Elvis. The “King” of metal. Here is a vintage picture I found online of a young, slim and full hair headed, tattooless Kerry King back when he filled on guitars in Megadeth. Slayer’s Kerry King never was and never was intended to be a permanent part of Megadeth back then but he did a great job helping Dave Mustaine get the band rolling in L.A.. Click read more to see the full size photo.