Review by Sheri Bicheno for MPM
When Slayer announced it would be the end of an era for them back in 2019, the world of Thrash breathed a sigh of mixed disappointment and heavy-heartedness.
It goes without saying that Slayer left a legacy on many people’s influence and growth in life to the music they’ve made throughout the years.
Though good news emerged that they have recently announced a reunion for a few festival appearances in September, but not before co-founder and guitarist Kerry King unleashes his solo album From Hell I Rise on 17th May 2024.
To have a full length release from Kerry means that he is far from over making music and thank the gods – his signature style is once again at the forefront of new and upcoming music to take old and new fans into another sonic assault of his songwriting that we all grew up listening to.
Intro track Diablo carves the first taste of From Hell I Rise with an instant meaty range of riffs drawing in and out of each other that give an old school vibe of dual guitars over the twin harmony that thrash and wind through the anticipating drum beats. Its a suspenseful track of pure instrumental listening that give off an impending warning that things are about to get brutal…
Where I Reign storms in hurtling break neck dual speeding riffs raining down from the offset that showcases the absolute chaos entwining with the double pedals and blast beats on the drums. About halfway through the track, the guitars have a brutal change up of tone that take the direction of the track into a steadier but deadly pace that trails into an overlay of winding speed induced solos.
Here, we’re also given the first look vocally into track of the album from Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda. Mark’s vocals from the offset of the album are a completely different comparison to those of Death Angel so any fans waiting for this album will be pleased to know that he’s made his style uniquely to the album. His pipes take on those of still old school thrash but with a courser, higher edge than what he is revered for.
Second single of the album Residue is next and weaves in a steadier and melody inducing beat with winding harmonies to ease us into the track before all hell breaks loose.
Kerry and Phil Demmel (Machine Head, Vio-lence) structure their guitaring around eachother so tightly and duo the brutality of string sections throughout with those melody solos and crunching riffs to break down the pure danger in this track.
Paul Bostaph (Salyer) is an INSANE drummer. Flicking between beat catching blast beats and ever tone changing double kicks from whiplash speeding blasts to hard and punchy sonic assaults behind the kit. He uses these techniques along side the pace of the riffs to pour in the utmost power into this track which explodes into a headbanging track of ferocity.
Idle Hands was the first single for the album and gave us the first peek into what to expect from Kerry King’s solo offering.
And Slayer fans were not disappointed as this serves as a purely Slayer induced number with the same style of rhythm sections and brutal commanding drum methods. Much like the Raining Blood era, this track is absorbed in unabating tempo changes and nostalgic riffs before launching into Trophies of the Tyrant – which serves as one of my favourites of this album.
This track has everything I love about thrash in it. It starts with raw chuggy riffs and that marching pace of beats that melt into beautiful and spiky harmonies forging its path through the stunning blast beats and tone up change of the drums.
The bass notes by Kyle Sanders (Hellyeah) are crunchy and completely encapsulate those meaty hooks of pace to glue it all together and make absorbing this track an energy that has you throwing yourself around to the punchy beats of both drums and strings. Marks voice takes on a more melodic tone to his voice in this track which doesn’t make it any less brutal.
Tension is a beautifully dynamic track as it starts with melodic guitars and a suspenseful mood from both the tempo of drums and Mark’s gradually shape shifting vocals.
The aggression in his voice grows throughout the track whilst the pace is kept steadier until all falls into a collision of dark notes and ends in a feral explosion talking to us of an oppressive world we live in.
Toxic comes in like a battering ram with its maddening chuggy riffs and Mark hits some high notes to talk to us of society’s hypocrisy and self entitlement of forcing their opinions onto people to impact others lives. This is a deep track that commands attention and has a strong message that goes hand in hand with an authoritative energy – this track absolutely stands out on the album as one of the hardest and most loudest.
Which brings me to Rage – a PURE track of some of the loudest and “in your face” thrash i’ve come across.
We start off here with some face melting speeds of drums and guitars combining together with chugging low bass notes to create a pure riot of anger and turmoil, arguably one of the fastest tracks of the album with some punchy and chanting vocals to entice the inferno that this track leaves behind.
Ending on the release title From Hell I Rise closes the album off with a harder contrast to how it started. With a last offering that completely guts out any space to trail off quietly and calmly, this is an album that ensures it makes it mark. The solos and rainfall of blood soaked winding assaults from the frets hit fast and hit HARD into a frenzied combination of monumental double kicks and blast beats that inject so much power behind the pure energy of Marks vocals before falling into a short and sudden stop to conclude the album.
What in the ever loving seventh circle of Hell just happened??
From Hell I Will Rise exceeded my expectations – from start to finish this is an album of what good thrash should embody and more. The energy that Kerry and the band fuse together is not only killer for those who want something nostalgic but also those after some modern concepts added into the production.
A line up worthy of what is going to be one of the best Thrash releases of the year.
STREAM HERE: https://kerryking.rpm.link/residue
PRE-ORDER NOW: https://kerryking.rpm.link/fromhellirise
