Review Summary: I think I need another drink
The great fire that is Kerry King had been smouldering for 5 years since the Slayer Farewell Tour and had been stockpiling riffs for nearly a decade after the final Slayer album “Repentless”. Time to exorcise those demons right? So King recruits his most trusted sticksman in Paul Bostaph, thrash specialist vocalist Mark Osegueda of Death Angel, fellow lead guitarist Phil Demmel of Machine Head fame and former Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders to assemble the aptly titled “From Hell I Rise”.
The ears immediately prick up to “Diablo” an appetizer that screams Kerry King in every sense, and broodily takes from Slayer’s iconic opener “Hell Awaits” before launching into “Where I Reign” which admittedly sounds like a “72 Seasons” song but with insane solos. This interplay between King and Demmel is just one aspect where this album rises above fellow thrash veterans’ recent efforts.
Heavy hitting “Residue” has the gloved Bostaph demonstrating his class as he did on “Divine Intervention”, this song every bit as powerful as the title track on Slayer’s 1994 rebirth. “Idle Hands” also benefits from total drumming with King happily chugging. Let’s not kid, these are familiar riffs, too familiar for some but this is not intellectual music, it’s primal metal and there’s room for one more. Not least because the solos wail.
King is metal through and through, with other band’s riffs seeping into his consciousness such as Amon Amarth’s most famous song serving inspiration for the intro to “Trophies of the Tyrant”. This shredder is damnation of the current offensive into Ukraine, as always King offers overt observations. Another career staple has been his obsession with Satanic imagery and the Antichrist and this album doubles down on these themes. From the album art which strikingly resembles fellow haters Deicide’s latest album art to “Crucifixation”, the dude has had it in for Jesus for a long, long time but that’s his prerogative.
“Tension” has a distinct 90’s Testament feel like a predator prowling before expanding with a trademark solo, another King-ism. It leads into “Everything I Hate About You” which evokes Slayer’s most infamous song “Angel of Death” at the climax of the intro, where I just waited to hear the Araya squeal.
The searing “Toxic” has riffs reminiscent of those in “Read Between the Lies” and “Mandatory Suicide” but the modern sonic muscle here and a quicker tempo gives this shredder a new lease on life. There’s no subtlety in the lyrics which goes for the government’s throat. This anti-establishment and punk strand that’s always been in King’s DNA is further on display in the next track which starts bright enough before descending into a stomper of defiance and reliance on “these Two Fists”.
Riffs crawl all over the skin in “Rage”, a stereotypical thrasher which reminds me of “Threshold” with the refrains of “get ready for the violence” wading the same murky waters as the former’s “can’t stop the violence”. Another nod to “God Hates Us All” is the title track which has the same driving rhythm as “New Faith” the best song on that 2001 album.
There’s certainly a radiating dynamic between band members with the vocalist bringing the songs vitality and personality in songs like “Shrapnel”, with my preference for the more measured condemnations. But it’s Kerry’s heavy duty riffage that sits front and centre of these songs and by -God- aren’t we glad for it.
3.8/5
