“He plays circles around me”: The guitarist Kerry King thinks is “a wizard”
Kerry King has certainly earned his stripes as a guitarist over the past four decades. From Slayer to his solo work, the thrash metal riffer is a beast on the fretboard – but he says he still feels like a rookie in comparison to Phil Demmel.
In his time, Demmel has taken to the stage with numerous iconic bands, from his stint in Machine Head, to acts like Slayer, Lamb of God and Testament, he’s a celebrated guitarist within the metal scene. And King is delighted to have him as part of his solo band. “Phil Demmel is a wizard,” he insists on the latest episode of the Talk Louder podcast.
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King is heavy on the praise, even admitting he should have given Demmel more solos on his 2024 solo debut, From Hell I Rise. “He plays circles around me,” he says. “He’s really, really fucking good, and he’s definitely more melodic than me. I’m far more archaic. But, together, it works!”
The decision to give himself a majority of the solos was rooted in fan expectations. “In the beginning, when I was trying to decide who would play what, I thought about what fans would expect me to play,” he admits. “I didn’t want to let fans think I wasn’t thinking about them or passing the buck.”
With such talented musicians by his side, King was even hesitant to call his solo project his own name. “I never wanted it to be called Kerry King,” he says. “But let me tell you something, every fucking good name is taken! Then you had that moniker attached to it, so people expect me to take more of a driver’s seat.”
“I think I ended up playing 18 leads… and I think [Demmel] did 12 or 13,” he continues. “but [I’m] definitely looking at getting him more involved on record two.”
Looking forward, King acknowledges that his solo work has broadened his perspective when working on new tracks. “Say, for instance, you’ve got a horse with blinders on – that was me in Slayer,” he says. “Not completely blind, just looking straight forward. In my band, I’d say [the blinders] open five to seven percent. It’s not a lot, but it’s a different perspective.”
While King did have a lot of freedom in Slayer, noting that him and Tom Araya made a lot of the big decisions, his solo work has allowed an extra layer of liberation. “Slayer was this juggernaut,” he says. “People had an established opinion – and as did I – about what the songs should be, how they should sound, things like that.”
Without expectations of sounding ‘like Slayer’, King explored sounds that previously might have remained shelved. It gave him the freedom to do “’80s tribute punk songs” like Two Fists. Now, if he wants to explore something, he can.
“Now, this is where the buck stops,” he says. “If there’s an opinion to be had, at the end of the day, it’s mine. But I keep my guys involved too!”
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