SLAYER guitarist Kerry King says that he has “more than two records’ worth of music” for his upcoming project.
King is working on material for his first album since SLAYER‘s “Repentless”, which came out in 2015.
“I’ve been very, very lucky with riffs in 2020,” Kerry told the Dean Guitars YouTube channel in a new interview (see video below). “Maybe because I can’t go anywhere — I don’t know — but riffs have certainly not been a problem. And looking forward into the future, what that means for me is I’m gonna be able to cherrypick the best stuff. And it’s good stuff. I’ve got more than two records’ worth of music, but to be able to go through that and cherrypick the best 11 or 12 [songs]… That first record should be smoking.”
According to Kerry, who recently partnered with Dean Guitars as a signature artist, most of the songwriting for his next project so far has been a solitary effort.
“Right now, I’m the only lyricist, because I’m the only one writing music, because I’m not positive who everybody is that’s gonna be playing with me,” he said. “So it’s all on me at the moment. So, actually, I’ve actually gotta cherrypick those songs, pick my 10 or 12 favorites and actually start trying to put lyrics on them, just to move the process forward.”
SLAYER played the final show of its farewell tour last November at the Forum in Los Angeles. One day later, Kerry‘s wife, Ayesha King, said that there is “not a chance in hell” that the thrash metal icons will reunite for more live appearances.
When SLAYER first announced that it was embarking on its final tour back in January 2018, Ayesha assured fans that they would “always get music” from her husband.
King has said in previous interviews that his post-SLAYER musical efforts would not be much different from the sound fans have grown accustomed to hearing from him.
“If someone quit, I’m not going to go around with a made-up SLAYER,” he told AZCentral.com back in 2010. “But my next band would sound like SLAYER, that’s all I know.”
King told Rolling Stone in 2015 that he had entertained the idea of working on a solo project. “There’s plenty of people that I considered doing [one] with … but I have to have SLAYER covered before I consider anything like that,” he said at the time.
