Much ado about bludgeon

Kerry King, the iconic Slayer guitarist, cuts an imposing figure while stalking around backstage before their show in Cork. It could be the tattoos that adorn his bald pate, the demonic, bushy goatee, the disconcerting fact that he’s wearing shades inside a dimly lit portakabin, or the imposing, stocky gait which gives him the appearance of wrestling heel.

No doubt about it – there’s something of the night about Kerry King.
“I hate it when they start throwing shit at you right before the show,” he mumbles. “I was ready to do this an hour ago, but.. anyway...”
Kerry King doesn’t really do happy, but then neither do Slayer. The Kings of Thrash Metal reasserted their dominance of the genre with last year’s Christ Illusion album, a typically raging torrent of doom and menace. The record, Slayer’s 10th, marked the return to the studio of fabled drummer Dave Lombardo, who had gone on a nine year hiatus in the ‘90s.
The album’s success – it was their highest US chart entry and won them their first Grammy – was marred slightly by an uneasy spat with uber-producer Rick Rubin, who worked on their seminal 1986 masterpiece Reign In Blood, but turned down the opportunity to produce Christ Illusion in favour of working on Metallica’s 9th studio album.
“He did his Rick Rubin tweek on it, which I respect,” admits King. “It was cool that Dave came back, and we wanted Rick to produce, but he said he was too busy. I was like, ‘Have you heard that last Metallica record? Because it’s not good.’ That’s not talking smack. I hope he can make them better, because I’d like to like Metallica again.”
Slayer are assured their place in the pantheon of great metal bands thanks to their emergence in the ‘80s as part of the ‘Big Four’ alongside Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth. But this has never been the most amiable of alliances. King scorns Metallica for “airing their dirty linen in public” on the documentary Some Kind Of Monster, which he claims to have purposely avoided. He also has some choice words about Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, with whom he has a lingering dispute that has festered even since he tried to recruit King for Megadeth in the ‘80s.
“Mustaine is just not a good guy," he charges. "I heard the last record, and he’s got some slamming leads on that album, but he’s a hypocrite and I don’t like that mentality.”
King and Slayer prefer to look forward rather than back. On the evidence of their powerhouse live show in Cork, they remain a vibrant and unique musical force, capable of holding the audience in a vice-like clinch and flailing them about with a furious intensity. Whereas other bands of their era have disintegrated, or morphed into self-parodies, Slayer's singular determination and unwavering commitment to their craft has left their legacy unblemished, and their future still bright.
“I think any one of us could have left in the ‘90s, or called it quits,” says King. “But I think we all knew that we are better together.”

Slayer’s album Christ Illusion is out now on Sony.