Phil Demmel On Tom Araya’s Authority Over Slayer: ‘Kerry King Was Even The Singer In Demos’

In a recent episode of ‘The Metal Forge’ podcast, Phil Demmel talked about Kerry King’s solo project and their upcoming debut album, ‘From Hell I Rise.’ The 59-year-old Slayer guitarist himself wrote all the tracks on the LP. Demmel joined the rocker in the duty of guitar parts.

During the interview, Demmel revealed that King was the singer in the demos he had heard. He added that they sounded just like Slayer too:

“He played all the bass on the records, and towards the end, I think he wrote most of the lyrics. On the demos that I heard, he’s singing, and it sounds like Slayer. I mean, Kerry was Slayer towards the end there.”

How Demmel Joined The Project

When Slayer wrapped up their final show in November 2019, rumors spread that Kerry wasn’t quite finished yet. Later, the rocker confirmed that he would be dropping an album under his name.

In a Rolling Stone interview from February 2024, Kerry explained how Demmel joined his new project. He said:

“Demmel came out with Slayer at the end of 2018 to fill in for Gary for four shows. What he did for us, I don’t think I could do for any band on the planet. He had basically two days to watch [Slayer] play so he could know where the pyro was and the tempo of our set. I couldn’t do that for Judas Priest, and I’m a giant Priest guy. With this, Bostaph said, ‘Hey, what about Demmel [for the new band]?’ I texted him. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I just got done with Machine Head the day before yesterday.’ I went, ‘Well, that’s kind of perfect.'”

You can watch the recent interview below.