Slayer's Kerry King drops major tease that we may finally be seeing his new band soon

Kerry King holding a guitar and shouting — (Image credit: Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Former Slayer guitarist Kerry King has dropped the biggest hint yet that his highly anticipated new project is finally close to being officially revealed. The metal icon has seemingly registered his own solo social media pages, uploading a photo to Instagram that depicts the trademark chain he usually wears on stage, in a pile on the floor, in front of what looks like a guitar amp. The photo is captioned with the simple statement: "Coming in 2024."

Slayer played their final ever show together at the Forum in Inglewood, California on November 30, 2019 after a lengthy farewell tour. King has been vocal about his disappointment at the band's near-40 year run coming to an end, stating in a video in 2021: "We quit too early. Fuck us. Fuck me. I hate fucking not playing."

Rumours have persisted since Slayer's demise that King has been getting a new band ready with a ton of new material already recorded, with the guitarist confirming to Metal Hammer last year that fellow Slayer alumni, drummer Paul Bostaph will be involved. "We just started rehearsing and the only person I can give away is Paul because I took him from Slayer and we work very well together,” he explained. “We didn’t start rehearsing until the end of March, and that was the first time since that last Slayer show at the end of 2019 that me and Paul finally got into a room together.”

King was happy to admit that fans of his work will already have a good idea of what to expect from his new music, adding: “Well, you know me, so you know what it’s going to sound like. I don’t need to elaborate on that any further. I remember I was playing this new song for a buddy […] and he said to me, ‘That sounds like you could have pulled it off of any Slayer record!’ And, like, yeah, sure. Me and Jeff [Hanneman] wrote all of that stuff, so what else am I supposed to write?”

Now, it looks like we'll get to hear new Kerry King riffs sooner rather than later.

A post shared by Kerry King (@kerrykingmusic)
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Merlin was promoted to Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has written for Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.