KERRY KING Announces Summer 2025 European Tour

SLAYER guitarist Kerry King and his new band will hit the road in Europe next summer. The trek will launch on July 29 in Frankfurt, Germany and will include appearances at Czech Republic's Brutal Assault festival, France's Motocultor festival and The Netherlands' Dynamo festival.

Kerry King 2025 European dates:

Jul. 29 - Zoom Saal - Frankfurt, DE &
Jul. 30 - Simm City - Wien, AU &
Aug. 1 - Rockstadt Extreme - Transylvania, RO &
Aug. 4 - Komplex 457 - Zürich, CH &
Aug. 6-9 - Brutal Assault Festival - Jaromer, CZ
Aug. 7 - FZW - Dortmund, DE &
Aug. 8-10 - Alcatraz Festival - Kortrijk, BE
Aug. 12 - Academy 2 - Manchester, UK &
Aug. 13 - SWX - Bristol, UK &
Aug. 14-17 - Motocultor Festival - Carhaix, FR
Aug. 17 - Dynamo Festival - Eindhoven, NL
Aug. 19 - Tauron Arena - Krakow, PL *&

& Newly announced shows
* Supporting GOJIRA

King's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", was released in May. All material for the LP was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles last year was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.

Joining Kerry in his new band are Mark Osegueda (vocals; DEATH ANGEL),Phil Demmel (guitar; MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE),Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and drummer Paul Bostaph (SLAYER, TESTAMENT, EXODUS).

Following his recent tour with LAMB OF GOD and MASTODON and his first European headline tour earlier this year, King and his new band will hit the road for the 28-date North American headline tour in early 2025. With MUNICIPAL WASTE as special guest and ALIEN WEAPONRY supporting, the tour is set to launch in San Francisco on January 15, 2025, and wrap at House of Blues in Las Vegas on February 22.

"Getting back on the road for the first time in five years wasn’t exactly like riding a bike, that's for sure," King acknowledged. "I've never had that much time off, but the first tours with my new band — in the U.K. and Europe, and then in America with LAMB OF GOD and MASTODON — were all total blasts. We'll be headlining on this next tour, so we're playing a longer set than we did with LAMB OF GOD and MASTODON. We've got a little bit of a learning curve, so will start rehearsing the first week of November. And we might put an extra SLAYER song into the set and learn a cover song or two."

Osegueda is the first new vocalist King's been in a band with for 40 years, and his voice is well-known and revered. "I think a lot of people — namely industry types — were worried about him sounding too much like DEATH ANGEL," King says. Those concerns proved moot. "I knew what we had; he and I worked really well together."

Yet Osegueda's singing was so powerful and unique that King was momentarily uneasy: "By the second song Mark finished singing, I went into the studio and asked him, 'Is this sustainable? Because I've never heard you sing like this. I want to make sure you're not blowing your load in the studio and can't reproduce this live." Mark said, 'I can totally do it.' So I asked him again in about an hour. And again, in another hour. Then I figured, 'All right, I guess he means it.'"

King authored all the lyrics, mainly for logistical reasons. "I finished everything before Mark knew he had the gig," he explains. "But that's not to say he will or won't write on record two." Circumstances dictated that King sing on all "From Hell I Rise" demos. "I did scratch vocals on everything," King says, adding, "I'm not a singer. I'm a guitar player. I've got conviction when I sing, but I have no range, and I need some distortion to help me out a little bit. There was always, 'I got this if whatever we're looking for doesn't work.' Luckily, we didn't have to go that route."

In early May, the KERRY KING band performed its first live show at Reggies in Chicago. In the days following, the band went from playing an intimate venue to performing at the huge U.S. festivals Welcome To Rockville (Florida) and Sonic Temple (Ohio).

KERRY KING launched a European tour on June 3 — King's 60th birthday – in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The trek combined headline shows in the U.K., The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain but also festival appearances such as Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Tuska, Download, Sweden Rock Festival and many more.

The SLAYER guitarist's solo band played its first concert as the support act for LAMB OF GOD and MASTODON on July 19 at the Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas. The six-week "Ashes Of Leviathan" tour wrapped on August 31 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Photo credit: Jim Louvau