KERRY KING Names 'Perfect' Albums From JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, BLACK SABBATH, AC/DC And METALLICA

During an appearance on the "Lipps Service With Scott Lipps" podcast, SLAYER's Kerry King was asked to name his "perfect" albums from some of his favorite artists. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "If I were to go with [JUDAS] PRIEST, it wouldn't be 'British Steel'; it would be 'Stained Class'. If I were to go with [BLACK] SABBATH, it would be 'Sabotage'. If I were to go with AC/DC, it would be 'Powerage'. [IRON] MAIDEN gets tough, 'cause it's a very different vibe between 'Killers' and 'The Number Of The Beast'. I'd probably have to go 'Number Of The Beast', because top to bottom, I think it's stronger than 'Killers', just because of the ballady-type tune on 'Killers'; I can't remember what it's called. That's a hard pick because 'Killers' is a great record. And I gotta give props to [METALLICA's] 'Master Of Puppets'. It's a great record."

Kerry and his solo band paid tribute to former IRON MAIDEN singer Paul Di'Anno by playing a cover of the MAIDEN classic "Killers" during their recent shows in Australia, including their performances at the Good Things festival. Speaking to the "Everblack" podcast about his decision to include "Killers" in his band's setlist, Kerry said: " [Australia] is the first place we played 'Killers'… And it's cool because even though my [debut solo] record's ['From Hell I Rise'] been out six, seven months, there's still a bunch of people that don't know it. A lot of people don't even know I have a record. So, when I made up this setlist, I'm, like, 'There's gonna be a ton of people that never heard 'Crucifixation' [a song from 'From Hell I Rise'], so why don't we give 'em something they know instead?' So that's how we decided to do 'Killers'. And when we do the headline [tour] in U.S. in January, we're gonna continue to play 'Killers' too."

Earlier this year, King was asked by Riff X's "Metal XS" if he had heard MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson's latest solo album, "The Mandrake Project". He responded: "[I] haven't heard Bruce's new album, but I have a friend who told me it's better than MAIDEN. [It] wouldn't surprise me. Nothing against MAIDEN, but their songs have gotten so long, man, I just can't be bothered with it. And my attention span isn't that much."

Kerry was seemingly referencing MAIDEN's latest two double-albums, 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2021's "Senjutsu", the former of which contains the song "Empire Of The Clouds" clocking in at 18 minutes, and three songs on "Senjutsu" running for over 10 minutes.

In a recent interview with Australia's Wall Of Sound, Kerry was asked which BLACK SABBATH album he would take with him if the planet was being blown up and we were all boarding a big spaceship and he was only allowed to take one SABBATH LP with him. He responded:  "I would take… It's easy and it's hard 'cause I'm a super [Ronnie James] Dio fan. But I would take [SABBATH's sixth studio album, 1975's] 'Sabotage'. Something about the vibe on that record. It's cool. I mean, they're all cool, but something about that one. Maybe 'Symptom Of The Universe'. I don't know. It's nonstop badassery."

Back in 2017, King picked "Sabotage" as one of his 10 favorite metal albums, telling Rolling Stone magazine: "'Sabotage' is just a very heavy record. There's so much good stuff on there. As I picked these records, I picked the ones I'm compelled to play if I'm working out or driving, and 'Sabotage' was my choice for BLACK SABBATH. It has 'Megalomania', 'Symptom Of The Universe', which has definitely got attitude, 'Hole In The Sky'. And it has the instrumental 'Supertzar'. I love that one. It grips me for some reason."

Also in 2017, King was asked by Phoenix New Times when the first time was that he heard JUDAS PRIEST or saw them perform. He responded: "First time I saw [them] would've been… 'Point Of Entry' tour, um ... I follow it chronologically by album. Not the dates of the album… but I think that was '80, maybe '81? When 'British Steel' came around, I was a little too young to go to it by myself. And that's why I found them on the radio. We didn't have the Internet, obviously, so the stuff I would've heard on the radio would've been 'Breaking The Law' or 'Living After Midnight', which are basically rock and roll songs. But you get 'British Steel', and you find 'Rapid Fire', then you do your backwards homework which you had to do for a lot of bands, and you find 'Hell Bent For Leather' (1978),'Sad Wings of Destiny' (1976),and all the original classic stuff, and you realize that there’s way more to this band than 'Living After Midnight'."

He continued: "Rob [Halford] is what I call a vocal ninja. The stuff he does in the '70s, '80s, even '90s, and even today, he can't hit the notes from his heyday, but he goes out and puts on a hell of a show. But the thing he does, the shrill crazy Rob Halford scream is I think what got me. It wasn't about wearing leather and chains, but, of course, PRIEST are idols of me, and I think you spend the early part of your career emulating your idols, and we were definitely guilty of that."

King recently told Rolling Stone that "Stained Class" is "the most complete JUDAS PRIEST album." He said: "I love the intro to 'Stained Class'. And Rob Halford is my favorite singer of all time, closely followed by Ronnie James Dio, closely followed by Bruce Dickinson. There's riffs on all of the early records, as well as a lot of the later ones, but it was on 'Stained Class' where they really found what the 'PRIEST sound' was gonna be. It kept evolving a little bit, but to me, it was more defined than 'Sin After Sin' and 'Sad Wings Of Destiny'. It seemed like it came together more. We'd covered ['Sin After Sin''s] 'Dissident Aggressor' because it was super heavy but very obscure. And after we did, a lot of people still thought it was our own song. But on this one, they had the two-guitar thing and it was a little more cleaned up, maybe how 'Reign In Blood' became SLAYER's sound of the future. We've sounded the same basically ever since."

King's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", was released in May via Reigning Phoenix Music.

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).

Photo credit: Andrew Stuart