Kerry King/Municipal Waste/Alien Weaponry @ Irving Plaza, New York, NY 2/7/25

Kerry King made his NYC solo band debut with a cast of established players. Drummer Paul Bostaph of course did some time in Slayer, Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda fronts the band with Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel and Hellyeah bass player Kyle Sanders.

Kerry looked like he always did in recent Slayer years, but with Slayer out of retirement on a festival basis, the focus is mainly the new material with some deep cuts. There was also a Paul Di'Anno Iron Maiden tribute of "Purgatory" back to back with "Killers." King worked on From Hell I Rise for years before finally releasing it last year, similar to the way Slayer issued records. The show closer was the title track with no encore.

Metal is primarily about hierarchy. Much in the way Slayer is somewhere down the bill on this July's Black Sabbath Birmingham last show, 25-year thrash punk veterans from Richmond, Municipal Waste, is in the middle of the bill and 15-year Waipu groove metal "newcomers" Alien Weaponry start off first. Nobody cares about the last decade.

This was the lone gig on the tour to sell out. Clearly NYC and Irving Plaza's history with Slayer gave additional meaning to this night. Wednesday night, I thought it was 50/50 the show would sell out and by Thursday morning tickets were gone and the secondary market was going for hundreds of dollars. That calmed down Friday and I managed to get a day of show ticket at face at 4:03. By 4:05 that opportunity was gone for my friend that was planning to go. I don't know if I lucked into a single or if everyone that procrastinated had the same idea, but the situation taught me a lesson I never seem to fully learn.