Kerry King: The Fonda Theatre - Los Angeles, CA - 2/21/25
Slayer guitarist and legend Kerry King formed his solo band consisting of other well-known metal musicians. In 2024, King released his first solo album, From Hell I Rise. His band members consist of: Mark Osegueda (Death Angel), Phil Demmel (ex-Machine Head/Vio-lence), Paul Bostaph (Slayer), and Kyle Sanders (ex-Hellyeah). Nearing the end of the tour, the SoCal stop was at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The venue was so packed that it might as well have been sold out. Tagging along for the tour are Richmond, Virginia thrashers Municipal Waste and New Zealand Māori metal band Alien Weaponry. It was Friday night in downtown Los Angeles, and it was about to get shaken up by three amazing metal bands.
Alien Weaponry currently have two albums out with a third album titled Te rā set to be released on March 28, 2025. They came out to an already packed venue and started their show with "Raupatu" ("Confiscated"). One of the first things you’ll notice is that the majority of their songs are sung in their native language of Māori. The band started off strong with one of their most popular songs and kept the energy going as they next played "Rū Ana Te Whenua". The crowd went wild for them and stayed moshing the whole night. After a couple of more songs, their set came to an end with “Kai Tangata”. While a still somewhat young band, they are no doubt making their way up the ladder in the metal world and it won’t be long before they start doing their own headlining tours in the U.S.A.
Municipal Waste released their seventh studio album Electrified Brain in 2022. They are very popular in the thrash metal scene, so it wasn’t surprising to see lots of thrash metal fans in attendance. Municipal Waste came out and started their show with “Garbage Stomp”. Right away, the crowd went nuts and, not only started moshing, but crowd surfers started making an appearance and made security up front work for their money. Up next was their popular song, “Sadistic Magician”. The fans didn’t show any signs of slowing down and kept moshing as it always happens with any Municipal Waste show. After a few more songs, singer Tony Foresta took a couple of minutes to speak to the audience about the country’s current political status. After that, it was time to get back to the thrashing. More classics were played including “Slime and Punishment”, “The Thrashin’ of the Christ”, and “The Art of Partying”. Foresta once again took a quick break to address the audience that metal is not just an all-boys club. He invited all the ladies in the audience to have their own mosh pit as Municipal Waste played “Guilty of Being Tight”. To end their thrash-tastic set, Municipal Waste finished up with their usual ending song, “Born to Party”. Foresta told the audience that this was their last chance to show them what LA is all about. The song has a really catchy chorus as the whole venue sang along to, “Municipal Waste is gonna fuck you up!” and the mosh pit just got bigger and faster. Municipal Waste finished the song, thanked the audience, then left the stage. One more band to go and things were just getting heated up.
With Kerry King and Paul Bostaph being members of Slayer, it was no surprise to see lots of fans wearing Slayer merch. The stage was setup as the lights went out and the fully packed venue cheered with excitement as the band members made their way to the stage. The first song performed was the first song on the new album, Where I Reign. The power of two guitars plus the vocals of Mark Osegueda made for a powerful combination. The audience wasted no time in once again moshing to some thrash metal. After a few more tunes from the new album, the band took it back to their Slayer roots. They next played one of Slayer’s best songs, “Disciple”. It was quite the sight seeing people sing along to, “God Hates Us All!”. In true thrash metal fashion, the energy was off the hook and fans kept moshing and crowd surfers were present throughout the performance. Osegueda took a quick break to speak to the audience on how original Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno had passed away the previous year as well as original drummer Clive Burr in 2013. As a tribute, the band played Iron Maiden covers of “Purgatory” and “Killers”. Kerry King continued to play blistering tracks including “Toxic” and “Shrapnel”. Once again, they went back to their Slayer roots as the band gathered around drummer Paul Bostaph in a familiar pose as a very familiar intro started to play. The next song turned out to be Slayer’s most popular song and, without a doubt, one of the greatest songs in metal. That song was “Raining Blood”. The song started and the fans quickly gave the biggest and fastest mosh pit of the night as that song makes any crowd go ballistic. Finishing up that song, the next song continued which was another Slayer crowd pleaser, “Black Magic”. After all the moshing and thrashing that had been going on all night, it was time for the show to sadly come to an end. The final song of the night was the self-titled album song, “From Hell I Rise”. Kerry King thanked the audience for coming out, then left the stage. It was an amazing night for metal and hopefully it’s not long before Kerry King comes back with another killer lineup.
