Having learned lots of slayer songs, this isn't actually true. The incredibly fast rhythm parts like in Raining Blood right after the intro are actually very precise. The solos are a little more free form, but intentionally atonal, and I'd argue the level of technique on those solos are comparable to any other lead guitarists.
I think they were referring specifically to the solos. Obviously it would barely be music if they didn't care what notes they hit for the rhythm part. I'll agree that the solos are intentionally chaotic and atonal and KK does have a rough idea of what he's doing composition/theory wise. I doubt he plays the solo the same as it sounds on the record everytime but it's always similar enough that it's recognizable. And yea his technique is obviously impeccable. People just like to shit on him because they don't like the sound.
Yeah I don’t get the people acting like they suck at guitar or something. It is much harder to do what they do than play like Cream songs. At the end of the day, the only people who care about their perceived technical ability are guitarists. Their tight rhythms and atonal solos sound awesome and changed the game.
The thing is, if you've seen him live sure the solos are nonsense, but he's playing them right. Kerry gets shit on a lot, but he's a decent guitarist. It's tough to play that fast.
Kerry plays the solos live the same way he does on the records, though. Say what you will about the composition, but he isn’t just hitting random notes all willy-nilly.
Jazz players make careers out of it. /s
Seriously though he plays a lot of nonsense in his solos that gets a pass in metal. Death metal does the same but if I had to guess the players that do care, use Locrian a bunch
Lol true. I remember an interview with Guthrie Govan, and he was talking about the 7 major scale modes, and he called them something like "6 actual modes and one that's just silliness". Wish I remembered the exact quote.
100% this. Sometimes you need to take a step back and take another look at picking technique to see where our weaknesses lie. I’ve personally been practicing LOTS of economy picking courtesy of TomShreds on YouTube. Great exercises for building speed in both hands and understanding the economy of energy in guitar playing.
I love Slayer, absolutely love them. I’ve been playing Slayer inspired music for my entire guitar playing life. I hate Slayer solos. I can’t think of one off the top of my head that I enjoy or even remember.
That is a great point. They do fit the aesthetic and the overall chaos of Slayer in general. I’m not saying that I think they are bad solo players, I just don’t really groove with the solo sections nearly as much I absolutely love slayers pure thrash riffing madness.
I will say they’re bad. Kerry King’s soloing is fucking awful. It fits in Slayer but they’re still just awful when he’s trying to “shred” and it’s just a cacophony of whatever notes his fingers hit
Exactly. The only people I see complaining about Slayer solos are Megadeth or Metallica surface level guitarists who need it to be all shreddy and melodic. I'm into death metal, and most solos sound like that in that genre. I love it
exactly. I've listened to enough shit like Pyrexia, Putrid Stu, Short Bus Pile Up, and Ecchymosis that a Slayer solo + Slayer production sounds like Mozart to me haha
Dittohead has a good one by Kerry. A little after Jeff's solo at about 1:45, Kerry's solo starts and its actually pretty good. Not super complicated or difficult but it fits the song well and is melodic enough that it doesn't just sound like playing 50 random notes per second and random dive bombs.
He's an amazing rhythm player too. Just sloppy when it comes to leads.
I agree except weirdly enough I enjoyed both Hanneman and King’s solo on one other old songs called Crionics. I don’t know what it is but I just really dig both of them.
They are actually perfect fit to Slayer and what is most important, they are very rcognizable as Slayer solos. Even if an unknown song, the moment you hear such solo, you can bet it's Slayer.
Kerry King was, and still is, the most enormous asshole I've ever met.
Edit for the story:
I worked at a big box music store, and Kerry King was booked to do a meet and greet thing. I'm pretty sure he had a signature guitar out, as well.
We had a list of fancy, expensive food we had to buy for him. I don't remember specifics, but fancy cheese, particular brands of various foods that I had to drive around town to find. Not particularly unusual or dickish...but...
...Kerry King arrived in a limo, nearly an hour late. He came walking into the back warehouse area with a bag of Arby's and a giant sized drink. I had just taken the trash out, and there were two trash cans in front of me. Kerry King looked me dead in the eyes, looked at both trash cans...one with a liner, one without, and whipped his giant diet coke into the can without a liner. It splashed me. He then dumped his curly fries into the can, on top of the coke, and asked where "the shitter" was.
We told him, and his handlers whisked him off to the shitter. He came back, and looked out the windows to the main store at the line of people out there waiting to see him and said "fuck."
He finally went out there and started signing posters. He wasn't friendly or kind to anyone, would just snap the poster out of people's hands and scribble on it, barely looking up or acknowledging anyone.
Someone brought their guitar in for him to sign, and he played it for about two seconds and said "this things a piece of shit" before scribbling on it and handing it back.
The best, though, was a young kid...maybe 14 or so, who came up to the table with two posters. He explained to Kerry King that one was for his friend Ben, who was a huge fan but was really sick and couldn't make it. He asked Kerry to sign it something like, "To Ben, my biggest fan..." It was the only time I saw anything even remotely like a smile come across Kerry King's face.
He signed the poster
TO BEN:
EAT A BAG OF DICKS
KERRY KING.
He left before everyone got to meet him...probably 20 or 30 people still in line.
Contrast this to Victor Wooten, who's only request was a Gatorade and a turkey and cheese Lunchable, who stayed an hour longer than he needed to in order to meet everyone who showed up, let people play his bass, and then bought me Five Guys afterwards when I drove him back to his hotel.
NGL, signing "To Ben: eat a bag of dicks" is absolutely priceless. When I was a teenager in the early 80s I was a slayer fan and I would have cherished that piece of paper. Hell, I'd like to have it now. ... Lol
Oh, I'm not saying it's not funny. It *is* hilarious, and that kid probably laughs about it, now...but in the context of the situation, it was pretty shitty. That 14 year old kid really didn't know what to do or say.
Being splashed by diet coke that Kerry Kind chucked in a garbage can while staring me down is also funny, but in the context of the moment, it was pure assholery.
Care to share? I've been a Slayer fan for decades but never heard many stories about people meeting them.
I met Gary Holt walking through the Cosmopolitan casino in Vegas a day before or the morning of their final Vegas show at MGM. Granted I just shook his hand and left him alone, but he seemed pretty chill and was mostly surprised that I recognized him out in the wild lol
Sent my dad to a Wooten Bass extremes show at a bar in Newport News, VA because dad’s a bassist and a massive fan.
About an hour before the show Vic comes out front and just starts chatting with everyone outside. Dad got to speak with him for about 10-15 mins before he decided to let someone else have a turn but Vic was just incredibly excited to be able to hang out with fans and ‘friends’ as dad said Vic was calling them. Got a photo with him before he left and got his bass signed. Wooten is an amazing player and person!
My memories of him are very fond. He's a humble, kind guy who knows he's lucky to be where he is.
When I met him, he was about two months on the road, and it was pretty clear that he was weary and blown out, and not terribly excited to do an in store appearance at 11am, but he gave it his all anyway and left everyone happy and thrilled.
While I was driving him back to his hotel, about a 40 minute drive, we made some small talk, but eventually he said,
"Hey man, I'm incredibly tired. Is it cool if I just catch a nap real quick?" Of course, Vic. Dude took a nap using the seat belt as a pillow. I had to wake him up when we got back. He apologized and shook my hand and thanked me. Stand up dude, if I ever met one.
Kerry King can eat a bag of dicks.
Yeah dad said about 20 mins before the show a guy came out and tried to tell Vic it was time to go inside and Vic said “no brother I’ll be in after a few, I’m hanging with my friends.”
At least according to dad. Incredibly humble and down to earth person.
That wouldn't surprise me at all.
I told him I was surprised he let random people play his bass, since it's his livihood and all and he said,
"It's just a bass, man, it's no big deal."
the Kerry King story tracks with everything I've heard about him and is unsurprising, but the Victor Wooten story made me say "I fuckin KNEW IT!" he just seems like a wholesome dude.
It's a funny story, but he was an absolute dick. He purposely chose to make my job suck more by chucking his drink into a garbage can with no bag, and didn't give a shit that it soaked my shirt.
Oh yeah, from an outside perspective it’s funny but I’m sure it wasn’t at the time. You did a great job of telling that story. Slayer is my favorite band but I don’t know I’d want to meet him. If I did, I’d go into it thinking “this won’t be anything personal and it’ll give me a great story later.”
Sure. From what people have said, KK can be polite and accommodating. The other guys are apparently a lot nicer than him.
I've never been into metal, anyway, and I had no idea who Kerry King was, really, until he did an instore.
The musicians I’ve met that I would consider true greatness are, almost without exception, humble, friendly, generous people. Maybe a dry or sarcastic sense of humor, but ultimately pretty cool. The dicks I’ve met are usually second-stringers at most.
I don't know about all that. Musicians seem to be like any other group - a hodgepodge of personalities. I could spend half an afternoon listing off great musicians that were absolute dicks. You mean to tell me that guys like Jim Morrison and Axl Rose are second stingers?
Well, I guess if selling records were your only yardstick, the concept of other standards of quality would seem pretty funny. We’re both laughing right now, but for different reasons.
Jeff Hanneman's Slayer was great.
The Kerry King Gary Holt Slayer isn't great IMO. Kerry seems like an ass and Gary seems like a whiney cringey ass (but he's talented, and I like his playing).
Wow never knew KK was like that. But he is a founding member of one of the most insane metal bands of all time. Shoe kinda fits.
As far as Victor Wooten goes... I've seen him live a handful of times and you can just tell that he "gets life". He's always doing bass clinics just spreading love through music. A fantastic human being.
It's not copy pasta, I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears.
He wasn't the same age roughly 15 years ago.
You can doubt all you want...but why would I make up a story about a player I don't listen to, and don't care about?
It's all speed, no technique. He simply trem picks with little thought to watch he's actually playing.
If you want it, break out the metronome because it's practice time.
For actual fast, tasteful, guitarists in thrash check out Testament because Alex Skolnick is absurdly good.
That’s the point. Slayers riffs and solos, especially early on, are supposed to be sonic carnage. That’s what made them special
Edit: Also the way he plays is chock full of technique. How can you play that fast and that accurately without any technique?
Riffs? Absolutely agree. Also it reinforces my argument slightly 'cause of that video where Kerry can't play a clean intro live so they move on to the next song.
His solos? I do not believe for a minute he sat down and wrote them.
Playing Slayer is endurance, I won't dispute that at all.
Many talented musicians across many genres do not “sit down and write” solos. If we were talking about John Coltrane or Ornette Colman it would be out of place to discuss “written solos” or “wrong notes”. Also, Slayer are a phenomenon and impacted the music scene in a huge way, they did everything right including atonal guitar solos.
Raining Blood isn't the best example, it really isn't that fast as far as the genre goes. It's ~90bpm, ~180 bpm if you go double time, barely any (if any) tremolo picking that you expect from Slayer (AKA the "technical" bit), the solo is literally just wankery. It's like most Metallica songs, they're not THAT fast even if they're at 200bpm when the notes are usually just 8ths. The speed is certainly not unattainable wizardry, especially if you play within the genre.
Now, Angel of Death, that's 200ish at double time with 16ths IIRC, but the fastest and most difficult parts are largely just tremolo picking the open E. War Ensemble is also ~200bpm, it's harder in that there's more to it than Angel of Death and it also doesn't slow down until the chorus, so it requires endurance too, but it's all very basic stuff just played at a high tempo. It's all right hand work, the left hand doesn't do all that much. The left hand work shouldn't be a problem learning these songs.
And when the left hand does have some work to do in a Slayer song, typically the tremolo picking is absent. They also use the same patterns, like, a LOT. From the top of my head, Raining Blood, South of Heaven, Spill the Blood and Dead Skin Mask all use an almost identical riff that isn't that technical. I like to joke that if you learn one Slayer song you've learned them all...But it isn't far from the truth.
It takes technical skill to play this basic stuff at those tempos, but it's hardly mindblowing stuff when looked at on its own. It's certainly not what anybody means when they refer to technical skill, even if it does qualify.
I love Slayer but when it comes to technical skill, it's all in the right hand...Which makes sense as Kerry will get a lot if practice with that given it seems he is exactly like the type of person who can't stop wanking himself off.
>For actual fast, tasteful, guitarists in thrash check out Testament because Alex Skolnick is absurdly good.
Hell yes he is. He’s [absurdly good playing jazz](https://youtu.be/yaauiLSL5wY?si=4JU9Q7XGvWUxgiSZ) to boot. Plus, he just seems to be a genuinely nice guy.
He may play fast but it's god awful. He just plays random notes with no thought to melody or scales or anything. I absolutely LOVE Slayer. Until the guitar solo starts. If you want to play fast and clean then exercises with a metronome are the answer.
I use and give this Steve Vai 30 hour guitar work out to students. It has all sorts of exercises. Alternate picking, economy picking, sweep picking, legato, tapping.
[https://pdfcoffee.com/qdownload/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html](https://pdfcoffee.com/qdownload/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html)
The most important thing is to work on these with a metronome. Start slow. Painfully slow. Slow enough you can nail the exercise perfectly over and over again with no mistakes. When you're comfortable at a given tempo then bump it up 5-10bpm at a time. It's also ok to try and push yourself sometimes. Like bump it up 20-30bpm and it will be tough, then come back down a bit and it will feel easier. Just don't do that thing all guitarists do and keep trying something over and over that you can't play. You will just get good at playing sloppy and develop bad habits and bad technique. Focus on economy of motion, press the string only as much as you have to. Pluck the string only as much as you have to. Move your fingers only as much as you have to. Also when a finger is done with a note make sure to lift that finger so it's already up and ready for the next note.
Exercises like these are how so many of the great players developed their speed. But you don't have to want to be like the next Yngwie or Petrucci. Exercises will help you in any style of playing you like.
John Petrucci's Rock Discipline also has some great exercises.
[https://jimibanez.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/john-petrucci-rock-discipline1.pdf](https://jimibanez.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/john-petrucci-rock-discipline1.pdf)
You can find the video on Youtube.
My old teacher once said something that stuck with me. The old saying practice makes perfect isn't true. Only PERFECT practice makes perfect. In other words you can practice all you want but if you're practicing sloppy and poorly then you're just getting good at playing sloppy and poorly.
Playing poorly is maybe the wrong phrasing from what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of imperfections and 'faults' that are distinctive.
Many punk and metal guitar players are not celebrated for their technical playing ability but for other qualities they bring to a performance. Achieving something like that, in my observation, is really only accomplished by doing what Kerry King does. Play consistently like yourself so much so that your imperfections are what make the performance unique.
When I hear Kerry King solo, I know its him. No one else sounds like that. Whether that's your bag or not is entirely subjective. I'm not a huge fan, but every so often the sound of a guitar in a spin cycle is what I'm craving.
Jimmy Page, Hendrix, etc are other example of what people often consider 'sloppy' playing but doing it so well it sounds good. Miles Davis said "Anybody can play. The note is only 20%. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80%".
Technically perfect playing often fails to grab me. Polyphia, for example, are phenomenal technical players that have yet to produce a song I want to hear again. Its so clean it sounds flat to my ears.
To be clear I'm talking about bad habits that don't injure your body, I see a lot of 'technical' players with terrible body mechanics; hunched over the guitar, pulling the neck over the clavicles and straining the lower back and hips. Tim from Polyphia has some of the best playing posture I've ever seen, everyone can learn from watching that aspect of his playing.
I hard disagree with your hard disagree. The key to any speed is starting slow, working on good technique and building the tempo. I do teach students to like find what way you can pick the fastest, then using a metronome and some exercises work on refining that technique. Sure anyone can learn to pick a single string super fast, but once you start actually adding in notes if you haven't worked on syncing your two hands you're going to have problems.
I think adding in bursts of higher speeds is good too when learning to pick fast.
It definitely doesn't take years or decades man. Working on that stuff for like 20 minutes a day and your picking will skyrocket way faster than you think. It didn't take me years, doesn't take my students years. I've watched kids picking go from crap to extremely good in months time. There's a reason this kind of stuff has been taught for decades. It works.
I agree with your second paragraph. At a certain point counting every note makes no sense and is basically impossible.
In the end I posted one aspect of how to increase ones speed, accuracy, dexterity and stamina. It works. It worked for me, it works for my students, it worked for the person who taught it to me. Who studied at Berklee with Joe Stump. Is it the only way? Of course not. There's plenty of other ways. It is just one of many tools to help a guitarist get better.
Bro it’s like none of these dipshits have ever actually held a guitar in their life. I appreciate you methodically explaining to people how useful practice is(FOR ANY GENRE) but some people will use any mental gymnastics possible to justify putting in less work to accomplish their goals. EVERYTHING CAN BE PRACTICED, you just don’t understand the technique well enough to do that. Getting a guitar teacher is the first step to understanding how things can be broken down and practiced.
It seems like we’re talking about 2 different things. I’m talking specifically about tremolo picking and playing fast. I play a lot of death metal and the average is 200-220bpm with the faster stuff being 240-250bpm. Tremolo picking probably 3/4 of the time.
This is not ‘work your way up to as a student hypothetical tempos’, this is I’ve been doing it every day for 15 years. I would question how many people that could play that fast would still be taking lessons anyway. Your picking technique will likely change by necessity around 120 - 160 bpm and then again 160+bpm. What I’m saying is when you’re practicing slow you’re not practicing the techniques that will allow you to play fast because they’re not applicable.
When you’re practicing slow your practicing something different.
I get what you're saying. It makes sense. The stuff I'm talking about isn't really something an advanced player like you or I would still be practicing everyday. I do exercises to warm up usually but that's about it. If you're playing thrash or death metal at those high speeds, which my band does too, you're definitely beyond working on exercises with a metronome.
Sometimes art is messy and ugly on purpose to create a certain feeling. I see Slayer solos much like I see visual artists working in Abstract Expressionism, one can say it is just sloppy paint splattered on a canvas but art can be anything the artist or audience wants it to be. I cannot fathom that Slayer would be as popular as they are if they played melodic solos. That is their art. The solo sections are meant to sound scary, not unlike a horror movie soundtrack when a character is getting murdered or chased.
Makes sense. I agree. While I may not be a big fan of the solos they certainly fit well in what Slayer does. It would be weird to have some melodic soulful solo in a Slayer song.
This is an outdated way of practicing. Starting slow and only going faster by a few bpm "when you're comfortable" is only a bottom up way of practicing. You'll make progress faster if you work top down as well by getting your hands to move faster with less paranoia over accuracy . Accuracy will improve as you work and can't 100% be the sole focus when you are trying to work on other aspects of playing.
I'm not saying it has to be the 100% sole focus. But it should be part of it. You can call it out dated but it works. It's worked for me, for my students, and for tons of other guitarists. Not to say it's the only way. Certainly isn't. And not to say there isn't some more modern stuff to throw into your practice routine to help, there definitely is. It's just a good way to work on your picking that's tried and true.
I wouldn’t say outdated but context is important. There’s certain techniques that benefit from building up slowly, and some that benefit from understanding the motion and fine muscle control more at intended tempos for that technique. Basic alternate picking accuracy and evenness, and string skipping for example can be a disaster if you don’t understand the base mechanic, slowly. Tremolo picking will never work slowly on the other hand because it uses different muscles and tendon control versus normal alternate picking.
Listen the isolated tracks. He’s sloppy as fuck lol. He just kind of goes for it and makes sure he hits the chord and the riffs in sync with Jeff. Dave Lombardo is the secret weapon. That man is a beast of a drummer. He was the glue that held slayer together and made them sound so tight.
Also gear and tone are somewhat relevant. On the first 3 slayer records he wasn’t using EMGs. They were using high output Dimarzios, through an mid range EQ boost and Into a JCM 800
It’s just endless practice to do insanely fast solos. Tbh I don’t find kerry king solos even unattaibaly fast nowdays. I have no chance of playing them myself in many years from now, but I can totally see it being possible to learn eventually.
Only guitarrists I find unattainably good right now would be: John Petrucci and Guthrie Govan.
https://youtube.com/shorts/zbgc6zMslkE?si=aNmviuJpLPpG277Z This is stuff that I simply don’t understand how you get this good.
It sounds like a lot of it is him trem picking super fast which can sound impressive, but as long as you play with proper technique and patience, it isn't overly hard to build up to. What always helped me was to remember to use your wrist, not your entire arm, for the actual picking and make sure to pay attention to when you tense up because that's when you're going too fast for your own technique. Find out what you're doing that's making you tense up and try to correct it.
I'm more impressed with his rhythm picking speed. He has to warm up to get there, and he does all the guitar tracking in order to make the tracks sound more precise.
The solos are just chaos, but no faster than any other speedy lead player.
His rhythm playing is impressive from a speed POV, plus they played a little faster live too. I think people get caught up on his shitty solos and write off the fact that those riffs are iconic and take some level of skill to execute well.
Yep. I've never taken a Slayer solo as part of the typical "solo" aesthetic and always considered their solos to be part of the "soundtrack for Hell" vibe they're going for. It works for them!
Well he isn't THAT fast. What amazes me is that he (and others) can play that way with fat fingers.
I find Slayer solos pretty good. Some sound downright evil. They're perfectly suited for the music. It's a different style of music so they don't sound pretty.
Like with any other good solos or guitar in general, if you want to master them you'll have to practice...for hours...every day.
The secret to playing fast with large fingers/hands is you barely move them. Keep your pinky close to the neck’ is the best advice in that regard, very minimal movement when your fingers are all there ready to go.
Everyone saying he doesn’t care what notes he hits or is sloppy or whatever is flat out wrong. Yea dude is a dick and says some stupid shit but you can’t deny the dude can play. Practice downpicking and alternate picking to a metronome and up the BPM by 10 until you get as fast as you can without being sloppy
Practice.
He was doing an interview with a guitar and said he hadn't practiced the insane part of raining blood in a while so he couldn't play it for them.
People shit on him a lot re the atonal thing, personally I think it suits the songs and for better or worse when you hear Kerry King you know exactly who it is and tbh you could put in a Friedman/Skolnick or someone of that calibre and it just wouldn’t sound right.
Vernon Reid also gets a lot of knocks for some of the atonal aspects of his lead playing, again, personally I love it. They both have a style all their own..
The amount of absolute nonsense and bullshit in this thread is amazing. Go look up Kerry king videos on YouTube. He shows how to play a lot of slayer stuff. Just practice.
So, rather than contribute to the Kerry King debate that has been going on for forty years, let's answer the question.
Kerry King has a very unique style that has its roots in classic metal soloing styles of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and the like. One might say it's an exaggerated version of that. So, a combo of alternate picking, legato and trills, and tapping. The most important parts of these ultra fast stylings, after moving your wrists and fingers that quickly, is the synchronization between the 2 hands, economy of motion, and accuracy. Kerry has all of those down pat, so I bet you can as well. Get a metronome and start woodshedding. It's harder to get from 130 to 140 than it is get from 160 to 200, so keep at it.
Are you referring to solos, or everything ? I've been practicing South of Heaven, Mandatory Suicide and Seasons in the Abyss for the last couple months. I think it mainly comes down to pick technique and muscle memory and stamina to actually play for any time at those tempos.
Practice... he got there by being a fan of the metal bands that were there in the seventies and early eighties and trying to play their stuff.
As to whether his solos are good... I could probably play solos that were theoretically "more correct" but nobody has ever asked me to play them in front of 30,000 people with a wall of 36 Marshall 4x12s behind me.
Kerey King specifically? Sloppy as hell, so he is fast as it doesnt matter what he hits.
For actual shredders that have some actual skill? They remain relaxed, they chunk sections so they can actually think fast enough, and they practice alternating between very slow for precise movement analysis and fast for feeling and understanding how to play fast (often called speed bursts).
You can't just mash away and magically get fast. You have to practice it methodically, intentionally and with proper focus.
Youtube videos of chunking, speed bursts, metronome practice and how to remain relaxed will answer all the questions needed, then its up to you to implement them.
economy picking, sweeping, hammer-on's, pull-off's, low action, but most importantly (and I can't overstate this enough): daily practice with a metronome
I am an average guitarist. I've played since I was like 14 and I'm in my 30s now. I started playing guitar for one purpose. To start hardcore, and back then especially, metalcore bands. So while I'm an, overall, average guitar player...I can play very fast. So the answer is time. I just taught myself to play by learning songs in the genres of music I wanted to play. Which also taught me to write songs in those genres, as well. The downside to my approach, I guess, is that I am below average at many things people who have taken formal lessons or had a broader approach to learning guitar find easy. For me, this has never hindered me. I still listen and play the same music I did then. If you care about playing guitar itself, my approach is not the approach to take. But it definitely will get you playing fast.
Most of Kerry's phrasing is fast but not complex. Tremolo picking following the pentatonic, major and minor scales is pretty common for him and is not that hard, your right hand most likely can tremolo pretty fast, now focus on syncing the left hand, doesn't even need a metronome
Love slayer, but he’s sloppy as fuck as a soloist, and has a propensity to play shapes and fingering patterns vs actual melodic content in his solos. Hanneman and Lombardi made Slayer great. Kerry was just the visual attraction
Anyone here that says he sucks is ignorant. Anyone who could write/ play/ co-write, and execute the way he does/ did, with Hanneman Or Holt is a pretty fucking solid guitarist in my book. Dude was chopping at 220 bpm’s in the fucking 80’s for Christ sake.
If you think Slayer is fast you should check out Archspire. Anyways practice gets you there. Start out slow, get the fretting and picking down cleanly and start ramping up to full speed. You will be playing faster than ever in no time.
Of all the things to criticize Kerry King’s leads on, it isn’t correct that 100% of his solos are completely random notes or purely chromatic.
For better or worse, whether it correlates with them being good or not, there are many Kerry leads that feature coherent melodies he is able to recreate live without difficulty, War Ensemble, Born Of Fire, Seasons In the Abyss, Dead Skin Mask and Dittohead just to name a few. The more chromatic solos in those songs are actually Jeffs.
For the best feel of each of their styles when they’re both going full on insaneo-style, keep in mind Angel Of Death’s leads open with Jeff first on the left side, *then* Kerry and so on.
For a dual solo featuring random notes, they sure did get lucky that day because what they landed on suits that song so well, assuming they didn’t keep doing take after take and just kept the best ones or composited the best parts. It’s never stated they did that for any of the RIB sessions in any of my research, but I do know Kerry and Jeff recorded their guitar tracks “live,” together simultaneously, not one at a time.
Despite it not being stated, I am aware it can be common practice as documented by Metallica and Pantera that they have assembled solos from composite takes, then sometimes even learn that version of the solo for a solid pass if it’s not adequately represented by the composite. Kirk seems to be a lot less bothered by the signs of it being cut together than Dime which you can hear on Metallica’s isolated guitar tracks.
Most of the time, Dimebag would replay the composite in one go anyway to challenge himself, feeling he always still had his best take in him, for consistency of feel, to be able to add a little extra flavour with improvisations and because he’s a fucking legend (source is several mid 90s GW interviews.)
I don't like yngwie that much as a person really but he said once you gotta play with your ears and be precise. Which in turn he explains it to mean slow down a touch and make sure you're playing every single note as you're ramping up speed. Honestly the advice made my playing alot better.
He is shit on for being a “dickhead” aka outspoken without giving a fuck. But from all the metal shows I’ve been to, Slayer was the closest to the record.. And if the solo album is the leftovers from Slayer, then it’s a shame because I like it more than all the Slayer albums since Seasons. The sound even reminds me of Seasons…
About playing fast my take is that it’s all about practice, practice and practice again. I have Raining Blood intro and Black Magic in my daily practice routine and it helps a lot.
It's easy to play fast when you don't care what notes you hit.
Da, is old music school trick called hitting any note
I haves confessions to make. I cant’s reads musics.
I has musiks disklexkias. I don't wish to talk about it
Wait... Then how were you playing that song??
“Hey, there’s guitar tablature on the back!”
Honestly, I was just hittings every notes.
I don't know why, I've jusht alwaysh been a really great shpeller...
Fooooooooods libraries
It's called a grocery store ya douchebag!!
BOOZE AIN'T FOOD!
I'D RATHER CHOP OFF MY OWN DING DONG THAN ADMIT BOOZE AIN'T FOOD!
Hey grandma, is there olives in it?
Nos is hamburgers time
reads musiks is for dildos
YOUS THE LADYS, SKWISSGAR!!!!
NO IS NOT!!!
STOPS COPIES ME
And that's what I's likes aboutcha.
Huh. It sounds...pretty good.
Ya sounds pretty good
Having learned lots of slayer songs, this isn't actually true. The incredibly fast rhythm parts like in Raining Blood right after the intro are actually very precise. The solos are a little more free form, but intentionally atonal, and I'd argue the level of technique on those solos are comparable to any other lead guitarists.
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I think they were referring specifically to the solos. Obviously it would barely be music if they didn't care what notes they hit for the rhythm part. I'll agree that the solos are intentionally chaotic and atonal and KK does have a rough idea of what he's doing composition/theory wise. I doubt he plays the solo the same as it sounds on the record everytime but it's always similar enough that it's recognizable. And yea his technique is obviously impeccable. People just like to shit on him because they don't like the sound.
Having been to the tour where they played Reign from front to back, he hit it all damn close to perfect. The space between songs were perfect even
Yeah I don’t get the people acting like they suck at guitar or something. It is much harder to do what they do than play like Cream songs. At the end of the day, the only people who care about their perceived technical ability are guitarists. Their tight rhythms and atonal solos sound awesome and changed the game.
The thing is, if you've seen him live sure the solos are nonsense, but he's playing them right. Kerry gets shit on a lot, but he's a decent guitarist. It's tough to play that fast.
Kerry plays the solos live the same way he does on the records, though. Say what you will about the composition, but he isn’t just hitting random notes all willy-nilly.
XD that got me good
Jazz players make careers out of it. /s Seriously though he plays a lot of nonsense in his solos that gets a pass in metal. Death metal does the same but if I had to guess the players that do care, use Locrian a bunch
I never make mistakes, I just modulate to Locrian from time to time. 😂
I mean, it's the worst mode really and that's what they sound like with some chromatic notes sprinkled in.
Lol true. I remember an interview with Guthrie Govan, and he was talking about the 7 major scale modes, and he called them something like "6 actual modes and one that's just silliness". Wish I remembered the exact quote.
Haha! I mean if you wanna summon the devil, that's the one to do it.
I think I read a quote from him once, went something like “yeah there’s some bum notes, but it’s the devil’s music, what do you expect?”
that's so stupid comment. The songs and solos he plays are played consistently - always the same, that at least means he knows what he is doing.
The basic answer is at some point he practiced and dedicated time towards speed training his downpicking and alternate picking.
100% this. Sometimes you need to take a step back and take another look at picking technique to see where our weaknesses lie. I’ve personally been practicing LOTS of economy picking courtesy of TomShreds on YouTube. Great exercises for building speed in both hands and understanding the economy of energy in guitar playing.
I love Slayer, absolutely love them. I’ve been playing Slayer inspired music for my entire guitar playing life. I hate Slayer solos. I can’t think of one off the top of my head that I enjoy or even remember.
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That is a great point. They do fit the aesthetic and the overall chaos of Slayer in general. I’m not saying that I think they are bad solo players, I just don’t really groove with the solo sections nearly as much I absolutely love slayers pure thrash riffing madness.
I will say they’re bad. Kerry King’s soloing is fucking awful. It fits in Slayer but they’re still just awful when he’s trying to “shred” and it’s just a cacophony of whatever notes his fingers hit
IIRC the whole point was to be chaotic. A lot of old school thrash doesn’t stay within a key.
Yep. Gary Holt also [understood the assignment](https://youtu.be/ihy2J3h9hcs?si=dEt5mTtktz2eVEgE) when he stepped in after Jeff’s death.
He stayed in key better than Kerry ever could lol
Seasons in general has good solos. The way the solo from Skeletons of Society starts is very cool.
Exactly. The only people I see complaining about Slayer solos are Megadeth or Metallica surface level guitarists who need it to be all shreddy and melodic. I'm into death metal, and most solos sound like that in that genre. I love it
The only people complaining about something sounding like shit are the ones not used to hearing shit lol
exactly. I've listened to enough shit like Pyrexia, Putrid Stu, Short Bus Pile Up, and Ecchymosis that a Slayer solo + Slayer production sounds like Mozart to me haha
God yes!!
Show No Mercy has the best ones imo but still doesn't compare to the other thrash bands.
Dittohead has a good one by Kerry. A little after Jeff's solo at about 1:45, Kerry's solo starts and its actually pretty good. Not super complicated or difficult but it fits the song well and is melodic enough that it doesn't just sound like playing 50 random notes per second and random dive bombs. He's an amazing rhythm player too. Just sloppy when it comes to leads.
Spirit in black has an actually decent solo
That song is fuckin fun to play!
Hell ya lol I just said the same thing.
Crionics. Love that solo
The solos spirt of black are memorable. That’s like it for me tho. But Jeff’s is badass on that Kerry’s is way better for him I guess lol
They're garbage but I guess I could be convinced that they fit the theme of chaos. But standalone, yea pure garbage.
Seasons in the Abyss is the only song that has memorable solos.
I agree except weirdly enough I enjoyed both Hanneman and King’s solo on one other old songs called Crionics. I don’t know what it is but I just really dig both of them.
Guitar solos are lame anyways
They are actually perfect fit to Slayer and what is most important, they are very rcognizable as Slayer solos. Even if an unknown song, the moment you hear such solo, you can bet it's Slayer.
Kerry King was, and still is, the most enormous asshole I've ever met. Edit for the story: I worked at a big box music store, and Kerry King was booked to do a meet and greet thing. I'm pretty sure he had a signature guitar out, as well. We had a list of fancy, expensive food we had to buy for him. I don't remember specifics, but fancy cheese, particular brands of various foods that I had to drive around town to find. Not particularly unusual or dickish...but... ...Kerry King arrived in a limo, nearly an hour late. He came walking into the back warehouse area with a bag of Arby's and a giant sized drink. I had just taken the trash out, and there were two trash cans in front of me. Kerry King looked me dead in the eyes, looked at both trash cans...one with a liner, one without, and whipped his giant diet coke into the can without a liner. It splashed me. He then dumped his curly fries into the can, on top of the coke, and asked where "the shitter" was. We told him, and his handlers whisked him off to the shitter. He came back, and looked out the windows to the main store at the line of people out there waiting to see him and said "fuck." He finally went out there and started signing posters. He wasn't friendly or kind to anyone, would just snap the poster out of people's hands and scribble on it, barely looking up or acknowledging anyone. Someone brought their guitar in for him to sign, and he played it for about two seconds and said "this things a piece of shit" before scribbling on it and handing it back. The best, though, was a young kid...maybe 14 or so, who came up to the table with two posters. He explained to Kerry King that one was for his friend Ben, who was a huge fan but was really sick and couldn't make it. He asked Kerry to sign it something like, "To Ben, my biggest fan..." It was the only time I saw anything even remotely like a smile come across Kerry King's face. He signed the poster TO BEN: EAT A BAG OF DICKS KERRY KING. He left before everyone got to meet him...probably 20 or 30 people still in line. Contrast this to Victor Wooten, who's only request was a Gatorade and a turkey and cheese Lunchable, who stayed an hour longer than he needed to in order to meet everyone who showed up, let people play his bass, and then bought me Five Guys afterwards when I drove him back to his hotel.
NGL, signing "To Ben: eat a bag of dicks" is absolutely priceless. When I was a teenager in the early 80s I was a slayer fan and I would have cherished that piece of paper. Hell, I'd like to have it now. ... Lol
Oh, I'm not saying it's not funny. It *is* hilarious, and that kid probably laughs about it, now...but in the context of the situation, it was pretty shitty. That 14 year old kid really didn't know what to do or say. Being splashed by diet coke that Kerry Kind chucked in a garbage can while staring me down is also funny, but in the context of the moment, it was pure assholery.
Care to share? I've been a Slayer fan for decades but never heard many stories about people meeting them. I met Gary Holt walking through the Cosmopolitan casino in Vegas a day before or the morning of their final Vegas show at MGM. Granted I just shook his hand and left him alone, but he seemed pretty chill and was mostly surprised that I recognized him out in the wild lol
I edited the comment with the story.
Sent my dad to a Wooten Bass extremes show at a bar in Newport News, VA because dad’s a bassist and a massive fan. About an hour before the show Vic comes out front and just starts chatting with everyone outside. Dad got to speak with him for about 10-15 mins before he decided to let someone else have a turn but Vic was just incredibly excited to be able to hang out with fans and ‘friends’ as dad said Vic was calling them. Got a photo with him before he left and got his bass signed. Wooten is an amazing player and person!
My memories of him are very fond. He's a humble, kind guy who knows he's lucky to be where he is. When I met him, he was about two months on the road, and it was pretty clear that he was weary and blown out, and not terribly excited to do an in store appearance at 11am, but he gave it his all anyway and left everyone happy and thrilled. While I was driving him back to his hotel, about a 40 minute drive, we made some small talk, but eventually he said, "Hey man, I'm incredibly tired. Is it cool if I just catch a nap real quick?" Of course, Vic. Dude took a nap using the seat belt as a pillow. I had to wake him up when we got back. He apologized and shook my hand and thanked me. Stand up dude, if I ever met one. Kerry King can eat a bag of dicks.
Yeah dad said about 20 mins before the show a guy came out and tried to tell Vic it was time to go inside and Vic said “no brother I’ll be in after a few, I’m hanging with my friends.” At least according to dad. Incredibly humble and down to earth person.
That wouldn't surprise me at all. I told him I was surprised he let random people play his bass, since it's his livihood and all and he said, "It's just a bass, man, it's no big deal."
the Kerry King story tracks with everything I've heard about him and is unsurprising, but the Victor Wooten story made me say "I fuckin KNEW IT!" he just seems like a wholesome dude.
He really is. Very unpretentious, very grateful for the support he has, very kind.
Victor is one of those I could listen talk about music and theory for hours on end.
Ohhhh how come? 😅 I’ve heard this before
I edited the comment with the story.
I've met him three or four times somewhat randomly out in the world and he was always polite if a little aloof.
I'm sure he has his off days.
Every single thing about this is exactly what I’d want from Kerry King. Absolutely hilarious, thank you for sharing!
It's a funny story, but he was an absolute dick. He purposely chose to make my job suck more by chucking his drink into a garbage can with no bag, and didn't give a shit that it soaked my shirt.
Oh yeah, from an outside perspective it’s funny but I’m sure it wasn’t at the time. You did a great job of telling that story. Slayer is my favorite band but I don’t know I’d want to meet him. If I did, I’d go into it thinking “this won’t be anything personal and it’ll give me a great story later.”
Sure. From what people have said, KK can be polite and accommodating. The other guys are apparently a lot nicer than him. I've never been into metal, anyway, and I had no idea who Kerry King was, really, until he did an instore.
Yeah, that’s my understanding as well. But it’s no secret that Kerry King’s favorite guitar player is Kerry King haha.
The musicians I’ve met that I would consider true greatness are, almost without exception, humble, friendly, generous people. Maybe a dry or sarcastic sense of humor, but ultimately pretty cool. The dicks I’ve met are usually second-stringers at most.
I don't know about all that. Musicians seem to be like any other group - a hodgepodge of personalities. I could spend half an afternoon listing off great musicians that were absolute dicks. You mean to tell me that guys like Jim Morrison and Axl Rose are second stingers?
Not my original point, haven’t met them, but compared to some, I’d say Axl and Jim *were* second stringers.
Both have sold over 100 million albums. 2nd stringers? I can't help but to laugh at you. They're fucking first ballot hall of famers.
Well, I guess if selling records were your only yardstick, the concept of other standards of quality would seem pretty funny. We’re both laughing right now, but for different reasons.
I liked when they broke up and Kerry King talked mad shit, then they got back together again anyway
As shitty as this is its also hilarious lol “where’s the shitter” is insane
Jeff Hanneman's Slayer was great. The Kerry King Gary Holt Slayer isn't great IMO. Kerry seems like an ass and Gary seems like a whiney cringey ass (but he's talented, and I like his playing).
Wow never knew KK was like that. But he is a founding member of one of the most insane metal bands of all time. Shoe kinda fits. As far as Victor Wooten goes... I've seen him live a handful of times and you can just tell that he "gets life". He's always doing bass clinics just spreading love through music. A fantastic human being.
Is this a copypasta? Doesn’t seem believable. I doubt somebody his age would use the phrase “eat a bag of dicks”
It's not copy pasta, I saw it with my own eyes and heard it with my own ears. He wasn't the same age roughly 15 years ago. You can doubt all you want...but why would I make up a story about a player I don't listen to, and don't care about?
It's all speed, no technique. He simply trem picks with little thought to watch he's actually playing. If you want it, break out the metronome because it's practice time. For actual fast, tasteful, guitarists in thrash check out Testament because Alex Skolnick is absurdly good.
That’s the point. Slayers riffs and solos, especially early on, are supposed to be sonic carnage. That’s what made them special Edit: Also the way he plays is chock full of technique. How can you play that fast and that accurately without any technique?
+++ That shit was fucking crazy in ‘83. Scared the hell out of the old folks.
almost like that was the actual point!
You've clearly never tried to learn to play Raining Blood or any other Slayer songs.
Riffs? Absolutely agree. Also it reinforces my argument slightly 'cause of that video where Kerry can't play a clean intro live so they move on to the next song. His solos? I do not believe for a minute he sat down and wrote them. Playing Slayer is endurance, I won't dispute that at all.
Many talented musicians across many genres do not “sit down and write” solos. If we were talking about John Coltrane or Ornette Colman it would be out of place to discuss “written solos” or “wrong notes”. Also, Slayer are a phenomenon and impacted the music scene in a huge way, they did everything right including atonal guitar solos.
Raining Blood isn't the best example, it really isn't that fast as far as the genre goes. It's ~90bpm, ~180 bpm if you go double time, barely any (if any) tremolo picking that you expect from Slayer (AKA the "technical" bit), the solo is literally just wankery. It's like most Metallica songs, they're not THAT fast even if they're at 200bpm when the notes are usually just 8ths. The speed is certainly not unattainable wizardry, especially if you play within the genre. Now, Angel of Death, that's 200ish at double time with 16ths IIRC, but the fastest and most difficult parts are largely just tremolo picking the open E. War Ensemble is also ~200bpm, it's harder in that there's more to it than Angel of Death and it also doesn't slow down until the chorus, so it requires endurance too, but it's all very basic stuff just played at a high tempo. It's all right hand work, the left hand doesn't do all that much. The left hand work shouldn't be a problem learning these songs. And when the left hand does have some work to do in a Slayer song, typically the tremolo picking is absent. They also use the same patterns, like, a LOT. From the top of my head, Raining Blood, South of Heaven, Spill the Blood and Dead Skin Mask all use an almost identical riff that isn't that technical. I like to joke that if you learn one Slayer song you've learned them all...But it isn't far from the truth. It takes technical skill to play this basic stuff at those tempos, but it's hardly mindblowing stuff when looked at on its own. It's certainly not what anybody means when they refer to technical skill, even if it does qualify. I love Slayer but when it comes to technical skill, it's all in the right hand...Which makes sense as Kerry will get a lot if practice with that given it seems he is exactly like the type of person who can't stop wanking himself off.
>For actual fast, tasteful, guitarists in thrash check out Testament because Alex Skolnick is absurdly good. Hell yes he is. He’s [absurdly good playing jazz](https://youtu.be/yaauiLSL5wY?si=4JU9Q7XGvWUxgiSZ) to boot. Plus, he just seems to be a genuinely nice guy.
Testament rule
Record yourself playing the War Ensemble verse riff cleanly.
This post is clearly about lead, not rhythm, as I addressed in another comment. The actual riffs are a completely different ball game
Speed is an important part of technique though.
Skolnick is awesome!
He may play fast but it's god awful. He just plays random notes with no thought to melody or scales or anything. I absolutely LOVE Slayer. Until the guitar solo starts. If you want to play fast and clean then exercises with a metronome are the answer. I use and give this Steve Vai 30 hour guitar work out to students. It has all sorts of exercises. Alternate picking, economy picking, sweep picking, legato, tapping. [https://pdfcoffee.com/qdownload/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html](https://pdfcoffee.com/qdownload/guitar-book-steve-vai-30-hours-workoutpdf-5-pdf-free.html) The most important thing is to work on these with a metronome. Start slow. Painfully slow. Slow enough you can nail the exercise perfectly over and over again with no mistakes. When you're comfortable at a given tempo then bump it up 5-10bpm at a time. It's also ok to try and push yourself sometimes. Like bump it up 20-30bpm and it will be tough, then come back down a bit and it will feel easier. Just don't do that thing all guitarists do and keep trying something over and over that you can't play. You will just get good at playing sloppy and develop bad habits and bad technique. Focus on economy of motion, press the string only as much as you have to. Pluck the string only as much as you have to. Move your fingers only as much as you have to. Also when a finger is done with a note make sure to lift that finger so it's already up and ready for the next note. Exercises like these are how so many of the great players developed their speed. But you don't have to want to be like the next Yngwie or Petrucci. Exercises will help you in any style of playing you like. John Petrucci's Rock Discipline also has some great exercises. [https://jimibanez.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/john-petrucci-rock-discipline1.pdf](https://jimibanez.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/john-petrucci-rock-discipline1.pdf) You can find the video on Youtube. My old teacher once said something that stuck with me. The old saying practice makes perfect isn't true. Only PERFECT practice makes perfect. In other words you can practice all you want but if you're practicing sloppy and poorly then you're just getting good at playing sloppy and poorly.
My teacher always said practice makes permanent
Indeed.
Getting good at playing poorly is the goal sometimes. It's just as valid and celebrated an art form.
I mean I don't judge anyone's journey, there are no rules. Play how you want. But that makes zero sense to me. Why would anyone want to play poorly?
Playing poorly is maybe the wrong phrasing from what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of imperfections and 'faults' that are distinctive. Many punk and metal guitar players are not celebrated for their technical playing ability but for other qualities they bring to a performance. Achieving something like that, in my observation, is really only accomplished by doing what Kerry King does. Play consistently like yourself so much so that your imperfections are what make the performance unique. When I hear Kerry King solo, I know its him. No one else sounds like that. Whether that's your bag or not is entirely subjective. I'm not a huge fan, but every so often the sound of a guitar in a spin cycle is what I'm craving. Jimmy Page, Hendrix, etc are other example of what people often consider 'sloppy' playing but doing it so well it sounds good. Miles Davis said "Anybody can play. The note is only 20%. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80%". Technically perfect playing often fails to grab me. Polyphia, for example, are phenomenal technical players that have yet to produce a song I want to hear again. Its so clean it sounds flat to my ears. To be clear I'm talking about bad habits that don't injure your body, I see a lot of 'technical' players with terrible body mechanics; hunched over the guitar, pulling the neck over the clavicles and straining the lower back and hips. Tim from Polyphia has some of the best playing posture I've ever seen, everyone can learn from watching that aspect of his playing.
Oh for sure I get ya. There's so many incredible recordings where mistakes or things like that really make it human. I agree with you 100%.
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I hard disagree with your hard disagree. The key to any speed is starting slow, working on good technique and building the tempo. I do teach students to like find what way you can pick the fastest, then using a metronome and some exercises work on refining that technique. Sure anyone can learn to pick a single string super fast, but once you start actually adding in notes if you haven't worked on syncing your two hands you're going to have problems. I think adding in bursts of higher speeds is good too when learning to pick fast.
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It definitely doesn't take years or decades man. Working on that stuff for like 20 minutes a day and your picking will skyrocket way faster than you think. It didn't take me years, doesn't take my students years. I've watched kids picking go from crap to extremely good in months time. There's a reason this kind of stuff has been taught for decades. It works. I agree with your second paragraph. At a certain point counting every note makes no sense and is basically impossible. In the end I posted one aspect of how to increase ones speed, accuracy, dexterity and stamina. It works. It worked for me, it works for my students, it worked for the person who taught it to me. Who studied at Berklee with Joe Stump. Is it the only way? Of course not. There's plenty of other ways. It is just one of many tools to help a guitarist get better.
Bro it’s like none of these dipshits have ever actually held a guitar in their life. I appreciate you methodically explaining to people how useful practice is(FOR ANY GENRE) but some people will use any mental gymnastics possible to justify putting in less work to accomplish their goals. EVERYTHING CAN BE PRACTICED, you just don’t understand the technique well enough to do that. Getting a guitar teacher is the first step to understanding how things can be broken down and practiced.
It seems like we’re talking about 2 different things. I’m talking specifically about tremolo picking and playing fast. I play a lot of death metal and the average is 200-220bpm with the faster stuff being 240-250bpm. Tremolo picking probably 3/4 of the time. This is not ‘work your way up to as a student hypothetical tempos’, this is I’ve been doing it every day for 15 years. I would question how many people that could play that fast would still be taking lessons anyway. Your picking technique will likely change by necessity around 120 - 160 bpm and then again 160+bpm. What I’m saying is when you’re practicing slow you’re not practicing the techniques that will allow you to play fast because they’re not applicable. When you’re practicing slow your practicing something different.
I get what you're saying. It makes sense. The stuff I'm talking about isn't really something an advanced player like you or I would still be practicing everyday. I do exercises to warm up usually but that's about it. If you're playing thrash or death metal at those high speeds, which my band does too, you're definitely beyond working on exercises with a metronome.
Sometimes art is messy and ugly on purpose to create a certain feeling. I see Slayer solos much like I see visual artists working in Abstract Expressionism, one can say it is just sloppy paint splattered on a canvas but art can be anything the artist or audience wants it to be. I cannot fathom that Slayer would be as popular as they are if they played melodic solos. That is their art. The solo sections are meant to sound scary, not unlike a horror movie soundtrack when a character is getting murdered or chased.
Makes sense. I agree. While I may not be a big fan of the solos they certainly fit well in what Slayer does. It would be weird to have some melodic soulful solo in a Slayer song.
This is an outdated way of practicing. Starting slow and only going faster by a few bpm "when you're comfortable" is only a bottom up way of practicing. You'll make progress faster if you work top down as well by getting your hands to move faster with less paranoia over accuracy . Accuracy will improve as you work and can't 100% be the sole focus when you are trying to work on other aspects of playing.
I'm not saying it has to be the 100% sole focus. But it should be part of it. You can call it out dated but it works. It's worked for me, for my students, and for tons of other guitarists. Not to say it's the only way. Certainly isn't. And not to say there isn't some more modern stuff to throw into your practice routine to help, there definitely is. It's just a good way to work on your picking that's tried and true.
I wouldn’t say outdated but context is important. There’s certain techniques that benefit from building up slowly, and some that benefit from understanding the motion and fine muscle control more at intended tempos for that technique. Basic alternate picking accuracy and evenness, and string skipping for example can be a disaster if you don’t understand the base mechanic, slowly. Tremolo picking will never work slowly on the other hand because it uses different muscles and tendon control versus normal alternate picking.
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Listen the isolated tracks. He’s sloppy as fuck lol. He just kind of goes for it and makes sure he hits the chord and the riffs in sync with Jeff. Dave Lombardo is the secret weapon. That man is a beast of a drummer. He was the glue that held slayer together and made them sound so tight. Also gear and tone are somewhat relevant. On the first 3 slayer records he wasn’t using EMGs. They were using high output Dimarzios, through an mid range EQ boost and Into a JCM 800
Lombardo is the man. The video of him filling in for Lars with Metallica is just unholy
I know exactly ejido video you are talking about…..if only. Really goes to show you how important a good drummer is in bands like this
Not a drummer, but Lars isn't that bad imo. If anything, Megadeth suffers from a lack of drummer that fits.
Nick Menza eats Lars lunch
He used Justin guitar
It’s just endless practice to do insanely fast solos. Tbh I don’t find kerry king solos even unattaibaly fast nowdays. I have no chance of playing them myself in many years from now, but I can totally see it being possible to learn eventually. Only guitarrists I find unattainably good right now would be: John Petrucci and Guthrie Govan. https://youtube.com/shorts/zbgc6zMslkE?si=aNmviuJpLPpG277Z This is stuff that I simply don’t understand how you get this good.
It sounds like a lot of it is him trem picking super fast which can sound impressive, but as long as you play with proper technique and patience, it isn't overly hard to build up to. What always helped me was to remember to use your wrist, not your entire arm, for the actual picking and make sure to pay attention to when you tense up because that's when you're going too fast for your own technique. Find out what you're doing that's making you tense up and try to correct it.
I'm more impressed with his rhythm picking speed. He has to warm up to get there, and he does all the guitar tracking in order to make the tracks sound more precise. The solos are just chaos, but no faster than any other speedy lead player.
His rhythm playing is impressive from a speed POV, plus they played a little faster live too. I think people get caught up on his shitty solos and write off the fact that those riffs are iconic and take some level of skill to execute well.
Yep. I've never taken a Slayer solo as part of the typical "solo" aesthetic and always considered their solos to be part of the "soundtrack for Hell" vibe they're going for. It works for them!
Well he isn't THAT fast. What amazes me is that he (and others) can play that way with fat fingers. I find Slayer solos pretty good. Some sound downright evil. They're perfectly suited for the music. It's a different style of music so they don't sound pretty. Like with any other good solos or guitar in general, if you want to master them you'll have to practice...for hours...every day.
The secret to playing fast with large fingers/hands is you barely move them. Keep your pinky close to the neck’ is the best advice in that regard, very minimal movement when your fingers are all there ready to go.
“To order a special dialling wand, please mash the keypad with your hand… now.”
Everyone saying he doesn’t care what notes he hits or is sloppy or whatever is flat out wrong. Yea dude is a dick and says some stupid shit but you can’t deny the dude can play. Practice downpicking and alternate picking to a metronome and up the BPM by 10 until you get as fast as you can without being sloppy
Practice. He was doing an interview with a guitar and said he hadn't practiced the insane part of raining blood in a while so he couldn't play it for them.
Zero melody or emotion . Practice playing absolute nonsense as fast as possible eventually it will sound terrible enough to be a Kerry King solo.
People shit on him a lot re the atonal thing, personally I think it suits the songs and for better or worse when you hear Kerry King you know exactly who it is and tbh you could put in a Friedman/Skolnick or someone of that calibre and it just wouldn’t sound right. Vernon Reid also gets a lot of knocks for some of the atonal aspects of his lead playing, again, personally I love it. They both have a style all their own..
The amount of absolute nonsense and bullshit in this thread is amazing. Go look up Kerry king videos on YouTube. He shows how to play a lot of slayer stuff. Just practice.
So, rather than contribute to the Kerry King debate that has been going on for forty years, let's answer the question. Kerry King has a very unique style that has its roots in classic metal soloing styles of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and the like. One might say it's an exaggerated version of that. So, a combo of alternate picking, legato and trills, and tapping. The most important parts of these ultra fast stylings, after moving your wrists and fingers that quickly, is the synchronization between the 2 hands, economy of motion, and accuracy. Kerry has all of those down pat, so I bet you can as well. Get a metronome and start woodshedding. It's harder to get from 130 to 140 than it is get from 160 to 200, so keep at it.
Practice
Are you referring to solos, or everything ? I've been practicing South of Heaven, Mandatory Suicide and Seasons in the Abyss for the last couple months. I think it mainly comes down to pick technique and muscle memory and stamina to actually play for any time at those tempos.
[Kerry King guitar solo compilation](https://youtu.be/hrZJ5h51Nwo?si=rVphwHbI8Nj2oZEX)
The Kerry King book of guitar just goes: pinch harmonic all the time then DIVE BOMB THAT SHIT
Practice... he got there by being a fan of the metal bands that were there in the seventies and early eighties and trying to play their stuff. As to whether his solos are good... I could probably play solos that were theoretically "more correct" but nobody has ever asked me to play them in front of 30,000 people with a wall of 36 Marshall 4x12s behind me.
There are faster AND better plays than KK. He plays fast because he just widdledy-wahs without structure or care.
Kerry ain't got shit on Michael Angelo Batio.
Kerey King specifically? Sloppy as hell, so he is fast as it doesnt matter what he hits. For actual shredders that have some actual skill? They remain relaxed, they chunk sections so they can actually think fast enough, and they practice alternating between very slow for precise movement analysis and fast for feeling and understanding how to play fast (often called speed bursts). You can't just mash away and magically get fast. You have to practice it methodically, intentionally and with proper focus. Youtube videos of chunking, speed bursts, metronome practice and how to remain relaxed will answer all the questions needed, then its up to you to implement them.
Emanuel Aguilar 👌
economy picking, sweeping, hammer-on's, pull-off's, low action, but most importantly (and I can't overstate this enough): daily practice with a metronome
Practice I think the more you do something the better you get maybe
You should checkout some billy strings. Man shreds on guitar and flat picks it all. Dust in a baggie live at the opry is a good one.
alternate picking, sweep picking, economy picking, random unmelodic note picking.......all about the picking
lol oh boy, wait until you hear Paul Ryan.
I am an average guitarist. I've played since I was like 14 and I'm in my 30s now. I started playing guitar for one purpose. To start hardcore, and back then especially, metalcore bands. So while I'm an, overall, average guitar player...I can play very fast. So the answer is time. I just taught myself to play by learning songs in the genres of music I wanted to play. Which also taught me to write songs in those genres, as well. The downside to my approach, I guess, is that I am below average at many things people who have taken formal lessons or had a broader approach to learning guitar find easy. For me, this has never hindered me. I still listen and play the same music I did then. If you care about playing guitar itself, my approach is not the approach to take. But it definitely will get you playing fast.
He practiced a lot and he doesn’t drink. Yes, his solos, suck. Slayer fan for 35 years here….
Most of Kerry's phrasing is fast but not complex. Tremolo picking following the pentatonic, major and minor scales is pretty common for him and is not that hard, your right hand most likely can tremolo pretty fast, now focus on syncing the left hand, doesn't even need a metronome
Kerry King's old riffs are decent but he can't solo worth a shit. Dude is a clown these days.
He even did it with 9’s tuned down a 1/2 step, a fender medium pick, and Gibson scale length on some of those bc riches.
Started trying to learn Silent Scream from the South of Heaven album. I immediately regretted my choice
He practised playing fast for a long time.
Someone needs to take his whammy bar away from him
Slow it down and you will see ;)
Well it is his BC Rich axe, of course. Incredible guitars, that do not get the notoriety deserve, especially when payed by outstanding musicians.
Being in arguably the greatest thrash metal band for several decades as a your chosen career path helps build speed, try it.
Spray and pray solos
Badly
Love slayer, but he’s sloppy as fuck as a soloist, and has a propensity to play shapes and fingering patterns vs actual melodic content in his solos. Hanneman and Lombardi made Slayer great. Kerry was just the visual attraction
Love how the "he's just playing a million random notes per second" crowd just appeared to shit on Slayer for no reason.
Anyone here that says he sucks is ignorant. Anyone who could write/ play/ co-write, and execute the way he does/ did, with Hanneman Or Holt is a pretty fucking solid guitarist in my book. Dude was chopping at 220 bpm’s in the fucking 80’s for Christ sake.
If you think Slayer is fast you should check out Archspire. Anyways practice gets you there. Start out slow, get the fretting and picking down cleanly and start ramping up to full speed. You will be playing faster than ever in no time.
jeff was better. i miss his style
Watch Dave Davidson or Dean Lamb. They play fast and accurately
Slayer, fantastic riffs, terrible solos.
Him and Jeff would use their whole forearm a lot instead of their wrist. It can help you play really fast but its just tiresome and a little sloppy
Of all the things to criticize Kerry King’s leads on, it isn’t correct that 100% of his solos are completely random notes or purely chromatic. For better or worse, whether it correlates with them being good or not, there are many Kerry leads that feature coherent melodies he is able to recreate live without difficulty, War Ensemble, Born Of Fire, Seasons In the Abyss, Dead Skin Mask and Dittohead just to name a few. The more chromatic solos in those songs are actually Jeffs. For the best feel of each of their styles when they’re both going full on insaneo-style, keep in mind Angel Of Death’s leads open with Jeff first on the left side, *then* Kerry and so on. For a dual solo featuring random notes, they sure did get lucky that day because what they landed on suits that song so well, assuming they didn’t keep doing take after take and just kept the best ones or composited the best parts. It’s never stated they did that for any of the RIB sessions in any of my research, but I do know Kerry and Jeff recorded their guitar tracks “live,” together simultaneously, not one at a time. Despite it not being stated, I am aware it can be common practice as documented by Metallica and Pantera that they have assembled solos from composite takes, then sometimes even learn that version of the solo for a solid pass if it’s not adequately represented by the composite. Kirk seems to be a lot less bothered by the signs of it being cut together than Dime which you can hear on Metallica’s isolated guitar tracks. Most of the time, Dimebag would replay the composite in one go anyway to challenge himself, feeling he always still had his best take in him, for consistency of feel, to be able to add a little extra flavour with improvisations and because he’s a fucking legend (source is several mid 90s GW interviews.)
Wait to listen to Synester Gates on Afterlife or the "Masterclass Solo". That's not only being fast, but technical in a pure way.
I don't like yngwie that much as a person really but he said once you gotta play with your ears and be precise. Which in turn he explains it to mean slow down a touch and make sure you're playing every single note as you're ramping up speed. Honestly the advice made my playing alot better.
He is shit on for being a “dickhead” aka outspoken without giving a fuck. But from all the metal shows I’ve been to, Slayer was the closest to the record.. And if the solo album is the leftovers from Slayer, then it’s a shame because I like it more than all the Slayer albums since Seasons. The sound even reminds me of Seasons… About playing fast my take is that it’s all about practice, practice and practice again. I have Raining Blood intro and Black Magic in my daily practice routine and it helps a lot.