Kerry King at Academy 2 Manchester 12-08-25

Manchester and Bristol got to see the return of Slayer guitarist Kerry King and his solo band, and this extremely hot day didn’t stop fans from queuing to get up close and see the man himself performing, alongside his band consisting of Death Angel vocalist Mark Osegueda, guitarist Phil Demmel formerly of Vio-lence/Machine Head, Hellyeah bassist Kyle Sanders and Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph.

Fear Factory

Fear Factory felt like the most fitting support for this gig as the crowd reaction indicated a clear overlap in fan bases, with a good majority of the crowd singing along or forming a pit from the get-go. Their setlist mostly consisted of songs from ‘Demanufacture’, with 2025 being the 30th anniversary of the album, this only made sense, and it was refreshing to hear Milo Silvestro performing the songs from this era of the band.

Towards the end of their set, Silvestro asked for phone lights to be held up and dedicated a song to Ozzy Osbourne, which was a heart-warming moment to witness and wouldn’t be the last Ozzy mention of the night. The final song of the set was ‘Linchpin’ from the album ‘Digitmortal’, which rounded off the set perfectly.

Kerry King

Slayer’s guitarist Kerry King played Academy 2 in Manchester, and we had the honour of witnessing this sold-out gig. Each member of his solo band brought their own experiences to the stage and despite being from different bands, the group worked together effortlessly and seamlessly, making it look like easy work through the sheer dedication to their craft over the years, and the friendship between the members shone through.

Osegueda described the Manchester audience as “absolutely brilliant, absolutely intense” whilst commanding the stage with ease, requesting that the crowd “make the ground shake” before launching straight into ‘2 Fists’. Osegueda also announced the song ‘Toxic’ as a call to unity by referring to the “disgusting things happening in the world” and encouraging everyone not to become divided by influences from people like politicians.

The overall setlist was varied, with Kerry King’s tracks mixed in with well-loved Slayer songs including ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Repentless’ alongside covers of ‘Purgatory’ by Iron Maiden and ‘Wicked World’ by Black Sabbath, paying homage to Paul Di’Anno and Ozzy Osbourne respectively and their legacies. Fans repping their Slayer t-shirts and/ or battle jackets were loving every second, pitting, singing and like one front row fan, even air drumming along without missing a beat. You could tell this was a moment that people were going to hold onto. The song to finalise the setlist was ‘From Hell I Rise’, the title song from King’s debut solo album.

Overall, it was clear that fans were drawn in by King’s solo work as much, if not more, than they were to hear the added Slayer tracks. As was made evident by the way the crowd watched in awe of his guitar solos, as though they felt every riff in the core of their being. The gig concluded with the audience leaving both extremely satisfied and, at the same time, wanting this moment to last that bit longer.