He got a little eight-ounce can of black paint, stuck a drumstick in it, and dribbled it all over the guitar.
“Very musical,” Kerry King said, laughing about it years later.
The guitar in question was a BC Rich Mockingbird in natural Koa finish — he’d dropped it as a teenager, busted the headstock, taken it back to the BC Rich factory where they fixed and refinished it red, had a Kahler whammy added, and then — perhaps inspired by Jeff Hanneman’s own blood-splatter paint job on his Les Paul — decided it needed some black dribbles to complete the aesthetic. This is the guitar that helped record Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel, and Hell Awaits. One of the most brutal-sounding records in thrash metal history, and the guitar had black paint dripped on it with a drumstick by a teenager who thought it looked cool.
Kerry King has never been subtle about anything. His guitar approach — maximum aggression, maximum volume, three Marshall heads running simultaneously into six cabinets — reflects a worldview in which less is definitely not more. The riffs are fast and heavy. The solos are chaotic by design, described by King himself as “whammy bar abuse” rather than neo-classical melodicism. The beard is enormous. The spikes are numerous. The BC Rich guitars have enough tribal artwork and custom finishes to fill a gallery.
And yet: Reign in Blood is one of the most important albums in the history of heavy metal. The guitar tone on it — dry, aggressive, with the mids boosted rather than scooped — changed what heavy metal guitar was supposed to sound like. Kerry King helped make that happen. The drumstick-and-paint-can approach to guitar customisation was secondary.
Background: Huntington Park, Metallica’s Rejected Audition, and Defining Thrash Metal
Kerry Ray King was born June 3, 1964, in Los Angeles, California — specifically in the Huntington Park area, a suburb south of downtown. He started playing guitar as a teenager, drawn to the heaviest music available and developing the aggressive, percussive rhythm approach that would define Slayer’s sound. The primary influences were the NWOBHM bands — Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Motörhead — along with the early American heavy metal tradition. His approach to lead playing was always deliberately anti-conventional: where most guitarists aspired to melodic, organised solos, King developed what he called “whammy bar chaos” — solos that emphasised atmosphere, aggression, and dissonance over melodic line.
There is a well-documented footnote in metal history: in 1983, before Slayer had released their debut album, Kerry King briefly played with Metallica during the recording of their debut Kill ‘Em All, filling in for their own guitarist Dave Mustaine who had just been fired. King played on a small number of dates with Metallica — including possibly contributing to one recording — before returning to Slayer. The arrangement was temporary and King never became a full member of Metallica; he had his own band to focus on.
Slayer formed in 1981 in Huntington Park, with King and Jeff Hanneman on guitars, Tom Araya on bass and vocals, and Dave Lombardo on drums. Show No Mercy (1983), Hell Awaits (1985), and then Reign in Blood (1986) — produced by Rick Rubin and released on the Def Jam label — built a trajectory that took them from the extreme underground to mainstream heavy metal prominence.
King’s relationship with his co-guitarist Jeff Hanneman was one of the defining partnerships in thrash metal. They had different approaches — Hanneman wrote most of the guitar parts and lyrics, while King contributed riffs and the solos that his specific playing style produced — but together they created a twin-guitar approach that was simultaneously tighter and more chaotic than their contemporaries.
Hanneman contracted necrotising fasciitis in 2011 from a suspected spider bite, which left him unable to play for an extended period. Exodus guitarist Gary Holt filled in during his absence. On May 2, 2013, Jeff Hanneman died from liver failure. The loss was an enormous personal and musical blow for King, who had been Hanneman’s bandmate for over thirty years.
Slayer continued, recording Repentless (2015) and completing a farewell world tour that ended in November 2019. King subsequently formed his own band — simply called Kerry King — and released the album From Hell I Rise (2024), featuring vocalist Mark Osegueda (Death Angel) and documenting King’s continuing creative energy beyond the Slayer chapter.
Tone note: His first significant guitar customisation was dripping black paint on it with a drumstick. This is both the least technical gear modification in this series and the most honestly expressive. The guitar didn’t need to be technically refined to record Reign in Blood. It needed to be aggressive.
The Rig: Kerry King’s Guitars, Amps & Gear — Complete Era-by-Era Breakdown
Guitars: From Paint-Splattered BC Rich to the KKV Signature
BC Rich Mockingbird (Natural Koa / Red Refinish) — Show No Mercy to Reign in Blood
King’s first significant guitar in the Slayer context was a BC Rich Mockingbird — originally finished in natural Koa, refinished red after a teenage drop broke the headstock (repaired at the BC Rich factory), then personalised with dripped black paint applied via drumstick. The pickups were the stock DiMarzio units it came with — King described them as “probably a Super Distortion and a PAF.” A Kahler whammy system was added after he was inspired by Hanneman’s own Kahler-equipped guitar.
This is the guitar on Show No Mercy (1983), Haunting the Chapel (1984), and Hell Awaits (1985). By the recording of Reign in Blood (1986) it was “pretty much retired and replaced by a Warlock,” though King acknowledged it might have appeared on some Reign in Blood tracks.
BC Rich Warlock — The Reign in Blood Guitar
The BC Rich Warlock became King’s primary guitar for Reign in Blood and the touring that followed. The Warlock’s extreme body shape — angular, aggressive, with the wing-like lower horn that became one of the most recognisable silhouettes in heavy metal — matched the visual aesthetic of Slayer’s stage presence perfectly.
For Reign in Blood, both King and Hanneman used BC Rich guitars with DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups — the high-output ceramic-magnet humbucker that was the standard choice for high-gain metal guitarists of the era. Through Marshall JCM800 heads (specifically the 2203 model), the Super Distortions provided the aggressive, midrange-heavy tone that defines the album’s guitar character. The transition from passive DiMarzios to active EMGs came later.
King’s comment on the Reign in Blood guitar sound, via Rick Rubin’s production decision: “The first thing you notice is that there’s no reverb on it. That allows it to be way more threatening — it hits you in the forehead. Before that, we were happy to sound like Venom or Mercyful Fate. We played in Reverb Land, for lack of a better term. And the reverb was the first thing Rubin took out. When we heard the mix, we were like, ‘Why didn’t we think of that before?'”
Tone note: No reverb. Everything dry. The absence of reverb — the default ambience that gives guitar sound space and softness — makes Reign in Blood’s guitar tone uniquely close and aggressive. The room disappears. There’s nothing between the guitar and your face.
The EMG Transition — From DiMarzio Super Distortions to EMG 81/85
In the mid-to-late 1980s, King transitioned from passive DiMarzio pickups to EMG active humbuckers — the EMG 81 (bridge) and EMG 85 (neck) combination that became standard in his guitars from that point forward and eventually formed the basis of his signature EMG KFK (Kerry Fucking King) set.
The EMG 81/85 combination offers several advantages over passive pickups in a high-gain metal context: lower noise floor (active preamp in the pickup circuit), more consistent output across different instruments (active buffering normalises variations), tighter low-end response, and the specific character of the EMG circuit — compressed, precise, aggressive — that became the defining pickup sound of 1990s and 2000s metal.
The signature EMG KFK Set adds the PA2 switchable preamp booster to the standard 81/85 combination, providing an on-demand gain boost for solos or specific passages that require additional saturation.
BC Rich KKV Signature — The Definitive Kerry King Guitar
King’s primary guitar throughout most of his mature career with Slayer is the BC Rich KKV — a V-shaped signature model developed in close collaboration with BC Rich to his specific requirements. King owns approximately 20 BC Rich guitars in total and uses up to 5 per show.
The KKV 2nd Generation specifications (confirmed in Premier Guitar Rig Rundown):
- Body shape: V-style with King’s specific refinements; maple body
- Construction: Neck-through — the neck runs the full length of the body without a bolt or set-neck joint, providing maximum sustain and upper-fret access
- Pickups: EMG KFK Set — EMG KFK 85 (King’s signature version) in bridge position; Sustainiac in neck (used specifically for the intro of “Dead Skin Mask” among other applications)
- Bridge: Kahler 2315 tremolo — King has maintained his preference for Kahler over Floyd Rose throughout his career; the Kahler’s design gives a slightly different feel and response to the tremolo arm
- Tuners: Grover Mini Rotomatic
- Tunings and strings:
- D# standard: Dunlop .009–.042 strings
- C# standard: Dunlop .010–.046 strings
- B standard: Dunlop .010–.056 strings
- Custom graphic finishes: Orange Flame Tribal, Red and Black Tribal, and various other custom tribal artwork across multiple instruments; the V-25 Anniversary Tribe model is among the visually most distinctive
The Sustainiac in the neck position is notably not used for continuous sustained playing in the way Synyster Gates employs it — King uses it for specific controlled-feedback intros and atmospheric moments. He has said he doesn’t use the switchable preamp on the guitar much because he prefers the boost/10-band EQ built into his signature Marshall head.
Other BC Rich Models
- BC Rich Bich — Used live in early career; the angular, multi-horn BC Rich design that became associated with 1980s metal
- BC Rich Warlock (various custom versions) — The original Slayer-era body shape; kept as a backup in later career
- BC Rich Mockingbird (original Koa/red/paint-dripped) — The debut guitar; Show No Mercy through early Reign in Blood era
- Gibson Explorer — Documented in Decade of Aggression booklet; used in specific contexts
- ESP Custom Kerry King Explorer — Used around 1990 in promotional photos; a brief ESP association before returning to BC Rich
- Dean ML 79 — Documented use; the Dean ML’s Flying V-adjacent shape in different contexts
- BC Rich Kerry King Signature V Generation 2 — The current primary live guitar
Amps & Cabinets: Three Marshalls, Six Cabs, and “The Beast”
Marshall JCM800 2203 — The Reign in Blood and Classic Era Amp
For Reign in Blood (1986) and the surrounding era, King used Marshall 2203 amplifiers. The 2203 is a 100-watt non-master volume Marshall — all the preamp gain stages in their simplest, most direct configuration, driving EL34 output tubes hard. Both King and Hanneman used this amp configuration, providing the sonic foundation that defines the album’s guitar character.
One of King’s JCM800 units became known as “The Beast” — his favourite Marshall head, the one he later sent back to the Marshall factory as the specification template for his signature Marshall head. When Marshall examined it to build the signature amp, King assumed it had been modified because it sounded better than any other 2203 he’d used. After investigation, it appeared to be a stock 2203 that had simply broken in particularly well over years of hard use. The sonic magic of “The Beast” was not an engineered modification — it was the organic result of a great amp being played hard for a long time.
Tone note: “The Beast” sounded better than other JCM800s because it had been played hard for years. The amp broke in. This is the argument for tube amps as musical instruments rather than electronic equipment: they change with use, developing characteristics that can’t be replicated by buying a new identical unit.
Marshall Kerry King Signature JCM800 — The Custom Specification
Marshall built King a signature JCM800 head based on the specifications of “The Beast.” Key differences from the standard JCM800:
- KT-88 output tubes instead of the standard EL34s — KT-88s produce more headroom, a tighter low end, and a slightly different compression character than EL34s; they are more commonly associated with hi-fi audio amplifiers than guitar amps, which gives the King Marshall a specific power and clarity not found in standard JCM800s
- Built-in 10-band EQ — King’s primary tone-shaping tool is the built-in EQ of his signature head rather than an external pedal in the signal chain
- Built-in boost switch — gives on-demand gain increase for lead passages or moments requiring additional saturation
He runs three of these signature heads simultaneously — all three on all the time, routed through six Marshall Mode Four 4×12 cabinets. His specific routing philosophy: rather than pairing each head with a dedicated pair of cabs, he mixes the cabinet pairings. As he explained in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown: “If I’m running 3 heads and I have 6 cabinets, I don’t have one head running these two, one head running these two, and one head running these two.” The more complex routing mixes head-to-cab pairings to create a more diffuse, blended sound across the stage rather than three isolated stacks.
Six 4×12 cabinets loaded with the specific Marshall Mode Four speaker configuration provide a physical wall of sound on stage. This is not subtle or understated amplification — it is the visual and sonic expression of maximum volume and aggression.
| Amp | Era | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Marshall JCM800 2203 (100W) | Show No Mercy through 1990s | The Reign in Blood amp; non-master volume; EL34 output tubes; “The Beast” is the best example |
| Marshall KK Signature JCM800 (KT-88, ×3 simultaneous) | Late career Slayer and Kerry King band | Based on “The Beast” specifications; KT-88 output tubes; built-in 10-band EQ and boost; all three heads on simultaneously through 6 Mode Four cabs |
| Marshall Mode Four 4×12 cabs (×6) | Live touring | Six cabs running from three simultaneous heads; non-standard routing mixing head-to-cab pairings |
Pedals & Signal Chain: The Boss EQ That Changed Metal Tone
Boss GE-7 / Boss 10-Band EQ — The Midrange Secret
The most important and most counterintuitive element of Kerry King’s signal chain is the Boss equaliser he places before his Marshall amp. In an era where the “scooped” EQ — boosting bass and treble while cutting mids — was the dominant heavy metal tone philosophy, King did the opposite: he set the Boss EQ with the sliders in an upside-down “V” shape, boosting the mids rather than cutting them.
His Marshall amp settings confirm this approach: Bass 4–6, Mids around 8, Treble 6–7, Presence 7. Preamp gain 8–9. These are not scooped mid settings — these are mid-forward settings, with the midrange as the primary tonal character of the amp, supplemented by the Boss EQ pushing the midrange even further before the signal enters the amp’s input.
King has confirmed that “he gets a lot of gain from the Boss EQ, which can hit the front end of his amp pretty hard and increases his gain saturation levels.” This is the same function as a Tube Screamer — pushing the amplifier’s input harder to increase natural gain saturation — but applied via a graphic EQ rather than an overdrive circuit. The result is gain increase with simultaneous mid-frequency emphasis rather than the TS808’s more melodic, rounded midrange push.
This is the technical foundation of Slayer’s guitar tone: mid-boosted EQ before a cranked Marshall, no reverb, dry and aggressive. The mids are the knife that cuts through the mix; the gain is the weapon that makes it threatening.
Tone note: He boosted the mids when everyone else was scooping them. The conventional metal guitar EQ of the 1980s was bass heavy, treble bright, midrange reduced. King’s approach was the opposite, and Reign in Blood sounded different from every other metal record for exactly this reason.
Complete Signal Chain and Effects
Core signal path: BC Rich KKV → Shure UHF Wireless → Radial JX44 Air Guitar Control (signal splitter routing to all three Marshall heads simultaneously) → three Marshall KK Signature JCM800 heads → six Marshall Mode Four 4×12 cabinets
- Boss 10-Band EQ (GE-7 or similar) — Upside-down “V” EQ curve; mids boosted, used to drive the Marshall input harder; the foundational tone-shaping element of King’s sound. In later career, this function was absorbed into the built-in 10-band EQ of his signature Marshall head.
- Shure UHF Wireless — Guitar to wireless transmitter/receiver; standard professional touring wireless for cable-free performance across the large stage width of a major metal show
- Radial JX44 Air Guitar Control — Signal splitter that routes the guitar signal to three separate amp chains simultaneously; the JX44 is specifically designed for multiple-amp configurations
- MXR ZW44 Berzerker Overdrive — Documented on his pedalboard in a Premier Guitar Rig Rundown (at 11:09); used for additional overdrive/distortion character when needed
- MXR Flanger — Documented on the pedalboard in the same Rig Rundown (at 11:10); used for specific textural effects
- Boss GE-7 Graphic Equalizer — Documented in a 1980s photograph in his setup; the earlier version of the EQ approach later absorbed into the Marshall head
- Korg Pitchblack Tuner — Standard live tuning reference
Tone note: The Radial JX44 routing three heads simultaneously is the technical implementation of the “three Marshalls all on at the same time” sound. It’s not three different amp channels — it’s three complete amp rigs receiving the same signal simultaneously, producing three overlapping amp characters in the same physical space.
Strings, Picks & Setup
Strings: Different gauges for different tunings, as confirmed in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown:
- D# standard: Dunlop Nickel Plated Steel .009–.042
- C# standard: Dunlop .010–.046
- B standard: Dunlop .010–.056
Using purpose-appropriate string gauges for each tuning maintains consistent string tension and feel across the different tuned guitars — rather than using one gauge for all tunings and accepting the tension variation.
Picks: Dunlop Tortex .88mm Triangle picks with custom Kerry King graphics. King’s specific pick philosophy is entertainingly direct — as he described in the Premier Guitar Rig Rundown: “People freak out that I use this big of a pick. The thing is like a bass pick, but essentially this is a 6-sided pick. And I can, as long as I don’t drop it, I can flip from chord to chord. If I have a spot that’s hitching me up, and it’s catching, and it’s making the fluidity not be that awesome, flip it that way and you have 3 more. It’s just completely versatile for me shredding picks like I do.”
The Tortex Triangle’s six usable corners/edges is the key functional advantage King describes: when one part of the pick begins to wear or catch, rotating to a fresh edge extends the pick’s useful life through an entire set. For a guitarist who describes “shredding picks,” this practical longevity is valuable.
Setup:
- Kahler 2315 tremolo on KKV guitars — King’s preference over Floyd Rose for the specific feel and response of the Kahler design
- EMG KFK Set (EMG KFK 85 bridge + Sustainiac neck + EMG PA2 switchable preamp booster)
- Neck-through construction on KKV — maximum sustain; no bolt-joint or glued-joint resonance interruption
- Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners — reliable, high-ratio tuning stability
- Approximately 20 BC Rich guitars total; up to 5 used per show for different tunings and as backups
Tone note: Six-sided pick, three simultaneous amp heads, three different string gauges for three different tunings, six speaker cabinets. The numerical excess in every aspect of his setup is not accidental — it’s the practical implementation of maximum coverage for maximum live performance demands. Everything in triplicate as a margin of safety.
Tunings & Tone Philosophy
King uses three primary tunings across his Slayer and Kerry King catalog: D# standard (one semitone below standard E), C# standard (two semitones below), and B standard (three semitones below). Different songs live in different tunings, requiring dedicated guitars for each. The mid-show song selection determines which guitar his tech has ready.
His tone philosophy is one of the most explicitly stated in this series: massive, mid-forward, dry, aggressive. He has described Slayer’s Reign in Blood tone as the sound that “hits you in the forehead” — physical, immediate, without the spatial softening that reverb provides. The mid-boost EQ approach makes the guitar cut through any mix at any volume without the frequency bloat that a scooped mid setting can produce at loud volumes.
His approach to leads is equally explicit: “whammy bar chaos” is his own description of his solo style. He has never aspired to the neo-classical melodicism of players like Hanneman’s guitar parts or the jazz-influenced players who came later — his solos are designed to create atmosphere and aggression through unpredictability and dissonance rather than through melodic development. This is a legitimate and historically effective approach that has influenced a generation of metal guitarists who understood that a solo’s function can be to create a feeling rather than to demonstrate technique.
Tone note: He describes his solos as “whammy bar chaos.” This is honest self-description from a player who knows what he’s doing and why. The chaos is intentional. The aggression is the point. Not every guitarist needs to be melodically sophisticated to be historically significant.
Playing Style & Tone Philosophy: Whammy Bar Chaos and the Art of the Brutal Riff
Kerry King is the most rhythmically powerful force in Slayer’s guitar vocabulary. Jeff Hanneman wrote the majority of the guitar parts and lyrics for their most celebrated material — the riffs and structures of “Raining Blood,” “Angel of Death,” and much of Reign in Blood come from Hanneman’s compositional imagination. But King’s execution of those parts, and his specific contribution to the live and recorded heaviness of Slayer’s sound, is fundamental to what the band actually sounds like.
The Rhythm Approach
King’s rhythm guitar style is percussive, aggressive, and locked with the kick drum in a way that makes Slayer’s rhythmic density feel physically threatening at volume. He picks hard and consistently, using downstrokes predominantly for the most aggressive rhythm passages and alternate picking for faster runs. The combination of the Kahler tremolo, the aggressive picking attack, and the mid-boosted amp produces a rhythm tone that is simultaneously clear enough for the note-by-note precision of thrash metal and heavy enough for the physical impact of live metal performance.
Tone note: The mid-boost that makes Reign in Blood so distinctive is also what makes the rhythm guitar so clear. Scooped mids produce a big, washy sound at high volumes. Boosted mids produce a precise, cutting sound that lets every note in a fast thrash riff be individually audible. The choice is both tonal and practical.
The Solo Philosophy — Organised Chaos
King’s solos are deliberately anti-melodic. Where most of his contemporaries in the 1980s metal world were developing neoclassical sweep picking, technically demanding scalar runs, and harmonically sophisticated improvisation, King was developing something different: the use of the whammy bar, heavy vibrato, and dissonant note choices to create maximum atmospheric impact rather than maximum technical display.
This approach was a genuine aesthetic choice rather than a technical limitation. King could play fast and accurately — the rhythm work throughout Slayer’s catalog proves this. The chaos in his solos is controlled chaos: he knows what he’s doing, he’s doing it deliberately, and the effect on listeners is what he’s after.
In the context of Slayer’s specific music — songs about warfare, satanism, serial killers, and the brutality of human experience — a melodically organised, technically sophisticated guitar solo would be musically contradictory. The wildness of King’s solos matches the music’s subject matter and emotional content. That’s a compositional decision, not a technical shortcoming.
The Jeff Hanneman Partnership
The dynamic between King’s aggressive performance approach and Hanneman’s compositional sophistication is what gave Slayer their specific identity. Hanneman wrote the music; King played it with maximum violence. This isn’t a simple division — King contributed riffs and ideas — but the overall architecture of Slayer’s most celebrated material reflects Hanneman’s compositional imagination applied to the sonic vocabulary that King and he had developed together.
King’s continued presence in Slayer after Hanneman’s death, and his decision to form a new band after Slayer’s farewell tour, reflects his commitment to continuing to make the music that he and Hanneman built together — a tribute to the partnership through sustained creative activity rather than retrospective tribute.
How to Sound Like Kerry King: The Reign in Blood Guitar Tone
King’s foundational tone — dry, mid-boosted, aggressive — is one of the most reproducible in metal precisely because it depends more on EQ approach than on specific vintage equipment.
The Guitar
Any high-output humbucker guitar in a V or similarly aggressive body shape, with EMG active pickups for the later era tone or DiMarzio Super Distortions for the earlier Reign in Blood character.
- BC Rich KKV (Kerry King Signature) — The authentic current choice
- BC Rich Warlock — The classic Slayer-era body shape
- Gibson Flying V or Explorer — Standard V-format alternatives with passive pickups for the early era
- Any V-shaped guitar with EMG 81 or DiMarzio Super Distortion bridge pickup — The tonal starting point for either era
The Amp — Plus the Critical EQ Approach
The amp settings and EQ approach are more important than the specific amp model.
| Control | Setting | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Preamp Gain | 8–9 | High gain; the EQ provides additional input boost for maximum saturation |
| Bass | 4–6 | Controlled — NOT boosted. The tone is mid-forward, not bass-heavy |
| Mids | 8 | HIGH. This is the counterintuitive king setting — boosted mids, not scooped |
| Treble | 6–7 | Present for clarity and pick-attack definition |
| Presence | 7 | High presence for the cutting, forward character of the tone |
| Master Volume | As loud as the venue allows | More volume = more natural amp saturation and physical impact |
Before the amp: Boss GE-7 or 10-band EQ set in an upside-down “V” shape — centre frequencies boosted, upper and lower frequencies at neutral. Set the EQ’s output level above unity to push the amp’s input harder. This is the most important signal chain element. No reverb — the tone must be completely dry.
Tone note: Set the mids to 8. Then set the Boss EQ with the mid frequencies boosted further. Then listen to how different it sounds from a scooped-mid metal tone. That difference is what makes Reign in Blood sound the way it sounds on speakers that most metal records don’t.
Budget vs Pro Rigs
Budget — Reign in Blood era:
- Guitar: Gibson Flying V or similar V-shape with DiMarzio Super Distortion bridge
- Amp: Marshall DSL40CR or any mid-forward British amp; mids at 7–8, bass 4–5, gain 8–9
- Pedal: Boss GE-7 (upside-down “V” EQ curve, output above unity) — the single most important pedal purchase
- Strings: Dunlop .010–.046
- Picks: Dunlop Tortex .88mm Triangle
- No reverb. None.
Pro:
- Guitar: BC Rich KKV with EMG KFK Set (81 bridge, PA2 boost, Sustainiac neck)
- Amps: Marshall KK Signature JCM800 (×3 simultaneous, KT-88 tubes) through Marshall Mode Four 4×12 cabs (×6)
- Signal splitter: Radial JX44 for three-amp routing
- Wireless: Shure UHF
- Strings: Dunlop gauge-matched to tuning
Tone note: Three simultaneous Marshall heads is not required for the tone. One Marshall head with the mids at 8 and a Boss GE-7 in front with boosted mids gets you most of the way there. The three-head configuration is for live performance volume and stage coverage, not tonal necessity.
The Technique
Consistent, aggressive downstrokes for rhythm. The thrash metal rhythm riff requires locked-in, percussive downstroke picking that is as rhythmically consistent as the kick drum it’s locking with. Sloppy alternate picking produces a different feel — less locked-in, less physically aggressive.
For leads: the whammy bar is a primary expressive tool, not an optional ornament. Practice wide-bar dips, arm vibrato applied via the tremolo, and the kind of controlled unpredictability that makes a note land in an unexpected place without losing the rhythmic connection to the song. The chaos is controlled — not random.
Influence & Legacy: The Man Who Defined Thrash Metal’s Guitar Tone
Kerry King’s influence on heavy metal guitar is as broad as it is difficult to fully quantify, because it operates at the level of genre definition rather than individual technique imitation. He didn’t invent a specific technique that other players learned to copy — he co-created a sonic aesthetic (with Hanneman, Tom Araya, Dave Lombardo, and Rick Rubin) that defined what extreme metal could sound like and how far it could push the limits of aggression, speed, and sonic brutality.
The mid-boosted, dry, reverb-free EQ approach of Reign in Blood directly influenced subsequent metal recording and playing — it demonstrated that the “hit you in the forehead” quality of extreme metal guitar required emphasising midrange presence rather than sacrificing it for bass weight and treble sparkle. This was a production philosophy, but it was also a playing philosophy: the mids are what carry the note information, and in extremely fast metal, note information matters.
His use of the whammy bar as a chaos generator rather than a precision pitch tool influenced a generation of extreme metal guitarists who understood that dissonance and atmospheric unpredictability could be as musically effective as melodic organisation in the right context. Death metal, black metal, and extreme thrash all carry traces of the specific approach to guitar chaos that King pioneered alongside Hanneman.
The BC Rich partnership — which has produced the KKV signature line as one of the most recognisable metal guitar silhouettes of the past thirty years — established BC Rich’s specific niche in the heavy metal market and defined the visual vocabulary of a generation of metal guitar players.
After Jeff Hanneman’s death and Slayer’s farewell, King has continued to make aggressive music through his own band. From Hell I Rise (2024) demonstrates that the creative drive that produced Reign in Blood has not diminished — the riffs are still fast, the tone is still mid-boosted and dry, and the intent is still to hit you in the forehead.
Tone note: He boosted the mids when everyone else was scooping them. He recorded dry when everyone was swimming in reverb. He played V-shaped guitars covered in tribal artwork through three simultaneous Marshall heads. None of these decisions were accidents. Kerry King knows exactly what he’s doing, and has known since 1986.
In a rehearsal space or a recording studio or a massive concert venue, a Marshall head nicknamed “The Beast” is doing what it was built to do: taking the signal from a BC Rich V-shaped guitar with an EMG pickup at high gain, pushing it through KT-88 output tubes, and blasting it through a wall of Mode Four cabinets at a volume that physically moves the air in the room.
There is no reverb in the signal chain. There has not been since Rick Rubin took it out before the Reign in Blood sessions and Kerry King said “why didn’t we think of that before?”
The Boss EQ in front of the amp has the mid-frequency sliders pushed up in an upside-down V. Not scooped. Boosted. The opposite of what most metal guitarists have been doing since the Marshall was invented.
Three heads are running simultaneously. Six cabinets are receiving the mixed output. Kerry King is playing a downstroke on every beat of the fastest thrash riff you’ve ever heard. He is wearing more spikes than a medieval weapon.
Jeff Hanneman wrote the riff. Kerry King is playing it at 250 BPM.
That’s Slayer. That’s how it worked. That’s how it always will have worked.
If King’s aggressive, mid-forward Marshall approach has you rethinking how to set your amp EQ, check out our complete guide to Dave Mustaine’s tone and gear — the other founding figure of thrash metal guitar who was briefly in Metallica alongside King and who developed a similarly aggressive but harmonically more sophisticated approach to the same musical tradition.
And for the guitar partnership that most directly parallels the King/Hanneman dynamic — two guitarists with different musical personalities creating something neither could make alone — don’t miss our breakdown of K.K. Downing’s complete gear guide, whose Judas Priest partnership with Glenn Tipton established a similarly complementary twin-guitar approach a decade before Slayer did it their way.
FAQ: Kerry King Guitars & Gear
- What guitar does Kerry King play?
- His primary guitar is the BC Rich KKV — a V-shaped signature model in his second-generation specification, featuring maple body with neck-through construction, EMG KFK Set (EMG KFK 85 in bridge, Sustainiac pickup in neck, PA2 switchable preamp booster), and a Kahler 2315 tremolo. He owns approximately 20 BC Rich guitars in total and uses up to 5 per show, with different guitars tuned to D# standard, C# standard, and B standard. Earlier in his career he used a BC Rich Mockingbird (the paint-dripped guitar on Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits) and a BC Rich Warlock (the primary Reign in Blood guitar).
- What was Kerry King’s guitar setup on Reign in Blood?
- A BC Rich Warlock with DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups (transitioning to EMG 81/85 shortly after), through a Marshall JCM800 2203 (100W, non-master volume), with a Boss 10-Band EQ setting the mids in an upside-down “V” curve — boosting rather than scooping the midrange. No reverb anywhere in the signal chain — producer Rick Rubin specifically removed the reverb, which King credited with giving Reign in Blood its “hits you in the forehead” character. Both King and Hanneman used this same basic setup.
- Why does Kerry King set his mids high instead of scooping them?
- King sets his Marshall’s mids around 8 (high) and uses the Boss EQ to boost midrange frequencies further before the amp input. He has explained that the mid-boost “can hit the front end of his amp pretty hard and increases his gain saturation levels” — effectively using the EQ as a gain boost that simultaneously emphasises the frequency range that carries note information. The result is that Slayer’s guitar tone cuts through any mix at any volume while remaining dry and aggressive. This was unusual in 1980s metal (where mid-scooping was standard) and directly contributed to the distinctive character of Reign in Blood.
- What is the Marshall “The Beast” and how did it influence Kerry King’s gear?
- “The Beast” is King’s nickname for his favourite Marshall JCM800 2203 head — the amp he used throughout his career that he said sounded better than any other JCM800 he’d encountered. When he sent it back to Marshall as the specification template for his signature head, the technicians examined it expecting to find modifications. It appeared to be a stock 2203 that had simply broken in particularly well over years of hard use. Marshall built his signature JCM800 head (with KT-88 output tubes instead of EL34s, plus built-in 10-band EQ and boost) based on the specifications of “The Beast.”
- Why does Kerry King run three Marshall heads simultaneously?
- All three of his signature Marshall KK JCM800 heads run simultaneously through six Marshall Mode Four 4×12 cabinets, with the signal split by a Radial JX44 Air Guitar Control. Rather than dedicating one head to each pair of cabinets, King uses a mixed routing that blends the output of all three heads across the six cabinets. This creates a more diffuse, blended sound across the stage rather than three isolated stacks, and provides maximum volume and reliability (with two backup heads running at all times).
- What strings and picks does Kerry King use?
- Dunlop strings in gauge-matched sets for each tuning: .009–.042 for D# standard, .010–.046 for C# standard, .010–.056 for B standard. For picks, Dunlop Tortex .88mm Triangle picks with custom Kerry King graphics. He has described the Triangle pick’s practical advantage: being a six-sided pick, he can rotate to a fresh edge when one side begins to wear or catch during aggressive playing, extending the pick’s useful life through an entire set.
- What happened to Kerry King after Slayer’s farewell?
- After Slayer’s farewell world tour concluded in November 2019, Kerry King formed a new band simply called Kerry King. The band released the album From Hell I Rise in 2024, featuring vocalist Mark Osegueda (Death Angel), guitarist Phil Demmel (Machine Head), bassist Kyle Sanders, and drummer Sean Hennesy. The album continues the aggressive thrash metal approach of Slayer while representing King’s creative voice in a post-Slayer context. His gear approach in the Kerry King band is consistent with his Slayer setup: BC Rich guitars, Marshall heads, mid-boosted EQ, no reverb.
