Some wondered how Slayer would fare after the death of Jeff Hanneman, but the band has thrived with the music from their Repentless disc. And according to Kerry King, the group is in great shape moving forward with music as well. The guitarist reveals in a video interview with the Jagermeister U.K. seen above that the band has lots of leftover material from the Repentless sessions that could serve as a jumping off point for their next release.

"We've got lots of leftover material from the last album, 'cause we wrote so much stuff, and we recorded a bunch of it too. If the lyrics don't change the song musically, those songs are done. So we are way ahead of the ballgame without even doing anything for the next record," says King. "I've been working on stuff on my downtime. Like, I'll warm up and a riff will come to mind and I'll record it. I've gotten a handful of those on this run. So wheels are still turning. I haven't worked on anything lyrically yet except for what was done on the last record, so that's something I've gotta get on."

The guitarist adds that he once considered the idea that Repentless and their next work would mirror the rollout of Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, which both were conceived around the same period though separated in release by a couple of years. He also states that it was common for he and Jeff Hanneman to write enough material where there might be two or three songs left over, but this time there were eight songs. He continues, "Plus [there's] a lot of ideas, like half-songs. Like, the first half a song will go with another half a song. So we might be inching up on ten songs already, when I get down and think about it, and that's very unique for Slayer, and very cool, because can do a one-two punch on this record."

But before fans get excited for a quick turnaround, King cautions that the band still has plenty of touring left to do on Repentless. He adds, "We could probably start doing something at the end of next year, but, man, we've still got a lot of touring going on next year. So I'm guessing… What's this… '16, '17… I'm guessing it won't be '18 before we record anything."

As stated, Slayer have a wealth of touring ahead of them, with the band's fall trek with Anthrax and Death Angel looming on the horizon. Check out all of their upcoming dates here.

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