Come up with a metal band name now right now. Then, once you landed on one that doesn't suck, go on Metal Archives and see if it's taken. It is, right? Of course it is. Every metal band name is taken. This is the exact problem that Kerry King ran into when trying to name his new solo band.
In an interview with Loudwire, King said his new band was never supposed to be self titled, but ended up that way out of necessity.
"The funny part about that is it was never supposed to be," said King. "It was never supposed to have my name on it and I was adamantly against it. But let me tell you something. You try to make up a metal band name, right, and see how far you get.
"I worked on that for four years, and every time I land on something, we'd start running down the copyright trail and there was always a roadblock. So what happened was the festivals we're going to be playing on were getting ready to announce and they had to announce something, so my name got attached to it and here we are. So, yeah, no, it didn't have any bearing on the music."
King later joked that he had a ton of band names written down – including King's Reign – all of which didn't work out for one reason or another.
"Oh, I've got probably a list of 40 to 50 names on my phone. Just anything that would conjure an idea of another idea that would come from that. And that's where the logo came from. It was gonna be King's Reign. And I can't remember why we couldn't use that, but we couldn't use that. So then, we just… Kerry King. That's my name."
All I'm saying is let's all be thankful it wasn't King's Reign. Kerry King will be out on tour with Lamb Of God, Mastodon, and Malevolence this July. Get your tickets here.
7/19 Grand Prairie, TX Texas Trust CU Theatre
7/20 Austin, TX Germania Insurance Amphitheater
7/21 Houston, TX 713 Music Hall
7/23 Jacksonville, FL Daily’s Place
7/24 Orlando, FL Orlando Amphitheater
7/25 Alpharetta, GA Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
7/27 Raleigh, NC Red Hat Amphitheater
7/28 Richmond, VA Virginia Credit Union LIVE!
7/30 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
7/31 London, ON Budweiser Gardens
8/1 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
8/3 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
8/4 Manchester, NH SNHU Arena
8/6 Bangor, ME Maine Savings Amphitheatre
8/8 Reading, PA Santander Arena (w/ Unearth, no Malevolence)
8/9 Cleveland, OH Jacobs Pavilion (w/ Unearth, no Malevolence)
8/10 Sterling Heights, MI Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre @ Freedom Hill (w/ Unearth, no Malevolence)
8/13 Moorhead, MN Bluestem Center For The Arts Amphitheater
8/15 Calgary, AB Scotiabank Saddledome
8/16 Penticton, BC South Okanagan Events Centre
8/17 Kent, WA accesso ShoWare Center
8/18 Portland, OR Theater of the Clouds
8/21 Los Angeles, CA The Kia Forum
8/23 Phoenix, AZ Arizona Financial Theatre
8/24 Rio Rancho, NM Rio Rancho Events Center
8/25 El Paso, TX El Paso County Coliseum
8/27 Magna, UT The Great Saltair
8/29 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
8/31 Omaha, NE The Astro Amphitheater
