The thrash icons recently confirmed the launch of 11th album Repentless - their first without co-founder Jeff Hanneman, who died in 2013. King tells Full Metal Jackie: "I think more so now than the early days, they're more acceptable to quality music, which is cool. I used to hate to watch friends just get pummelled. I remember Alice In Chains were opening and they got destroyed by the fans - and they were awesome.

"I was out there almost every day, and it would put me out to see gallon jars of sh*t being thrown onstage. They manned up and dealt with it. That was their trial by fire."