Metal Mythos: KING DIAMOND

at the moment we're a grip with always rumors of Led Zeppelin to god-knows-where both you never know [Music] [Applause] ever since the onslaught of Alice Cooper shock Rock has wreaked havoc on many a happy household and every generation it seems has it's acid spewing adherents from the coop himself in the 70s to Marilyn Manson in the 90s but while bands like wasp and Lizzie Borden had it nailed on the band front in a solo shock rock context to the 80s belonged to just one man King goddamn diamond before Eddie you pipe the [ __ ] up with supplications to his predecessor I love me some merciful fate and once a few odds and ends I'm waiting for in the mail materialized on my doorstep I may well begin the preliminary work of wank and it the [ __ ] fate but for now it's time to pay tribute to the king for King Diamond would break away from the Danish compatriots Hank Sherman Michael tenor Timmy Hanson and Kim rose and stormed the globe in the process trailblazing his own inimitable brand of hellish high concept horror themed heavy metal that veers dangerously proximate us at times to prog metal without once boring the pipe and fresh [ __ ] out of the listener I hope you're taking notes Maiden fortunately dinner enhance and join the monarchy to exile on rhythm guitar and bass respectively and so with three fifths of the merciful fate firestorm raging in his back he broke out the lighter fuel shacking up with a world-class lineup that remains legendary even today the immortal and Neela Rock on guitar and Motorhead and duck and demigod Mickey D on drums without further ado may I present the shaitaan of shock metals auditory evil incarnate the only man tipper gore correctly accused of being a Satanist King [ __ ] diamond I just can't believe in a God in God because is that you and there's probably no you what do you mean by that you know but it is so all-powerful no Almighty why can't he come down to earth and show himself show himself to people so that they can see that he's for real and that he's the guy to believe instead he stood up in his hymnal those people don't believe in me and when that final day comes I'm gonna roast them in here that's terrifying yeah I don't know what you lose [Music] now doesn't ask for fights exist anymore because I left the pain right after our last kick which was in Copenhagen on the 11th of April and it was due to a lot of things mostly the musical side of the whole thing because hey Sherman the earlier guitarist used to ride most on whistle fate songs he totally twisted over his musical attitude and wanted to play their pop music we started writing songs very different you know me Hank and thinking so he had to make a decision you know to to carry on with with the stuff you like so that's the reason why we we had to split to comprehend why king diamonds debut sounds so distinct from what would follow you must first comprehend the context merciful fate were [ __ ] studs somewhere between thrash shock rock and black metal with a particularly pioneering influence on the latter they launched many a mother and his fast Maddox seizures of satanic panic dark demonic and heavier than grizzly bear balls they carved a cozy little alcove for themselves in the burgeoning black metal movement and then two albums in they dropped the C word commercial thanks German who used to ride most of the songs yeah he came up with new material which had nothing to do muscle faith at all and he insisted on getting on the next that one was pure pop music and I wouldn't put my name to that and in fairness on paper they had all the pieces to do precisely that soaring frontman with an eye-catching look check killer [ __ ] fretwork also very checked and the songs were sensational at least within their appointed genre in theory they were sitting on the Danish counterpart to priest in practice the King and company had loftier aims of unbridled extremity and so Sherman [ __ ] off to form a fairly exceptional AOR band by the name of fate [Music] while the world braced itself for the coming of the king and when it dropped it did not disappoint a continuing to the morbid print elections of prior efforts with three-fifths of the [ __ ] band in tow you could almost consider fatal portrait the third merciful fate record rather than the first King Diamond again the music have changed a little bit but it's like a natural improvement from our last album you know don't break the oh this one could just as well be this bird missile fade album yet largely due to how seminal subsequent albums would be I found far too many miss out on fatal portrait or worse still hang the picture dissed and never open it and reduce one of the finest efforts of the Kings career to glorify god damn wall art we're not framing in crushed-velvet while you're at it to pose horrific [ __ ] but fie on those [ __ ] because holy [ __ ] what an album [Music] [Music] aras vocals an acquired taste now diabetic come it's an acquired taste ask movie bob's tube sock king diamond is anything but insurmountable for the true metal faithful and the heavy metal monarch in question knows better than to assail your ears with an unremitting deluge of dirt shrieks mixing it up with mid-range snarls and ungodly growls and with a thicker production with more bottom and than later albums would feature I find fatal portrait it's actually an easier listen regardless alongside subsequent albums the musicianship might appear comparatively simplistic but leaning closer and you'll eventually unfurl a rich metallic tapestry encompassing everything from speed metal and thrash metal - honestly Candlemas esque doom and what truly shines here for me though is King diamonds rapidly maturing mastery of lyrical storytelling after the satanic screed submersible fade here were treated to a ghost story worthy of a Hammer horror production in fact the first four tracks and the closer haunted form a cohesive whole as King Diamond relays the morbid tale of a mother spiraling into insanity who locks her only daughter in the Attic to suffer starve and die only to be haunted to madness and ultimately murder by her daughter's very own village as it speaks to her via the eponymous fatal portrait [Music] Tayler [ __ ] from the king but while it wears its conceptual aspirations on its album sleeve fatal portrait is still not quite the full-blown concept album to follow I'm King Diamond here hosting on the headbangers ball and I got a nasty little story to read to you listen carefully mary had a little lamb it please was white as snow and everywhere that mary went the lamb was sure to go [Music] what to say about one of the defining metal masterpieces of the 1980s everything fatal portrait does Abigail does even [ __ ] more sweeping solos got Mickey D drum acrobatics got him ear-splitting screams Donovan goddamn Spades horror story subplot [ __ ] the entire album is a victorian horror story in the past particularly i think i merciful fate records you song about Satan and the devil call it what you will but Abigail is more of a horror story has that been a conscious move away from talking specifically about the devil in a way you know a lot of people have misunderstood this all the time they still misunderstand this word and that's why we took the the word away already with the former album fatal portrait so this time we just you know it was like a big challenge to me to write a full story for an album because I've never done that before and this is the biggest thing I've done lyrical wise and boasting perhaps the finest production of the Bands entire catalogue particularly the remastered metal plate Edition from a few years back it punches harder than Michael avenatti on a conducted bourbon bender guitars the crunch like charred bone drums that kick like an ornery mule and the king himself has never sounded finer relayed by a frame narrative Abigail tells the tale of a young nineteenth-century couple who move into an inherited mansion that proves to be haunted upon encountering the resident family ghost who turns out to be the previous count to the manor and thusly a blood relative protagonist Jonathan lafay learns the mansion was the site of a grisly double murder when the count learned his wife sucked off a stranger and was now carrying his bastard spawn he did the polite thing and plunked her down a flight of [ __ ] stairs [Music] right you're on the rag [Music] it's then the count informs young Jonathan that his wife Miriam will soon be with child the spiritual incarnation of the stillborn fetus her name Abigail the only way to vanquish the spectre possessing his wife you guessed it smash or Hut's of stairs as well yet Jonathan can't bring himself to do the dirty deed coaxing young Miriam into reclaiming control of her body just long enough to conspire on an alternate method of exercise in the fetal [ __ ] demon she asked Jonathan to follow her down to the Attic yet as they stand atop the basement staircase and prepare to descend well and [Applause] [Music] - horror metal master work and wouldn't like all good slasher flicks left ample room for a sequel [ __ ] it was bad enough for Capcom to pay homage to in the arcade classic final fight by the inclusion of a metal boss in suspiciously familiar regalia named you guessed it Abigail suffice to say King Diamond just a smidge influential in Japan the wise and powerful the most magnificent and beautiful the deadliest Lord of the undead [Music] sharp pounding percussive yet polished and surprising everyone involved and over a quarter million copies sold commercially successful as well no mean feed for a dude in a Dracula cape particularly in the 80s when full concept albums were anything but on vogue yet here was King Diamond one full year before Queens Reich's operation mindcrime and four before wasp the Crimson Idol cranking out the concept metal LP to end the mall so beyond bitchin in fact who knows maybe we'll all see a sequel yet in all its murderous Majesty even Abigail couldn't prepare us all for the conceptual Colossus to come satanic symbols filled the air at this concert by Danish born King Diamond how much can you influence cuz I think people too clear to be influenced by watching a band or listening to an album to go out and do the same because if they were that easy to inference watching the news you get the real thing and everybody knows that right into your living room [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] after the welcome but unexpected success of Abigail and resultant exhaustive tour of both Europe and the states former merciful fate members Michael Danner and Timmy Hansen would tender their walking papers filling the void would be longtime bassist how Pitino and presumably of Mickey D's best his former bandmate in the wildly underrated Danish band Geisha Pete black but if there were any doubt King diamonds freshly minted Road Warriors would rise to the occasion them silences every [ __ ] one the one detractor it didn't silence had the surname Simmons gene Simmons of a corporation known as KISS who patented his mom's [ __ ] on the way out of the birth canal spotted a fellow face painter on MTV one evening and giddily smacked King Diamond with a lawsuit for trademark infringement they claimed that Kings facial makeup design comes too close to the makeup design of mr. Simmons and a letter warning king diamond about the makeup confusion the lawyers also stated that quote kiss has federally registered trademarks on its facial makeup you must provide us with written assurance that you will immediately cease using the infringing makeup unquote the spokesperson for King Diamond stated that the king was going to change his makeup anyway I've never in my life heard in fan or in anybody not being able to see the difference between whether it was gene Simmons or King down when he saw a picture of never in my life furthermore it said in the letter that I had adopted certain mannerisms of his which I certainly hope not but I can used I don't know publicity stunts whatever he wants to get some publicity they shouldn't need that but you know it gave us a lot too so Thank You G anytime a good thing Alice Cooper didn't do the same in the 70s ha sweetie let's be real here gene Simmons would copyright a copyright symbol but like gene with another man's wife this story has a happy ending as it led to King Diamond semiannual practice of subtly and satanic Lee altering his face paints appearance between albums to better reflect the theme and so a spawn the spectral village of them era King Diamond is shooing the spiky tendrils of previous outings for rape like wisps of black and ghostly white and evident visual reflection of the haunting to come with yet another mansion setting the feeble-minded fan mites expect repetition but here's where the Abigail similarities end this is a more intimate tale of a family welcoming their ailing grandmother home from a long spell in a mental asylum the result in greeting birth many a voice cracking parody from view of [ __ ] Jay and Silent Bob trams the first of the Fallen the spoiler of virgins the master of abortions you know I don't like to talk about dark forces Randall [Music] [Applause] [Music] King Diamond this time around is a self-insert playing the part of Adelaide little [ __ ] who slowly realizes his grandmother and ultimately himself have been hopelessly ensnared by invisible guests he knows only has them the voices of the nameless they sing serenades to the young king and rapturing him and demonic delirium and ultimately inciting him to cut the phone lines while his sister Missy refuses to have anything [ __ ] to do with this they or possibly King Diamond under their thrall chop her ass into kibbles and bits [Music] aware is impending doom it dawns on him that the apparitions lose power outside the confines of the mansion itself so he lures his apparently possessed grandma out of the gate and hacks are underground goddamn beef has pretended and incarcerated in an asylum himself it appears that would be the end of the story you know where his high-concept efforts were being met with ever-increasing praise the diamond duke did like all great horror directors and saved room for the sequel as he returns home to find the death of his grandma did precisely dick to dispel the omnipresent them the music here just kills ever more complex and precise than its forebears here King Diamond and laughs from mere theatrical thrash with a technical flair - what can arguably be labelled prog metal without once abandoning the brutality if I have one gripe it's the Kings voice largely as a result of a fair bit too [ __ ] much falsetto and of course late eighties reverb humping production proclivities his hellish scream has been elevated to a piercing Muppet like screech at times and over the lengthy listening sessions a concept record demands this can pierce like a pornstar dick but the material is metal squared and more than makes up for it as a result with particular attention to the jaw-dropping skin craft of Mickey D who by now was lapsing in a borderline Neil Peart territory and unfortunately for the [ __ ] fans he was hating every minute of it but more on that in a minute a commercial and creative Goliath the them album crushed the [ __ ] charts to this day remaining his sole effort to pierce the top 100 although previous and subsequent releases would come pretty damn close yet for all its hellish Majesty the story was just getting started as it was intended from the outset as merely the first chapter in a darksome duology and a full year later we were due for a follow-up [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the oven them and conspiracy are one big horror story they're connected totally they also want to get rid of because the mother is still scaring me she's convinced from what uncle and out told her that I was the one who tried to kill it because of her over the wounds had the cuts around them that we used the T so as she wants to get rid of me she's scared of me as well and maybe there's a little revenge in there as well you know convinced the local priest to take part in this stuff so the damn and had a body if one of them should start telling later on the other one would have an alibi with the priest so they're like you know securing themselves that by bringing him into it and it's easy to bring him in because they just start talking about me being possessed by some kind of demon or maybe even Satan himself [Music] fuggin hmm take everything awesome about them and they are many and amplify an 80 billion but [ __ ] times and then in one final [ __ ] yeah flourish slather on that much needed a bottom n the [ __ ] left out on the last release the album Alex Jones's favourite lunatic lullaby conspiracy and underrated follow-up and for my money the finest hour of the original incarnation of King Diamond and for drum demigod Mickey D it would also prove his final offensive as a bouncing baby band it had been all for one one for all drain your sax before they fall but as the band became more about its iconic Archdemon frontman slowly but surely the same syndrome that afflicted a young Alice Cooper band crept in to King Diamond we were a band we were a team and we really enjoyed what we were doing it all came to an end where I didn't feel very happy in the band anymore we were going a little bit different direction than I thought that we've been working ourselves up to and I I moved and mes a drummer I I like to play everything but at least in this instance it truly was a case of musical differences it's an increasingly conceptual and now even Prague in fused elements Mickey D felt at [ __ ] least we're now detracting from the flat-out metal to me it was a natural move I wanted to play some more say that rock and roll and I felt a little stressed in King Diamond in the end mate and consider and Mickey D is far and away one of the most technically gifted drummers in the dam's genre it wasn't a matter of not being able to play them he was just flat-out sick of the [ __ ] prog metal preening and indulgent technicality and so he tendered an embittered resignation and fled for the florid climes of what was supposed to be Dakin but thanks to the other three members divesting the frontman of his own last [ __ ] name was ultimately named Don Dokken fortunately for the mythos faithful however King Diamond didn't lose Mickey's number and enlisted him for the conspiracy albeit in a session musician capacity conceptually kiss was a much more simplistic affair King Diamond returns to the mansion Amman to reclaim his birthright from them but upon striking a deal with the formless demons to resurrect his sister Missy immediately finds himself hopelessly enmeshed in a Machiavellian murder plot by his mother and her demented therapist office and claim it for their [ __ ] own circuitous but less complex than the two that preceded it but an ain't a plot that makes this album the embodiment of the [ __ ] [ __ ] it's the tunes see the cremation thing that burned alive thing you know where the priest and the doctor and my mother Dean's would mean to this coffin and burns me alive it's a weird thing because you see we die on the under the back of the album you seem kind of looks like my funeral here and every night on stage I'm gonna die you're going to see an illusion hold burned alive [Music] [Applause] [Music] conspiracy is a killer the ideal capstone of creative Colossus that is king diamonds 80s output and one of the all-time ass-kicking concept albums ever conceived and a commercial success as well nearly cracking the top 100 on Billboard and starting a minor stir in more than the mere metal underground Mickey D hadn't Don Dokken word or not would be missed but believe it or not the next album would not suffer from his [ __ ] absence how did you do the research for the story behind the I quite a bit of it came from a book by I think his name is Richard Cavendish I think it's called the Black Arts a lot of the because most of it you know is is actually historically correct and then I make it into with you know there's a little part about the necklace the I mmm most of it is actually enjoyed correct [Music] [Applause] I've said it before and I'll say it again if you want to know which eighties metal bands were actually worth a good goddamn watch what they did in the 90s the posers pushed out sold out of checked out while the genuine article just got heavier Metallica cut their hair and did radio rock Motorhead slayed us all with sacrifice matin went out like it was going out of style priests cut the two heaviest records of their career I rest my case [ __ ] King Diamond I'm glad to say fell into the latter camp remaining one of the few elite acts that remained relevant throughout the decade regularly packing major metal festivals albeit increasingly in South America and in Europe as America became collectively allergic to decent [ __ ] music for instance in in Brazil you know and it goes fontina as I told you before but also in Brazil where they don't they speak Portuguese right and very few people understood English but when we played the show they were singing along with every single song you know and that blew my mind away I couldn't believe it [Music] which isn't to say the damage wasn't done if I'm being honest King Diamond was never quite the same after Mickey D's departure not necessarily worse although the replacement drummers to follow word let's just say it [ __ ] inferior nothing wrong with snowy Shaw he's a serviceable skinned man even if pigmentation alii makes edgar winter look like mr. t but far be it for me to mock anyone's pallor I get a son can open in my [ __ ] refrigerator and yes snow he did play on this [ __ ] not a goddamn drum machine someone from Candlemas Messiah Mark Colin yeah I'm sorry mark only yet so close above that on your army the I there's no drummer and that it's all a drum machine and a german named chris Hawkins insisted that the drum being on that album does not match the with shuttle situation no well see a lot of people have asked that question in food sometimes and I was wondering what they he would know about it since you've been running economy but he probably has talked to snow aliens to like that sometimes but he was playing on electronic drum pads okay good eye contact you know and that's what he played up and that's why you get a very consistent sound through it but he played the drum pad he was actually more - yeah I got that part you know that he has an idea that he was pressing yeah they need to check out big-time [Music] but if there were doubters in the cult of the king they were stone-cold silent when the I arrived a throg [ __ ] leave vicious album the me laughs just this side of too [ __ ] far down prog metal Boulevard at times but in the overall stays the path with aplomb and utterly pounds for the duration into the convent father Picard behind these walls but with ever so slightly subpar percussion at least relative to the Titan like Mickey D that preceded him what carries the day here is the guitar as such the I may well mark the Shred meister and ela ropes finest hour with King Diamond and believe me [ __ ] the dude has had some doozies [Music] the AI as a concept was a colossal undertaking compared to its predecessors in place of a simple horror tale in multiple installments here was a work of historical fiction using real figures from the French [ __ ] Inquisition to even a cult morality fable of which burning sexual assault and child murder had organized religions behest each set in a separate time and period each with a separate story each linked by the omnipresent AI and a cult artifact in necklace form that fries your [ __ ] face if you dare look upon it sure it's basically the glowing green goddamn or from heavy metal the movie but [ __ ] it this record rules the Fallout however was less than favorable with members moving in opposing directions in the protracted musical nutshot of the 90s public the [ __ ] away in unison the middle mode our solo concern went all the dormant for the protracted three-year stretch that followed but King Diamond wasn't done and neither were his [ __ ] friends after an acrimonious split in the mid 80s slowly the warring factions of fate and King Diamond gave way to a DMZ and eventually to an outright armistice by 1992 a long dormant demon was soon to reemerge Muslim faith reunited four out of the five original members right there and how long has it been since you played with merciful faith it's not been since 85 was the last concert so there was a long time where we musically was not working together but we always kept in contact cuz we're always good friends you know when you disbanded merciful fate 10 years ago you said it was because you couldn't continue with with the intents of the band that you didn't want to compromise so why is it now right for you to get back together I think that time it was due to a music musical differences sure and then I have been playing some other bands I have been doing a bang sort called socialize together with Michael and then we just started through to compose in a more harder way but there is a new Kingdom and coming as well [Music] when you're going at the King Diamond band going it was supposed to be picking up the merciful fate let let left off and now we get to you you have you have a new solo new album under the kingdom the moniker spiders lullaby that's out and die in you to mention the year actually get your doing but both now yes friends the fate was [ __ ] back and while it's related it still falls outside the purview of at least today's metal mythos for now anyways fortunately for devotees of Diamond the King had not abdicated his solo crown in the process and while the merciful fate material was strong King Diamond had just hit his stride when reunion talk started Brolin and so with word King Diamond would continue we waited for the follow-up and braced ourselves for the possibility that with its creativity pulled in two separate directions the product may well find itself ever so slightly diluted in the process what emerged instead was perhaps the most underrated record of the Kings career gonna be blunt between the crunchy ER production less elaborate narrative and more straight ahead savagery in the songwriting I do believe I may actually prefer the spiders lullaby to the also admittedly awesome VI though for the uninitiated the first attribute they're likely gonna note is Kings voice which is notably more subdued than on the eye which again frankly for the better look I love the man's voice but on them it bordered on sonic warfare it came as a welcomed shift when the conspiracy featured lower register bellows booming throughout punctuated by the odd odd whistle diamond shriek and the spiders lullaby is a direct return to that approach and folks being similar to the conspiracy is no [ __ ] affront attorney and ring in a conceptual [ __ ] and ball for so many [ __ ] records it stands to reason eventually the rubber band would break in the opposite direction the spiders lullaby marks a deliberate departure for the king being the first album in his recent career to intentionally eschew the full album [ __ ] concept established on Abagail instead in a clear return to his fatal porphyrin roots and an ode to Alice Cooper only the latter half conveys a coherent concept with the remaining material representing standalone heavy metal mood pieces not coincidentally the spiders lullaby further features some of the most direct tunes of the Kings career exchanging the occasionally indulgent borderline prog metal leanings of earlier efforts for songs that flat-out [ __ ] rock though you admittedly can see the three and four minute Arrangements straining beneath the weight of some of the lofty early Racal concepts King Diamond was by now [ __ ] famous for but with music like this who gives a good goddamn [Music] the spiders lullaby better than the world deserved in the heavy metal no-man's land of 1995 next see the spotters lullaby was exactly like we wanted we didn't want another continent on that time we've done a lot lately and there was like you know let's do something a little bit just a little story but individual songs do something different you know and that's all fine but it doesn't tend to get as theatrical as if you do a full concept and the next one will be very spooky I guarantee that man it's got horny [Music] three [Music] for metal bands adrift in the badlands in the 1990s there were two equally pernicious maladies at play those who simply gave up and those legendary acts who opted instead to take stock of the scene around them take aim at a younger more relevant commercially successful band that happens to devour twenty nine dicks in rapid succession and in a cloying Hail Mary how do you do fellow kids maneuver emulate every last thing about them and in so doing discredit their entire career in the process I'm happy to say King Diamond never went quite that far but the closest he ever came was this record right here in short he turned up to a show one day to December he'd be opening for a band that was actually admittedly inspired by him by the name of Metallica did a double-take and said Metallica you mean that [ __ ] who was bald at age eight who asked me to sign his don't break the oath vinyl behind a Copenhagen crack house in 1902 we're all put in for this clip haircut stain now [ __ ] this [ __ ] Andy time to down tonnage ugh like the Dickens you chode [Applause] [Music] is it awful far from it some of the first material I ever heard came from the goddamn grave yard and with the benefit of context it's easy to see why bitch's Bridal to the ton during chugga-chugga riff vomit and deliberately piss-poor production here that said it almost accidentally skates clean past the obvious Metallica affectations from Black Hill sanitarium to an all-too-familiar guitar Toad and yet in its best moments the graveyards clumsy radio thrash fumbling somehow land closer to doom Layton Sabbath worship [Music] Lucey forever I am to be [Music] but even that admittedly ain't the best which is a shame because the narrative of a young man who walks in on a perverse mayor weinstein and the [ __ ] out of his own daughter and shut up in an asylum to silence them really ain't half bad and deserves a better musical accompaniment that's the difference between Muslim faith and King Diamond whistle faith is more I'd say spiritual minded religious minded kind of you know what King Diamond is more as social minded there is even though you have the occult horror in there that's a lot of themes from what's going on in today's society and one of those things that is brought up on that album is a childhood a station which makes me born of late ah you know you can't have that kind of people there it's the same as killing a little child when they do that little child and they released from prison six years later to do what to go out and do the same again and that's like a thing I've seen so many cases in in in Texas for instance but I know it's all over the world the graveyard not unlistenable and even birthda live slasher classic and trick-or-treat mind you but overall a far cry from the Kings finest but the heavy-metal goblin was in a groove regardless and fortunately follow-up was a [ __ ] fireball this one here gives me very much the feel of of the old of America with it you know music wise and they localized economy some of the heaviest we've done this for sure it's it's getting prettier cold again you know it's dealing a lot with butoh in Louisiana and also includes exorcism and if it's getting pretty heavy [Music] 90s naysayers enjoy your steamin bola crow because when the king cranked out the first and arguably only fully disappointing release of his career in the graveyard far from a portent of things to come he was destined to be a mere pit stop as he maintained a steady course to kick-ass the reasons for which are Miriam finally settling into a biannual schedule with merciful fate one year and King Diamond the next king Kim was clearly feeling incrementally more comfortable with this satanic cycle by this point but as anyone in an actual band will attest a fair amount could also be credited to the new drummer John Luke a bear formerly of shred metal masters Chastain in summation when a guitarist gets a new toy to play with the sparks generally fly when an unerring shred Meister the caliber of Andy LaRoque gets his hands on the self-same cling fast to your [ __ ] and brace for badass then there was the thematic shift in place of Victorian mansions small-town conspiracies and ambiguous hauntings bestial Bayou metal the soundtrack to Papa Shango sweating voodoo [Music] and yes that is a dirt nap Darryl solo on food Oh somehow shredding away despite the fatal plane crash that took the lives of promising us power metal band Pantera after the year 1989 what can I say King Diamond has powers for production - percussion whatever bundle of Raven feathers and has cat teeth King Diamond was slamming into his Satan fellating vanes was working on voodoo even the latter half of this album fast evolving into a glorified piste break on recent releases sports some deep cut classics [Music] [Applause] a lesser release in the King Diamond catalog I'm not so [ __ ] sure I might even personally place it somewhere on the same level as the already underrated spiders lullaby as one of a cavalcade of classics that might have been if they hadn't suffered the grave misfortune of being birthed in the decade that killed classic metal but said decade was fast coming to a close and so too with the Kings time with merciful fate what is the rest of this year whole for the band will you continue to tour into the new millennium everyone goes home what sake of a case anything everyone goes home and then King Diamond start as the king diamond band start writing material and then it's probably time ins turn to kind of start a US tour European tour and then merciful fate cannae in standby position [Music] to date the diamond domani I can repeatedly [ __ ] flirted with the prog metal sub-genre and come out smelling like posies yet album after album single after single the King's [ __ ] merely grazed the gash of the home listening audience but in 2000 he gently heaved us all over the divan conceptual [ __ ] at full [ __ ] mass and an a hushed whisper said and so screaming into existence came the house of God not merely one of the most ambitious and thematically consistent releases of the Kings career but almost intentionally the antithesis of merciful fates last and to date [ __ ] final offering nine which if the quality of the Tunes is any indication is the same word German metalheads utter when someone tries to put this [ __ ] on the stereo where nine was a rather cloying attempt to inject cartoonish 80s pseudo Satanism back into the lyrics here comes King with a concept album about Christ no not Danzig's guitarist the messianic figure religious icon and only zombie in history that didn't send his followers screaming into the [ __ ] hills the premise Jesus never truly died and was instead Jah lead off to a church in southern France to [ __ ] his prostitute paramour Mary Magdalene there to establish a church for all gods of heaven and earth this being a king Diamond concept album naturally there's a [ __ ] curse on the joint loosely derived from the real-life legend of rennes-le-chateau themes of fatalism and religious disillusionment abound as he relays the tale of a young man who happens upon the aging Citadel falling head over who's for a mysterious enchantress named only angel only learned she is merely seducing him because the curse of the church demands the Sentinels stand there for all eternity and she's planning for him to take her place refusing to be suckered by a curse worse than death but still rocking blue balls the size of grapefruits his natural solution is to try to take the Cathedral down brick by brick not gonna lie maybe my favorite King Diamond concept to date the only downside sadly is the dead as [ __ ] ProTools production flat guitars dull drums and yet another subdued vocal performance take otherwise excellent cereal and smother the living [ __ ] out of it until all that remains is a muddy modernized mess fortunately though the toons remain and Christ in a [ __ ] up do they rip [Applause] [Music] [Applause] not all of them which isn't always the song ridings fault for the record imagine even lackluster [ __ ] like this place is terrible but with drums the guitar that don't sound like a Playstation synthesizer [Music] nothing live drums and a little reverb won't fix I don't often advocate for re-recordings King but like do it dickwad house of God is a good with a bad situation occasionally exceptional songs straining beneath the weight of limp lifeless production / perhaps the most imaginative narrative ever penned by the Prince of Darkness but King Diamond was about to push himself farther as a writer than ever the [ __ ] before my friends helming his first true sequential sequel since the almighty conspiracy because over a full decade later abigail was back and she was [ __ ] pissed [Music] for all great horror films an inferior exploitative sequel and arguably the greatest horror metal hell beast that existence Abigale got precisely that in an otherwise down year for heavy metal 2002 and to its credit it's started out strong with some of the liveliest material in several albums like the storm mansion in sorrow and Miriam and an obvious production quality upgrade suckin you flush in the ear [ __ ] from the outset and then wily coyote meet cliff [Music] Abigale to rapidly descends from passable to pure i'll with tracks like little ones slippery stairs and the Crypt quoting classics from erstwhile eras and not even particularly good ones but it's the insipid additions to the original classic story that the most offensive aspect by far with abigail now the half-sister of some douche canoe named O'Brien who turns out to be the leader of the titular Horseman from the original album it aims for Halloween too and lands on the Nightmare on Elm Street remake by the end of this [ __ ] you're begging for a Chinese Freddy [ __ ] Krueger to pop the [ __ ] up Abigail - as such sadly we'll go down as a misguided metal sequel albeit one with occasional bursts of brilliance virtually all of which are situated at the outset of the album [Music] King Diamond had tried to revisit past glories and careened into a minor [ __ ] slick in the process in all fairness it was a new lineup and they needed time to congeal and it didn't take long for CH initely and all-new narrative had already begun to germinate in the maniacal mind of King Diamond in it was a goddamn doozy [Music] good evening I'm king diamond I'm here to tell you the story of the puppet masters [Music] [Music] I was more than passively familiar with King Diamond when I spotted the puppetmaster used in a local record store aware he'd kicked ass in the past and further aware his more recent releases had gone down like a lighter at a farting contest I said to myself yeah but by god it's my duty to pay tribute to the king and egad am I glad I did this record hit me clean in the crank fresh from [ __ ] nowhere I expected nothing and wound up enraptured by easily King diamonds finest post-millennial masterpiece the puppet master is a near-perfect fusion of coherent concept and classic songwriting and it don't hurt that it's named after my favorite [ __ ] horror series either Diamondback on the elaborate abigail and house of God concepts for a creepier more personal albeit puppet centric fable where a young boy in Budapest suddenly discovers his [ __ ] has been ganked only to learn she's been abducted by what else a puppet master who together with his wife has been abducting Hungarians as if anyone would notice and through demonic rites infused their lifeless bodies with temporary animation to pursue in the stage with the most lifelike murder marionettes this side of a CNN panel sadly he learns this fact by being abducted himself but when the puppet master is interrupted mid satanic [ __ ] something goes horribly wrong with a ritual and instead of being temporarily animated his eyes alone are given eternal life so that he soon finds that he's been unwittingly sentenced to sit on a shelf for all eternity glowering passively in a morbid mockery of the woman he once loved but I'm sure I am - ooh I know those eyes torian's my love I cannot believe is her eyes sitting in this puppets head but I know it's true it is definitely her eyes blue eyes they're a lie but they are so dear we don't need words to speak our eyes speak for us it's like our minds are now in our eyes the puppet master sees that we're alive and he says but [ __ ] the story the songs carry this one the title track magic and the ode to eternal torment blue eyes [Music] everything for the brief but badass opening track with actual vocals for a change to the Baroque speed metal of Living Dead drops the damn hammer [Music] [Applause] [Applause] serviceable two superb material is strewn the [ __ ] throughout the puppet master is a must listen for those who scarcely venture outside the classic triumvirate of Abigail them and conspiracy it was also with this album that the Kings courtship to one Livia Zita led to the introduction of occasional female vocals you know to sing the low parts because King [ __ ] diamond it doesn't add a ton but during the seconds referring to the doomed romance between the two puppet paramours it adds a slight storytelling dimension to the dark some proceedings it may be a sleeper to some but to the coven of King Diamond the puppet master is a modern horror metal masterwork next the apartment I live in Denmark it was a haunted night you won't believe and lots of people saw that stuff you know I mean it's a it was a daily occurrence for me you know I got very used to having it around how things would move around and have been moved and been touched and things like that can you tell one story for example please no [Music] the follow-up to the puppet master was a long time a common and the news in the meantime was anything but encouraging rumors of ambiguous health woes continuously canceled tours both in America and abroad with only the odd live album or best of [ __ ] to remind us King Diamond still lived it breathe in the meantime I can give you a lot of rumours I've died several times you know one time years ago you know a lady called me to ask me if I'd actually died [Music] one such tour I even had tickets to attend only for the King to shitcan the entire tour mere weeks later what we now know is the King Diamond beyond the simple travails life throws at us all like the birth of a child marriage and everything the [ __ ] else was actually suffering from a far more sinister ailment and ongoing heart condition that left him face to the [ __ ] wall got a few let's just say issues before you kind of came back health concerns or I had to go get a little more middle in here so there's a rod that goes straight down right down the middle is there another little one that goes across in the bottom it's coming I mean was it challenging financially for you that's not that was not the things I was thinking of you know how can I was thinking of trying to survive yes first of all I was trying to the things that matter to me was it was a great thing to be able to lift a big glass of water be able to actually have strength to lift it first in the shadow of such uncertainty it stands to reason the production would be similarly troubled and when the final product at last arrived it's clear it Kaito was hell even the release seemed cursed from the outset we're laying a somewhat subpar story about yet another Haunted Mansion albeit with an interesting patricidal twist as it turns out the ghosts that haunt the place do so because their father killed the [ __ ] out of them before turning the gun on himself give me your soul please suffered the sad fate of releasing its first single the day after the Chris Benoit murder-suicide yes and the music didn't fare much [ __ ] better likely owing to his condition king Simon was well out of [ __ ] form confining himself to lower registers belting out the occasional whisper scream and almost never shrieking in his highest register some speculated it was a mere vocal issue if blather mouth only knew at the time they could have spared themselves untold quantities of autistic energy if that sounds like weave sauce and thanks to the always stellar fret crack of a knee of the rope it winds up being more like mildly out of shape sauce because while give me your solo please is admittedly flabby on the [ __ ] hall it's still king goddamn diamond [Music] [Applause] in a sign of the times with classic metal on a post 2004 upswing the never ending he'll even netted King Diamond an honest-to-god Grammy nomination the first of his [ __ ] career and who knows with a stronger album on the hole he may have even won it in retrospect this is a weak note to call it a career on and fortunately from the sounds of it it won't be as king Diamond is undergone the much needed heart surgery made a full recovery and as you see in his recent songs for the dead release is still belting it out like a satanic Pavarotti I had to cut the secrets my voice couldn't clear it up I sing better today than I ever did [Music] then after a nut shot but I have to admit I Harbor more than a slight soft spot forgive me or Saul please it's not the best music and far from the best story but it still has that - a diamond delivery baked into the [ __ ] crust once you've work your way through literally everything else go ahead and give it a spin you might be surprised well that tears it for the King Diamond Edition of the metal mythos as I alluded to earlier it's worth mentioning the King Diamond recently made the rounds in media discussing yet another musical duology due for release at some nebulous point in the [ __ ] future I even considered putting this mythos off until after their release but truth is Kingsman [ __ ] in those two albums since 2000 [ __ ] 7 if I wait on this man to release new material there's a 50/50 chance I'll Mulder into mythos dust and stand out of the five wins the process either way hail to the king you [ __ ] i'm razörfist until we emerge once more for the myths of the metal mythos god [ __ ] speed [Music] [Applause] [Music] what this one isn't a virgin at all but that's not fair she has to be a virgin every holy sort of meta recon is supposed to be a virgin I don't get it girls these days have no sense of conduct whatsoever are those Danish cigarettes yeah no thank you no I don't smoke come on a chance to start

Channel: undefined

Views: 308,576

Rating: 4.8560548 out of 5

Keywords: RazörFist, The Rageaholic, Metal Mythos, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Abigail, The Eye, Heavy Metal, King Diamond Retrospective, Music Review, Metal Reviews

Id: NTxDuCpXndc

Length: 58min 23sec (3503 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/MalesaurusRex]

I can’t wait for the new shit!!!

[u/DradelFace]

Watched this the other day when it came out. i liked his take on all things King.

[u/NJGuitar]

thanks for posting