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In the mid-80s Dennis "King Diamond" Pedersen, a lead vocalist for Mercyful Fate, started a solo project, less thrashy and more vocal- and story-oriented. In the early 90s he returned back to Fate, leading a double life ever since, touring both with MF and by himself, sometimes simultaneously. Each and every album of his is a concept horror story (apparently, he saves individual songs for MF); the highlights including: "Abigail" (1986), "Them" (1988), "Conspiracy" (1989), "Voodoo" (1998), "House Of God" (2000), and "Abigail II" (2002). I do not hate his voice as much as I used to back when I first heard him, but still give him full credit for entertainment value. What I love about him is his makeup (he makes Gene Simmons with his blood and bats look like a friendly circus clown). Diamond claims to be a practicing Satanist, and IMO it's nice to have someone like that around to keep all the Christian Coalition freaks on their heels. The only permanent member of the band, other than King himself, is the guitarist Andy LaRocque (played on Death's "Individual Thought Patterns" album and does a lot of producing as well; Falconer being his most famous work). The current members that participated on the latest "The Puppet Master" (2003) are: guitarist Mike Wead (who is also a current member of Mercyful Fate), bassist Hal Patino, and drummer Matt Thompson.
FATAL PORTRAIT (1985)
RATING: **1/2
BEST SONGS: "The Jonah," "The Portrait"
Upon the initial listen I liked it, but the second time I put the cd in the box, I couldn't finish playing it and, since then, could never bring myself to re-listen to it. The story is good and the music flows nicely, but the songs are just lost in the story. I remember both highlights being pretty good, but the focus was definitely on the story, as opposed to the songs. Luckily, King was able to fuse both on his following release.
ABIGAIL (1986)
RATING: ****
BEST SONGS: "A Mansion In Darkness," "The Possession," "Black Horsemen"
This is a rock opera, but I could never quite grasp its every detail: dead people, unborn children, ghosts, and other neat stuff inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. I think this album sounds too 80s (just look at the pictures of Andy La Rocque and drummer Mikkey Dee, for crying out loud). I didn't get into the album at first, but with time it grew on me. For some reason, at times, Diamond sounds exactly like Alice Cooper. What I always hated about both Merciful Fate (btw, Michael Denner of MF plays guitar here) and Diamond is the tempo changes and a "100 riffs per song" approach: to me, it just kills the groove. "A Mansion In The Darkness" is a great rocker, and "Black Horsemen" is a decent epic. Something to scare your kids with, if they misbehave.
THE GRAVEYARD (1995)
RATING: **1/2
BEST SONGS: "Black Hill Sanitarium," "Digging Graves," "I Am"
Without being a fan of either King Diamond's voice or philosophy, I still bought this album, because, as I was told, "The Graveyard" was a good rock opera. And people weren't wrong, "The Graveyard" is indeed a good rock opera. Actually, it's the only rock opera I've heard, where the plot was interesting enough for me to keep guessing what's going to happen at the end. The story is about a mental patient, falsely accused of sexually abusing little Lucy, daughter of the town's mayor, while it was the mayor himself who abused Lucy. The man is placed in a mental asylum, but escapes, steals Lucy from her dad, brings her to the cemetery, writes a letter to her father with the threat to kill her, unless he comes to the cemetery gates at midnight, and so on and so forth. The problem lies with actual catchiness of songs. The songs are not as good by themselves, but more in the context of the story, and that is a loss, when compared to albums like Operation: Mindcrime, Streets, and Dead Winter Dead, where most of the songs can be played on the radio by themselves. "I Am" is pretty much the only song that can be played out of the context (its chorus is awesome). King Diamond's voice is not as bad as in his early years, but he loses some of his wonderful makeup. Andy La Rocque is a solid guitarist, but the whole band is so subjected to Diamond, that they can't really show themselves. The music is good, but could have been catchier. Still, a listenable effort from the king of metal Satanists.
VOODOO (1998)
RATING: ***1/2
BEST SONGS: "Voodoo," "A Secret," "One Down, Two To Go"
Another horror tale from the king of horrors, this time, it's about a family buying a house with a voodoo cemetery nearby. The story itself is not very original, but if you're in the mood, it flows rather well. I dig some of the tunes, especially title track (with Dimebag Darrel of Pantera doing guest appearance), "A Secret" (cool chorus), "One Down, Two To Go" (another cool chorus: "You used to be so beautiful, but now you're gonna die!"), and "The Exorsist." The problem with KD is that you can't really listen to his albums for individual songs. Without each other they lack in groove. But, overall, a nice thing. I think King Diamond should do a Christmas Special on FOX.
HOUSE OF GOD (2000)
RATING: ****1/2
BEST SONGS: "Black Devil," "Just A Shadow," "This Place Is Terrible"
Just about the best album I've heard from the man. Great rocking music, not-so-annoying vocals, very theatrical approach. This time the story reflects King Diamond's newly developed semi-agnostic perceptions of Christian religion. Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross, he was destroyed by a god himself, all gods that people worship are just puppets in hand's of other deities, wolf protecting the church that can reveal the secret to the world, the man hangs himself so he wouldn't have to face the truth. Good stuff, very interesting. The album has plenty of good tunes to rock to: title track, "Black Devil" (has one of the best rocking riffs I've heard from King, too bad it's kinda short), "Just A Shadow," "Help," "Catacombs," and very emotional (and story-explaining) "This Place Is Terrible." Short final instrumental, "Peace Of Mind" from LaRocque is also very cute. Definitely one of the year's best.
ABIGAIL II: THE REVENGE (2002)
COMING SOON
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