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King Diamond was formed from the ashes of Mercyful Fate
and named after the band's vocalist. King Diamond is musically similar to Mercyful
Fate but for the most part they drop the 'all hail ye Satan' lyrics for
concepts based on bizarre, fictional stories.
King Diamond-Them (Roadrunner) 1988
1. "Out from the Asylum" (1:44)
2. "Welcome Home" (4:35)
3. "The Invisible Guests" (5:03)
4. "Tea" (5:13)
5. "Mother's Getting Weaker" (4:01)
6. "Bye, Bye Missy" (5:07)
7. "A Broken Spell" (4:07)
8. "The Accusation Chair" (4:20)
9. " 'Them' " -instrumental (1:55)
10. "Twilight Symphony" (4:08)
11. "Coming Home" (1:12)
12. "Phone Call" (1:39)
13. "The Invisible Guests" -demo/instrumental (
14. "Bye, Bye Missy" -demo/instrumental (
Hailed by most as King Diamond's best concept disc. Never having been a big fan of King's and only recently picking up a few of his discs, I can see why he created such a stir. His combination of chilling stories along with his haunting vocals and excellent technical heavy metal is downright awesome. The story is told in the first-person with King as a nine year old boy. King has an evil/mentally-ill grandmother who burns his sister Missy alive in the fireplace and later dies, or so King thinks. My particular copy of this album is a recent re-issue with two bonus tracks; the demo/instrumental versions of "The Invisible Guests" and "Bye, Bye Missy." The re-release packaging includes lyrics, a short biography, photos and the disc itself is gold.
King Diamond-The Spider's Lullabye (Metal Blade) 1995
1."From the Other Side" (3:47)
2."Killer" (4:14)
3."The Poltergeist" (4:27)
4."Dreams" (4:37)
5."Moonlight" (4:30)
6."Six Feet Under" (4:02)
7."The Spider's Lullabye" (3:40)
8."Eastmann's Cure" (4:30)
9."Room 17" (8:17)
10."To the Morgue" (5:00)
Gotta admit I was a big Mercyful Fate fan back in '85 but upon becoming a Christian a few years later, I avoided both King Diamond and Mercyful Fate like the plague due to King's religious association and his continual mocking of Christianity. I only recently checked out any of his solo music on the advice of a friend who assured me the lyrical themes were more based on fictional stories in similar to H.P. Lovecraft. I'm not sure if the entire album is a concept or not, but a majority of the songs are a creepy tale of an arachniphobic named Harry who is taken to Devil Lake Sanitarium where they were to cure his head. They did so by strapping him to a bed and putting spiders on him, but they failed to remove one poisonous spider. This one spider laid eggs in the back Harry's neck which killed him. After laying him to rest in the morgue, the spider hatches and thousands of poisonous spiders are unleashed. Sort of reminds me of Alice Cooper's 'Welcome to My Nightmare" a bit. Musically King Diamond don't stray from the formula of true metal that they created for themselves. Tons of killer solos and of course, those haunting falsetto vocals of King himself.
King Diamond-Voodoo (Metal Blade) 1998
1. "Louisiana Darkness" (1:43)
2. "'LOA' House" (5:33)
3. "Life After Death" (5:40)
4. "Voodoo" (4:34)
5. "A Secret" (4:04)
6. "Salem" (5:18)
7. "One Down Two to Go" (3:45)
8. "Sending of Dead" (5:40)
9. "Sarah's Night" (3:22)
10. "The Exorcist" (4:52)
11. "Unclean Spirits" (1:49)
12. "Cross of Baron Samedi" (4:29)
13. "If They Only Knew" (0:32)
14. "Aftermath" (1:39)
A freebee disc that was thrown in with a trade I did on-line. Gotta say, the music on this disc is excellent heavy metal, and King's vocals are very cool. The guy has the most haunting falsetto voice in the world, especially on songs like "Life After Death" where the vocals are just layered on top of each other. Not sure about the story on this one. As far as I can tell it's a story about some girl named Sarah who gets mixed up in witchcraft and then tries to get out. Anyhow, the disc came without a back insert so if anyone has this that would be willing to scan me the back inlay, I'd sure appreciate it.