King Diamond - Deadly Lullabyes Live
I remember a few years back when I saw King Diamond live on the House of God tour. I remember this as a fantastic concert with King giving everything of himself with a great band behind him and an amazing show to back up the music. I remember how amazing it was to see King live on stage after so many years of listening to his albums. But so far there hasn't really been any ways to hear him live on cd. I mean, the old Abigail live cd from 1987 was okay when you just wanted to hear what he was like live, but the sound quality wasn't really that good and it was very much a live album with plenty of mistakes and improvisations.

But now King has finally released another live cd. Deadly Lullabyes - Live is a double live cd which covers the The Puppet Master tour, meaning that there is both songs from Abigail II and The Puppet Master on it since there was no tour to support Abigail II. So the first cd is mostly about Abigail, both the first and the second part while the second cd mostly is about The Puppet Master.

To review this cd I found the old King Diamond in Concert 1987 - Abigail cd on my shelf, dusted it off (haven't heard this one for ages...) and listened to it. There are a few songs that are on both cds. The intro to Abigail opens up both live cds and No Presents for Christmas is also last track on each of them. The first thing you notice when the show really starts with A Mansion in the Darkness, is the close to perfect sound quality. Both guitars are crystal clear, the bass solid beneath them and the drums are clear in the picture without taking up too much space. And luckily, the 80's reverb on everything is gone now, compared to the old one. King's voice must be a chapter for itself in all books about metal. I don't know how old the guy is, but his voice is as strong as ever and he has no problems at all to do his falsetto singing, even the stuff that goes all the way into the stratosphere. The vocals on the cd are very clear in the picture. All of Kings different voices come beautifully through to the listener.

Guitarists Mike Wead and Andy La Rocque turn out to be a perfect match. I know that some people would have preferred a more rock-and-roll guitarist to complement the virtous Andy but for me it doesn't get much better than these two. The cd has been mixed so that Andy is only in the right speaker while Mike is in the left one. This way you can easily hear who is soloing now and who is playing rythm guitar. This makes it easy to catch the differences in style between the two players. I also like that they actually change to acoustic guitars for the quiet parts of the songs. This gives the cd an even bigger variation. I can go on talking about these two guitarists for a long, long time. On the Abigail live cd, they were just playing around which in the end made it sound kind of sloppy, but on this one, they have grown up. Here they play about as tight as on the Puppet Master cd. If for nothing else, then buy this cd to hear how guitarists are supposed to play live.

The setlist here is pretty good. I mean, with so many cds out, King would have to put out a 5-double live cd to please everyone. There are a few songs here I would definitely have traded for some other songs, but songs like Eye of the Witch and Burn from The Eye, all the songs from Abigail, the last song No Presents for Christmas and all the songs from The Puppet Master are fantastic. I could have lived without songs like Spare This Life, Mansion in Sorrow and Spirits from Abigail II and would probably have chosen another song from The Puppet Master than Blood to Walk. But I guess it's difficult to make everybody happy.

This is without a doubt one of the best live cds I have ever heard. The sound is just as good as on The Puppet Master, the musicians play tight as hell, the setlist is great and King sings as good as ever. And they even have the female singer Livia Zita from The Puppet Master on stage too. If you are a King Diamond fan, this is the live cd you have been waiting for, so run out and buy it. I hope that King will record a live DVD on his next tour, so that I can relive his show again and again forever and ever and ever... or at least for some years.

Written by Tajs
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Show all reviews by Tajs

Ratings

Tajs: 666/10

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RevelationZ Comments


Comment by Mads J. (Anonymous) - Thursday, November 11, 2004
Ahhh, damned I would like to get my hands on this one (as you said, the old live album is kind of rusty and KD-bootlegs have always had a terrible sound, for some reason.)

Personally I miss a lot of songs off of the Fatal Portrait album, but then again, can't have it all!

Must say this review surely increses my appetite for some live KD! Get your ass over here King...asap!!! We've waited long enough for that European tour :)


Comment by Mads Aanum (Anonymous) - Thursday, November 11, 2004
This live album is really cool, I enjoy it very much, only minus is the fact that there are so few newer King Diamond tracks from the Voodoo and House of God era... but a ok bunch of live tracks...


Comment by Tajs (Anonymous) - Thursday, November 11, 2004
Yes, there could have been a song or two from House of God, Voodoo or The Graveyard or maybe even The Spider's Lullabye. And maybe some earlier ones. As I said, there are some tracks here I could have lived without, but most of the setlist is very good. Now we just need a new tour and a dvd!


Comment by abradom (Anonymous) - Monday, December 13, 2004
yeah it s fucking good live sound is always best guitars fucks a lot


Comment by Ronny Saez (Anonymous) - Sunday, February 26, 2006
no hay palabras para definir a este maestro de maestros, como lo es king diamond,......espero alguna vez verlo en chile,.......auqneu cuando vaya a canada,...espero que toque en algun lugar,....porque ahi no me lo pierdo nicagando.


chauuuuuuuuuuuuu desde chile,.valparaiso,.playa ancha











Review by Tajs
None

Released by
Massacre Records - 2004

Tracklisting
1. Funeral
2. A Mansion In Darkness
3. The Family Ghost
4. Black Horsemen
5. Spare This Life
6. Mansion In Sorrow
7. Spirits
8. Sorry Dear
9. Eye Of The Witch
10. Sleepless Nights

Disc 2
1. The Puppet Master
2. Blood To Walk
3. So Sad
4. Living Dead "Outro"
5. Welcome Home
6. The Invisible Guests
7. Burn
8. Introductions
9. Halloween
10. No Presents For Christmas


Style
Horror Metal

Related links
Visit the band page

King Diamond - Official Website

Other articles
The Puppet Master - (Steen)

The Puppet Master - (Tommy)

The Eye - (Steen)

"Them" - (Tommy)

Live with Loch Vostok and Secret Sphere at Train, Aarhus - April 17, 2006 - (Tajs)

Live with Loch Vostok and Secret Sphere at Tobakken, Esbjerg - April 15th, 2006 - (Tommy)

Give Me Your Soul.... Please - (Steen)

Conspiracy - (Steen)



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Ratings
1 - Horrifying
2 - Terrible
3 - Bad
4 - Below average
5 - Average
6 - Good
7 - Very good
8 - Outstanding
9 - Genius
10 - Masterpiece
666 - Unrated

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