King Diamond's latest release finds itself struggling to reach the heights of many of his best albums. That said it is still a great album and a testament to the quality of his past works, most of which are classics. A
King Diamond album usually delivers a truckload of brilliant guitar work, strong melodic hooks, a horror story and one of the craziest and most impressive voices in the business (an acquired taste perhaps). You can check all those boxes as this is still the case with Give Me Your Soul....Please.
Yet, a few things are different this time.
King's vocal performance is good, but not as spine tingling as usual. King uses what I call his "Soft falsetto" much more than usual. Unfortunately his insanely highpitch voice a.k.a. "The Grand falsetto" only peeps out a few times.
I don't find the story as interesting as usual. It is strangely charming, but compared to many other King stories nothing much happens and it takes a while to get going. I guess the album fails to create that claustrophobic atmosphere that would have been necessary to draw me in.
This could be due to a few lyric passages which are plain bad. Notably the lines
"Black Cat Magic is down by the lake" in
Never Ending Hill,
"Auu... Auu... something hit me on the head" in
Black of Night and
"In comes Daddy, he's in a rage. Screaming and yelling, he's not very nice" from
Give me your soul.
By no means enough to ruin the album, but enough to crack open the atmosphere.
Musically everything is tight and superbly played. The album peaks midway through with
The Cellar and
Give me your soul. Two absolutely brilliant songs.
The Cellar has a stunning melodyline that will haunt you for a while. The song evolves superbly, speeding up halfway through and unite guitar and vocals in a great way.
Give me your soul opens with a truly stirring riff which has a most excellent way of rising intensely. One listen to this song and I was walking around humming
"Give me your soul" for several weeks. That chorus is vintage
King Diamond.
Black of night has a very cool opening with a slight mystical vibe as a wicked guitar melody plays.
Mirror Mirror has a great break near the middle and shatters the rather grandfatherly home alone vibe the album has till this point.
Cold as Ice successfully brings a desperate note to the atmosphere and
Shapes of Black continues this with the great image conjurer
"I'm dressed in black, with my stick and hat".
The girl in the bloody dress and
Moving on effectively close the album with a not too surprising twist.
Livia is back and pops up for several harmonies and small passages, always a welcome addition. As was the case with The Puppet Master several "ghosts from the past" appear in both lyrics and music, just not as often this time around.
"Give me your soul...Please" positions itself in the middle of the KD 12-pack behind personal favorites like Them , Conspiracy, The Eye, The Puppet Master, House of God and Abigail. It is not a new classic, but it is a strong, high quality release that serves both as a gentle introduction to The King for new fans and as a pleasing acquaintance for the old. He is still among us, and obviously in very good shape. So go out and buy THIS album!
Written by
Steen Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Show all reviews by SteenRatingsSteen: 7/10Members: 7/10 - Average of 1 ratings.
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Rating: 7/10
Abigail, in my opinion, it's King's best record.
Mikkey Dee's playing on Abigail is just ... · Read more · |
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