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Band page - King Diamond
Latest news
| Monday, March 14, 2011 - King Diamond's Wife Issues Health Update | King Diamond's wife, Livia has posted a message online regarding the health of her husband, following his recent triple bypass. Her message reads as follows:
"Hi Everyone,
Some of you have been asking for an update on King's health, so I thought I'll write what's been going on.
King has just finished his cardiac rehabilitation program this past Friday, and graduated with flying colors. Thanks to the wonderful people at the rehab center, his exercise regimen help him gain a lot of muscle, and start on the road of building up good endurance. We will start regular exercises now to get the endurance up to nice levels.The examinations by his heart surgeon and cardiologist revealed that his health is steadily improving, and they all expect him to feel better than ever, 15 years younger than he really is.
I am immensely proud of what he has achieved in these short 3 months, stopped smoking entirely, changed diet and doing regular exercise among other things. I cannot say anything certain about when he will be back working on King Diamond related things, but he is looking forward to finishing the DVDs eventually, and he is most certainly not stopping music.
I hope this information was helpful, I can honestly say that his progress has been nothing short of amazing. He is the strongest person I know.
He would also like to extend his huge gratitude to all of you, for your absolutely amazing support. It has really meant a lot to him.
Cheers and Stay Heavy,
Livia"
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| Tuesday, October 20, 2009 - King Diamond update | King Diamond has issued the following update on the re-releases of "The Spider's Lullabye" and "The Graveyeard" at the official KD forum:
"I've seen a lot of valid questions on our forum regarding the remasters and I think they deserve to be answered by myself.
First of all, it's great to see that you like Andy's improvements on the sound of these remasters. Just wait till you hear House Of God.
The process has been another little nightmare for us to get done the right way. We wanted to have the remastered albums with an included CD-ROM video of a song from the respective album as a bonus. Fortunately, I always thoroughly check our products myself before they go into pressing.
When I got the first two remasters from a US mastering lab, I was sure that they must have done something wrong. The music, which I have stated from the beginning is the absolute most important part of these remasters (not the bonus material) sounded way inferior to what I know Andy did. Also, when checking the CD-ROM footage, it looked horribly grainy and shitty and it had become badly out of synch compared to what I have put together here at home.
After getting in touch with Metal Blade who got in touch with the mastering lab, the message I got back was "we have not changed anything, this is exactly what we got". BUT IT HAD DEFINITELY CHANGED.
We now decided to let Andy himself have a go at adding the CD-ROM bonus footage to the remastered album. I couldn't believe it when I realized Andy's version was identical to the one from the U.S. mastering lab. Metal Blade now checked around with several other mastering labs, asking if this was normal or whether something was done totally wrong on our end. The same answer came back from everybody, that yes, you should expect a quality loss in the music when adding a CD-ROM to the same disk.
At this point, we were about to scrap the whole idea of adding the CD-ROM since there's no way in hell I would sacrifice the great sound Andy had achieved just to have that in there. Tracy at Metal Blade was the one who came up with what I thought was a great idea, to leave the music alone on the disk and then make the bonus footage available as a free download. This would maintain Andy's sound quality and also maintain the quality of the bonus footage since it would not have to be compressed from approximately 1.3 Gigabytes down into a 130 Megabyte file size. So, this way we would be able to provide the best possible quality to all of you for both the album itself and the bonus footage.
This of course meant more work for the label to set up the website where you can find the bonus footage, and was not a budget issue. They did however tell me that the footage would be available for everybody, not just those who bought the album since implementing codes, etc. would be too much too late to get done in time for the release.
My personal view on that is that I have never thought that you should buy the remasters just to get the bonus footage anyway. As you might have noticed, there have never been King Diamond releases with specific bonus tracks added for just certain areas. For example, Japanese labels have several times asked us for exclusive bonus for their releases, which we have always rejected for various reasons, including that I don't see why certain territories should be treated better than others. I hope that answered some of the questions you had regarding the actual material sound and bonus of the remasters.
The following is regarding the artwork.
The intention here was to revamp the inside of the booklets, not the actual covers themselves. A phone call from Metal Blade's artworker assured me it wouldn't be that easy. The entire artwork for Spider's Lullabye and The Graveyard had been lost in a computer meltdown where a lot of old Metal Blade stuff was stored, so we had to start from scratch. As you can imagine, this was a major pain the ass and very time consuming.
Regarding Voodoo and House of God, I was initially told the same and a major search was put in gear to see if Massacre possibly had some of these lost files. Eventually most of the files showed up intact at a Metal Blade search and you will find very little change on the front covers. The back covers have been changed a bit and the insides have been totally revamped which is all what was originally intended.
So there you have it.
The bonus footage that will be available for Voodoo and House of God will be the two title tracks. So all in all, you will eventually have access to four live editions with footage of songs that was not included on our double live CD.
The Spider's Lullabye and The Graveyard remasters are out in the US but will not be released in Europe by Massacre until October 23rd. Massacre's versions will have an inlay card that directs the European fans to Metal Blade's website, which will be the only website where you can find the bonus footage. It made no sense to have a separate site set up with Massacre.
At last, I want to say that work on the King Diamond DVD set is still underway and we're really beginning to make some great progress. This has taken so much longer than expected because of so many technical issues that I won't bore you to death with here, but we recently acquired a brand new noise reduction program that we're using to enhance all the footage, and it's amazing how much better everything is beginning to look compared to the original tapes. I really think you're going to love this stuff once it's done. Gotta get back to this and transcode four different tests for the 1997 Copenhagen VEGA King Diamond show which, if I remember right, is taken from the first show of the King Diamond/Mercyful Fate European double header tour.
Okay, that's it.
Stay Heavy,
King."
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| Friday, September 18, 2009 - King Diamond - The Spiders Lullabye, The Graveyard To Be Reissued In October | News from the official King Diamond website:
king Diamond is quite possibly the most recognizable and prolific personality ever in heavy metal. Revered by icons as big as Metallica and Pantera to inspiring new upstarts like Goatwhore; King Diamond, the man and the band, have left an indelible mark on the history, and now again, the future of heavy metal.
Reissued King Diamond albums The Spider's Lullabye and The Graveyard have both been re-mastered by King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque and are set to be released on October 13th. Each album will include bonus material that purchasers will be able to obtain digitally. Both The Spider's Lullabye and The Graveyard will include live "bootleg" versions (with video footage) of the following songs: 'The Spider's Lullabye' from the album of the same name, and 'Trick Or Treat' and 'Up From The Grave' from The Graveyard.
"Andy LaRocque re-mastered both records and you can really hear more details and sounds that I remember recording but didn't come through in the original mastering. The records have much more bottom end this time around. There's even more details and clarity than the original version and you'll hear things you've never heard before in both releases. Andy did a great job re-mastering and improving these albums above and beyond my expectations. The artwork has also been completely redone for Spiders and Graveyard and is just amazing. I did not expect them to come out this good and am just completely thrilled with the result.
We originally were going to include bonus footage on the albums as a CD-ROM, but the sound and video quality was going to suffer tremendously and that is just unacceptable. Instead, the bonus footage is going to be available for download to those who purchase the albums. The video downloads will be available in multiple formats so everyone can see them" commented King Diamond.
It has also been confirmed that the two King Diamond songs 'Welcome Home' and 'Cremation' will appear on the upcoming videogame, Brutal Legend, scheduled for release in October.
Both King Diamond and MERCYFUL FATE have worked out a deal with C1rca Shoes to have featured artwork on several of their sneakers, the first pair set to arrive in October 2009 with more to follow in 2010. Make sure to keep an eye on the official King Diamond/Mercyful Fate site www.covenworldwide.org for product details and updates.
Expect the first ever DVD from King Diamond as early as the winter 2009 or as late as early 2010.
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| Tuesday, July 14, 2009 - King Diamond - DVD News | King Diamond has issued the following update:
"We've been staying very busy lately. We've had to put the KD/MF DVD projects on the backburner for a little while, but we're back working on that full power now. We'll get to the DVDs at the end of this update.
As some of you might already know, the two re-recorded MERCYFUL FATE songs, 'Evil' and 'Curse Of The Pharaohs' will be available for download tomorrow - Tuesday, July 14th on iTunes, etc. through Metal Blade. Both 'Evil' and 'Curse Of The Pharaohs' were mastered by Andy LaRocque, which makes 'Evil' slightly different sounding from the version you can find on Guitar Hero: METALLICA, which was mastered through Activision.
These two songs will also be available as limited edition 12-inch vinyl picture disk from both Metal Blade and Massacre Records. We were so fortunate to be granted a license by Activision to use a King Diamond image from the Guitar Hero: Metallica videogame on the front, including the use of the Guitar Hero logo. Also Metallica have been very gracious and given us a license to use their logo on the front.
The four remastered King Diamond albums: Spider's Lullabye, The Graveyard, Voodoo, and House Of God, all mastered by Andy LaRocque now have tentative release dates. If all goes well, the first two will be released on October 13th, and the last two on November 10th. The bonus tracks have finally been delivered to the record labels. They will be live versions (with video footage) of the following songs: 'The Spider's Lullabye', 'Trick Or Treat' and 'Up From The Grave', 'Voodoo', 'House Of God'. Cover artwork will be revamped by Metal Blade's art designer Brian Ames.
It has also been confirmed that the two King Diamond songs 'Welcome Home' and 'Cremation' will appear on the upcoming videogame, Brutal Legend, scheduled for release in October.
Both King Diamond and Mercyful Fate have worked out a deal with C1rca Shoes to have featured artwork on several of their sneakers. At this point, C1rca has mentioned a possible release of an 'Abigail' sneaker and a 'Don't Break The Oath' sneaker for this fall. Further approved designs for possible spring 2010 release is 'Them' and '9'.
Regarding the King Diamond double DVD of old improved private video recordings, it should be, if no other unforeseen problems smack us in the face, be ready for release on Halloween or shortly thereafter. I've noticed that some of you have wondered what kind of system we're working on, and also why it has taken this long. Part of it is, as you can see, because we have had other things that had to be dealt with along the way. The other part is a lot of unforeseen problems that has kept on messing with the progress.
The software we use is Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 on a Gateway 2.7 GHz Quad Core computer with 6 Gigabytes of RAM, 650 GB HDD, an Nvidia GeFore 9800GT, and this far, far exceeds the highest system requirements of the Premiere Pro program.
Just to give you an idea of some of the technical problems we've ran into, right off the bat we had problems in the transfer of the source footage into the computer. The old footage was originally recorded on handheld video 8 camcorders with tape. They were transferred to DVD for storage and preservation so many years ago I don't even know when, but a long time ago.
At some point, five or six years ago, I got curious and wanted to take a look at all the material we were in possession of, and the guy that was holding onto all our recordings made some copies for me that I was supposed to be able to see on my NTSC DVD player. When I received them, there was no picture, and horrible sound. Obviously something went wrong and Ole Bang then acquired a system with which he then started to convert all our PAL footage to NTSC. I got those a couple of years ago and they played perfect on my DVD player. That's about the time that the initial idea for this never before seen footage to be made available came about. After a long, long time of negotiations, we finally got to the point where it made sense to go get the equipment and start working on the material. So here is the first problem.
We started out by importing footage into Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and started an NTSC project. All the footage was TALL and the video play extremely choppy. The source video showed up with a frame rate of 25 which is European PAL and simply couldn't be transferred properly to the NTSC standard of 29.97 frames per second.
We contacted Adobe to try and figure out what we were doing wrong, and when we told them that I could play the source DVDs fine on my DVD player and gave them the source specifications (frames per second and the source aspect ratio), they told us that they had never heard of any source footage with those specifications and that I must have a real good DVD player since it could make up for these very odd specifications. They practically told us that it was impossible to do an NTSC project with the strange source video we have, and suggested that we try to convert our already strange video (which is not straight PAL specifications either, it was a bit of both) into straight PAL specifications during the transfer from the original source DVDs into the computer. Then start a PAL project with that.
Solving this first problem took longer than days, more like weeks, since you try all kinds of things yourself first because you think you're the one who doesn't understand what's going on and you keep trying. Then you give up and call the experts and then it's 'try this.' No. 'Try that.' No. 'What about this?' "Wait, I see normal people, but the picture is choppy!" 'Then what about doing this? What does this do?' And finally, yes, we got something here.
This is probably extremely boring but I really wanna try and emphasize that we've not just sat on our lazy asses but have actually run into many of these kind of problems. I'll skip all the in-between, and tell you about the last wall we ran into.
Transferring bonus footage for the 4 KD remasters, the DVD converter we had used practically just ceased to exist. We must have overlooked some of the small print when we downloaded this one which worked really, really good, and now we sat with a message saying it expired. Our mistake. We did find the DVD conversion program again, but could not reinstall it since it was registered in our computer's brain as being expired. Then we started searching for another similar conversion program, and found one which we now can make work, but at first we wasted a couple of days trying to find out why everything we brought into the computer had no sound with it, and the picture was tall again. For some reason the program would not bring MP3 files into Premiere Pro CS3, which makes no sense. But by trial and error, we found some settings through AC3, which is my understanding relates to surround sound, which is certainly not what we had, but somewhere else in this converter program we found a way to make the AC3 only run through two channels. Sound problem solved.
With this new program it was not obvious what the source aspect ratios were, and we had to go through a couple of menus to find it, and find the place where we could change it. For those of you who know about aspect ratios, one source disk was 702x576, another was 704x576 etc. etc. (normal PAL should be 720x576). I was not there when all this footage originally was transferred to DVDs but something obviously went wrong. This whole DVD adventure has been like picking something that's wrong apart and then try to put it back again in a form where it would play as if it was right.
To be quite honest, I'm amazed that I have not given up this DVD project yet. I don't think I can even count how many times I have said, that's it. I fucking had enough of this shit, this piss just doesn't want to work. But in the end I'm sure it will all have been worth the while. You guys really need to see some of this stuff. It certainly has given me a lot of great entertainment to see again.
I WANNA THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PATIENCE WITH THESE DVD PROJECTS (the Mercyful Fate should be ready by Christmas or very early next year).
Stay Heavy,
King Diamond"
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| Friday, March 13, 2009 - News from King Diamond | News from the official King Diamond website:
Hail to you all Diamond Bangers,
Recently I talked to King so he could give us the latest update.
Here's the latest news we have for you.
As you all know 80% of the original Mercyful Fate line-up (King, Hank, Michael and Timi) re-recorded with present MF drummer Bjarne T. Holm two ultimate Mercy classics for the upcoming Metallica Guitar Hero game.
For those who aren't into gaming it's interesting to know that those two songs ('Evil' and 'Curse Of The Pharaohs') will be released on I-Tunes round mid April.
Also interesting to know that Andy mastered these two tracks for a possible EP-picture, released by Metal Blade and Massacre.
At this moment King is working on both Mercyful Fate and King Diamond DVD's. Both releases will contain 2 DVD's and according to King it will be worth the wait as it has some very exclusive content which surely no one outside the band has ever seen.
King has been working on the following concerts. Please note content of the DVD's might change. Concerts mentioned here might after all not appear on the DVD.
Mercyful Fate DVD:
Copenhagen 1982 with Benny Petersen
Amsterdam Paradiso 1984
Copenhagen 1984
Reunion MF 1993
Roskilde Festival 1994
Copenhagen 1995
King Diamond DVD:
Washington 1986
1987 supporting Motorhead
Show footage 1989 USA + backstage footage
Full 1990 concert Spain Euro Conspiracy tour
Behind the scenes 1990 Conspiracy
Kopenhagen concert in the Park 1990 with 5 cameras
Also remastered King Diamond CD's are in the works. Those albums have, next to the new masters, also 1 or 2 bonus video tracks. The bonus tracks shouldn't be the reason to buy the albums according to King. The sound is so much better than it ever was. That should be reason to buy it. I know I would buy them King claims.
Remastered CD's released with video bonus footage (might be one or two songs)
The Spider's Lullabye
The Graveyard
House Of God
Voodoo
This coming Autumn might be the time to start writing new songs for King Diamond, and who knows if our involvement in Guitar Hero will raise our value to the record labels enough for a new Mercyful Fate record. Only time will tell, let's all cross our fingers (the unholy way) King says.
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| Wednesday, January 7, 2009 - News from King Diamond | King Diamond has issued the following update:
"Hail to all of you. King Diamond here. First of all, hope you had a nice Christmas and New Year's Eve.
I'm writing this in order to set the facts straight with regards to the interview I did for a Danish newspaper just before Christmas. When I read the article it became obvious that this particular journalist had an agenda of his own. At least half the article was false, twisting the facts to suit his 'agenda.'
First of all, Livia and I have no plans for having kids in the near future. We certainly love kids but it doesn't fit in our working schedule at this point. I don't know where the journalist got this thing from, but we do appreciate all the nice words you had regarding this subject even though it's not true. Also, Livia and I do not look forward to Christmas like little kids every year. It's a cozy time, sure, but again the journalist's choice of word are completely twisted.
Just for your info, the Christmas tree in the picture is the only Christmas decoration inside or outside our house and it stays up year round cause I don't want to bother taking it down and it looks pretty cool. Check the goat skull right next to the tree. I can see that if I open the door to my private life just a tiny bit, things quickly get twisted out of context, and that's why in the past I have always kept my private life and business very separate.
The second rumour that's floating around, which is that MERCYFUL FATE has started writing new material, I really have no idea where it originated from.
The present status of Mercyful Fate remains unchanged, meaning that we have not started writing new material. For that to happen, Mercyful Fate's recording contracts have to be renegotiated first. We certainly would love for this to happen so that we can finally make our long overdue 'masterpiece'. Both Hank and I are ready to go if that scenario presents itself, and who knows, that might happen this year.
So..... for this year, you will see a double DVD of old private King Diamond video recordings and a double DVD of old private Mercyful Fate video recordings which I am working on as we speak. Andy has finished remastering The Graveyard, Spider's Lullabye, Voodoo, and House Of God, all of which should also be available this year. And then there is 'the big surprise' (not little King babies with horns on their foreheads or Mercyful Fate writing new songs, at least not as we speak) but something that could lead to renegotiations of the Mercyful Fate recording deals. We'll see. Be patient.....
On a personal note, I do feel reasonably confident that the Mercyful Fate masterpiece will see the light of day.
Stay heavy, you are the best!!"
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| Saturday, July 26, 2008 - King Diamond update | King diamond has issued the following update:
"Hail to all of you,
Now that it's been made official, yes, I will participate in the tribute to "Dimebag" at OZZFest. It's an honor to have been asked to participate, and my back is steadily getting better, definitely good enough for a short appearance, and it couldn't be for a better cause.
I live only 7 minutes by car from the soccer stadium where OZZFest takes place, so there is no way in hell I would miss this opportunity to pay tribute to "Dimebag".
I do have to say though, that my back is not yet fit to undertake a full King Diamond tour.
I know it sounds like I'm saying the same thing over and over 'my back is steadily getting better', but let me assure you all that it is significantly better and really getting stronger and stronger week by week!!! There is nothing I'd rather do than get back on the road, but it has to be for good and not just for a week or two and then find out that we took a stupid chance by doing it too soon.
A few other good news: Massacre Records have taken their option for another King Diamond album. Negotiations with Metal Blade Records to extend the King Diamond recording deal has been completed, and are practically ready to be signed. Further, contracts between King Diamond and MERCYFUL FATE, and Metal Blade Records and Massacre Records have been agreed upon and are almost ready to be signed for a double DVD of King Diamond and a double DVD of Mercyful Fate, consisting of mainly never before seen private recordings in very high quality (King Diamond 1986-1990; Mercyful Fate 1982-1984). If all goes well, the King Diamond DVD set might hit the stores before the end of this year and the Mercyful Fate DVD set would probably hit the stores early next year.
Another project we've been working on is to create remastered versions of The Spider's Lullabye and The Graveyard, plus Voodoo and House Of God. Andy La Rocque is undertaking this project at his Sonic Train Studio in Sweden, and so far I have heard his version of The Spider's Lullabye and it kicks some serious ass. It was as if I was listening to a brand new album, it sounded exactly like it should have sounded back when it was released (we did not at that time master our albums ourselves, and let me tell you, they suffered by it). For the first time ever, I heard all the things we actually recorded (certain vocal harmonies and guitar overdubs; all the details are there now). In my opinion, this one is gonna be a MUST HAVE. You know I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true. Andy has just told me that the remastered version of The Graveyard is in the mail for my approval. Once I've listened to it, I'll let you know how it turned out.
There is another project in the making which I unfortunately cannot speak about yet. If it comes true though, it will be a very big thing for King Diamond/Mercyful Fate. It is not a new Mercyful Fate album or tour, but it is something that could be very big for us. It is more like being a part of someone else's VERY BIG project, and which can only be announced by them.
As you can probably see, I have not been lying on my back the entire time since I last wrote to you.
Before I finish, I sincerely want to thank you all for the unreal support you give us. You are by far THE BEST!!!
Stay Heavy, King.
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| Sunday, November 25, 2007 - King Diamond Issues Statement Regarding North American Tour Cancellation | King Diamond has issued the following statement to his fans:
"As you know by now, it has been necessary to postpone the US tour due to the slow healing of my herniated disc.
I want to thank everyone for being so understanding under the circumstances, and for all the well wishes. It just shows me that we have the best fans any band could wish for.
I also very much appreciate the support and understanding I have received from all the people involved with the business side of the band, such as all the promoters, our booking agent, record label, our crew and of course the band members.
The facts are that at this point there was only about 10% chance that everything would work out as planned, and 90% chance that my back would not be completely healed in time for the tour. It could have cost a possible cancellation within the first week or so, resulting in damaging my back beyond repair, and an early end to my career and health.
Therefore the only thing that made sense was to postpone all touring activities until my back has completely healed.
"Rather postpone the US tour now and have the career run another 8-10 years (look at Dio, Alice Cooper, etc. still going strong), than take a chance where both health and career might be over within half a year."
Even though I know the situation is out of my control, I can't help but feel that this whole thing is my fault. It really just plain SUCKS, but I promise we'll make it up to all of you.
I just want to let you know that the healing process has not stopped. It IS still getting better, and I am personally confident that it will heal 100% given the time it needs (hopefully six months rather than a full year, but who knows). I am still putting 100% effort into speeding up this whole process, and I can't wait to get back to a decent normal life.
Again, I really want to personally thank you all for the understanding and all the well wishes.
Stay Heavy,
King"
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| Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - King Diamond - European tour postponed | News from the King Diamond camp:
Hi all.
Most regretfully I have to inform you that the King Diamond Europe tour will have to be postponed.
King has over the past month and a half, been suffering from severe pain in his back, and following several visits to doctors, specialists and most recently an MRI-scan; he has been diagnosed a herniated disc in the spine, and prescribed absolute rest for several months.
Failure to follow the doctors orders, will cause irreparable damage to his spine, and for obvious reasons there is no way he can go on tour and perform, with all the travel and physical activities this would include.
We expect King to recover fully after a prolonged period of rest, and we are determined to re-schedule the tour dates, not cancel the tour.
Further details of the re-schedule of the Europe tour will be given here as soon as possible.
Since we will need some time to reschedule, the ticket's already purchased will be refunded the way this is usually done.
Don't rush the ticket issuer right away; give it a few days - they only got this information today - some might not know till tomorrow !
The US-tour will not be affected by this. All should be well by early 2008.
One way or another you will soon have a couple of words from King directly.
He is currently completing interviews, but at a much slower pace than normally, but he will of course make time for you here at the Coven.
Repeat visits to the coven worldwide page for accurate and up to date information.
Best regards
Ole Bang
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| Sunday, March 4, 2007 - King Diamond album news | News from The Coven Worldwide - The official King Diamond website:
Hello to all you Diamond bangers.
I just got off the phone with King. We talked about two hours and he gave me some very exclusive info about the forthcoming King Diamond CD. King told me he had just finished recording the vocals which he had been doing for the last 4 week about six hours a day.
In the next 3 weeks King and Andy will be mixing and mastering the album (starting Monday the 5th).
Is this better than The Puppet Master I asked him. King started laughing and explained it as follows: we tried to get our drivers license for twenty years and now we finally got it. We passed the test! It's the best album ever definitely, there is no doubt about that for sure. Even the work mix sounds better than any album yet. The music and story are great. I am sure these are my best vocals yet. Andy said to me that he not played solos like this since The Eye. Mike told me he has never been so inspired to do solos as on this album. And yes Livia is on the album too!
King said to me: I guarantee you this is the best album yet I am positive about it. Its more King Diamond there have ever been. It has the best King Diamond top class through the whole album. The story is very dark, perhaps one of the darkest I have ever done before.
King mentioned the intro to the album is a 'real' intro again, like where Midnight (from "The Puppet Master") was more of a pre-song .
Want to get a little taste of what you might expect from the lyrics? Here you go:
Me and my black cat Magic, the beautiful house on Never Ending Hill, the little girl in the bloody dress and her dead little brother, the dark, the floating head woman, shapes of black and YOU
The cover represents a little girl standing on a winding stairs in a white dress covered with blood (which actually is the blood from her little brother). I have seen the unfinished cover and I'll just know you're gonna love it! King also said that the front cover will look like a mirror.
The album will probably be released late June / beginning of July. Nothing is certain yet but it looks that way. The album will be titled:
GIMME YOUR SOUL . PLEASE
The CD contains 13 tracks and the song titles are as follows:
1 THE DEAD (King)
2 NEVER ENDING HILL (Andy)
3 IS ANYBODY HERE? (King)
4 BLACK OF NIGHT (Andy)
5 MIRROR, MIRROR (King)
6 THE CELLAR (Andy)
7 PICTURES IN RED (Andy)
8 GIMME YOUR SOUL (King)
9 THE FLOATING HEAD (Andy)
10 COLD AS ICE (King)
11 SHAPES OF BLACK (King)
12 THE GIRL IN THE BLOODY DRESS (King)
13 MOVING ON (King)
As soon as we have more info, like a release date we will let you know on the CWW website.
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| Thursday, April 21, 2005 - King Diamond vocal problems | Some disturbing King Diamond news from www.bravewords.com:
King Diamond suffered more vocal problems in New York last night as the legend was performing at BB Kings for the second night in a row. His first show on Tuesday (19th) was "rough" in terms of vocals according to BW&BK sources. Prior to last night's performance, King hit the stage before the show and told the crowd, "Anybody who wants a refund can do so as I won't be able to do the falsetto tonight." The show's promoter comes on and says the same, although most fans stay. The King Diamond set was quite different and the band were joined by a female vocalist in the wings (visible, not highlighted) who handled all the high parts while King struggled through an abbreviated set. More news on King Diamond's condition as it develops.
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| Tuesday, August 3, 2004 - King Diamond tour update | A word from King Diamond on the postponed European tour:
A lot of rumours (as usual) have been going on since we've learned that the European King Diamond Tour has been postponed. One of the more ridiculous ones we've heard was the one that King's health is very poor. This is absolutely NOT TRUE. Read what King has to say ...
The ONLY reason for postponement of the Euro-Tour, is that my immigration/ naturalization process with the US-government is taking longer than expected, and this procedure prevents me from leaving the country. I already missed the first test, and had to reschedule it, due to being on tour last November. This rescheduled test has still not taken place, and If I for some reason miss it, I will have to start the whole procedure all over again.
The reason for this taking so long, is probably because of all the extra precautions and checks the US-government has to take in these times of TERRORISM.
So.... in order to not waste any time, songwriting for the next King- album will start in a couple of weeks, and if everything goes without any problems, we might have the music recorded right before X-mas. Vocals would then be put down in January, and then who knows what ???? Mix the album??? Tour ??? Where ??? That I can't see in my crystal ball. BUT, one thing is for sure, a European tour should happen next year.
Until then, I hope the fans will enjoy the double LIVE-album.
By the way, my health is excellent !!!!!!!!!
King
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| Sunday, July 11, 2004 - King Diamond live album | King Diamond has mastered and mixed the new double live album "Deadly Lullabyes" together with guitarist Andy La Rocque and so far, the scheduled release date is set for the 21st of September.
Full 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
11. The Puppet Master
12. Blood To Walk
13. So Sad
14. Living Dead "Outro"
15. Welcome Home
16. The Invisible Guests
17. Burn
18. "Introductions"
19. Halloween
20. No Presents For Christmas
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| Tuesday, December 16, 2003 - King Diamond live album in 2004 | King Diamond recorded several shows during their recent U.S. tour and are currently in Sweden at guitarist Andy LaRocque's studio (Los Angered) outside Gothenburg listening to the tracks and deciding what to use towards a possible live CD. "The recordings sound great and a live album should be finished next year," drummer Matt Thompson said in a recent online posting. "We will tour Europe in 2004 if all goes as planned."
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| Thursday, April 10, 2003 - King Diamond news | According to a recent studio update, guitarist Andy La Rocque has just returned home to Sweden after completing recording his tracks for the new King Diamond album The Puppet Master. The album is slotted for release in late October and will have a bonus DVD or CDR of King Diamond telling the story of The Puppet Master.
As King describes it: "The rules of censorship are being thrown out the window...this is going to be the rawest story/album we have ever done. If you are into horror; you're definitely going to get it with this album!"
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| Wednesday, January 29, 2003 - King Diamond Prepare To Record 'The Puppet Master' | King Diamond have finished writing 12 songs for their next studio album, "The Puppet Master", tentatively due in October through Metal Blade Records. According to the band's official web site, "King wrote nine songs this time and finished writing the music for those songs about two weeks ago. Andy LaRocque contributed three songs. So most likely there will be 12 songs on the album. However there is a slight possibility a short instrumental song might make it on the album. That is not confirmed at the moment.
"This time there will be no typical intro but an intro song which will be around two minutes and is entitled 'The Sailor' which ends with the words 'Let The Show Begin' before kicking in with the title track.
"The new songs sound very aggressive but still have a lot of theatrical elements in it," King said. "Expect a lot of double kicks in the songs I wrote."
Also included on the album will be "a very sad, sad song (probably entitled 'So Sad'), which has very intense guitar playing on it," according to the web site. "King also said drummer Matt Thompson contributed a guitar riff on one of the songs. In addition, on one of the songs, 'The Little Drummer Boy' theme is used. Further news is that Andy will arrive on February 27th in Dallas where he and King will start recording the songs. Hal Patino will arrive about three weeks later."
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| Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - King Diamond | After the release of "Abigail II: The Revenge" King Diamond has returned to Massacre Records. The new album "The Puppet Master" will hit the stores beginning of 2003. Also Mercyful Fate have signed a record deal with Massacre Records, the yet untitled new album is scheduled to be released next year.
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It will be possible to add comments when we have added more information. | Articles on this site
Album Review - The Puppet Master
(Steen)
Album Review - The Puppet Master
(Tommy)
Album Review - The Eye
(Steen)
Album Review - Deadly Lullabyes Live
(Tajs)
Album Review - "Them"
(Tommy)
Event - Live with Loch Vostok and Secret Sphere at Train, Aarhus - April 17, 2006
(Tajs)
Event - Live with Loch Vostok and Secret Sphere at Tobakken, Esbjerg - April 15th, 2006
(Tommy)
Album Review - Give Me Your Soul.... Please
(Steen)
Album Review - Conspiracy
(Steen)
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