First of all for the people that dont know this already or people that are new to this page, I AM NOT IN ANY WAY KING DIAMOND, NOR AM I TRYING TO POSE AS KING DIAMOND! Just like you and the rest of the people that have signed up to this page I am a long time fan of the music he has made throughout the years. Who am I? My name is Wayne, I play drums in a band called Phoenix Reign which you can check out here on myspace , or at our official website . Im also working with a production company called By the blood of the rose which also can be seen here on myspace or at its official site . What By the blood of the rose does is help out bands in need. Wheather it be advertising, websites, logos, recording, live video, etc. You name it we can get it done for you. Were not just limited to helping bands either we offer our services for anyone thats interested. So i would definetly check the sites out for more info. Were looking for bands to be on an up and coming compilation cd so if anyone is interested please send me a email. So with all of that said I hope you enjoy this tribute to the KING of metal KING DIAMOND! Please leave comments to the King, hopefully one day he will get to see this page and see how the fans truely feel about him. ALL HAIL KING DIAMOND!
King Diamond began his musical career in 1973 when he entered as a guitarist in a cover band called Brainstorm. He then left this band in 1978 to join another local band called Black Rose, but this time, as a vocalist. In 1980, King left Black Rose to join a punk-metal band called Brats, which featured members Hank Shermann and Michael Denner on guitars and Timi Hansen on bass. After only a few gigs, Brats split. When Danger Zone requested King and Hank's assistance on their demo, it gave a new opportunity for the 4 guys to work together again. Kim Ruzz then entered as the drummer; Mercyful Fate was born. The band then recorded 2 demos. These demos received some attention from the underground tape-trading circuit. Then came the Dutch label Rave-On Records, offering the band their first record deal. In the following September the band recorded and mixed in 4 songs that had to become their classic eponymous EP, also known as Nuns Have No Fun, which came out later that year.
During the summer of 1983, Mercyful Fate got a record deal with Roadrunner Records. It's on this label that their first full length album, Melissa, came out in the following November.
In August 1984, the band released the album Don't Break The Oath, another classic. Sadly, this album had to be the last Mercyful Fate album before their break-up in December 1984. King went on a solo career, bringing with him not only the style of Mercyful Fate, but also 2 of its members: Michael and Timi.
In early 1985, King was looking for 2 additional members to complete the line-up of his new band. drummer Mikkey Dee and guitarist Andy La Rocque. The first recording of the King Diamond band have been released in December of the same year, it was the single No Presents For Christmas. We had to wait up to April 1986 to hear the first full length album of the King Diamond band: Fatal Portrait. Fatal Portrait was not a concept album, but it surely led the way for the following albums.
In 1987, King pushed the idea of concept songs one step further with the album Abigail. This album had to be the first of a long series of concept albums. Shortly after that, the 2 only remaining members of Mercyful Fate (except King, of course) decided to leave. First, Michael Denner He was replaced by Pete Blakk. After that, it was the turn of Timi Hansen to leave The bassist who replaced him, Hal Patino.
In June 1988, "Them" was released. This album got a huge success, mainly due to the hit MTV video Welcome Home. Following that release came a lawsuit from Kiss bassist, Gene Simmons. In fact, Gene thought the make-up King used on the cover of The Dark Sides looked too similar to the one Gene used to wear in the seventies. The lawyers of both parts worked a deal out of court, but however, King had to modify his make-up.
After the release of The Dark Sides, Mikkey decided to leave the band. King was still looking for a new drummer for the recording of his upcoming album, so he hired temporarily Mikkey as a session drummer, but just for the recording sessions only. This album, Conspiracy, finally came out in august 1989, and was the sequel of the story told on "Them". For the upcoming tour, King needed a permanent drummer, so in late 1989, Snowy Shaw entered the band.
Sadly, Roadrunner Records suddenly had a lack of interest in King Diamond and wasn't interested in promoting the album, so no tour followed that release. After the release of "The Eye", Pete and Hal have both been kicked out of the band at the same time. Hal have been replaced by Sharlee D'Angelo while Mike Wead came in to replace Pete. The following year, a live album titled In Concert 1987 - Abigail came out. In 1992, two other compilations have been released. The first one, called A Dangerous Meeting, and second Return Of The Vampire. He then signed with Metal Blade Records. In about the same period of time, King heard, by chance, some new music written by Hank Shermann and Michael Denner. There Hank cogitated the hypothesis of Mercyful Fate gathering again. Everybody agreed to be part of this reunion project, except drummer Kim Ruzz. In early 1993, Mercyful Fate was in studio recording a new album, their first studio album in 9 years. The band was still without a drummer, so a session drummer Morten Nielsen played on this album. The band re-recorded the song Return Of The Vampire '93 with guest drummer Lars Ulrich from Metallica as a bonus track on the album. After the recording sessions, Snowy Shaw moved from King Diamond to be the new Mercyful Fate drummer. Then came out the album, In The Shadows. After the tour ended, Timi left the band definitively. His substitute is King Diamond's bassist, Sharlee D'Angelo.
A live EP recorded during the previous tour have then been released in 1994. This EP, The Bell Witch, was available only for a limited time. Later that year, Mercyful Fate released Time, their second studio album since the reunion. Halfway through the Time tour, Snowy left the band and been replaced by Bjarne T. Holm.
Even though Mercyful Fate reunited, King wanted to keep his solo band running too. After the last King Diamond studio album, "The Eye", the members were Andy La Rocque, Snowy Shaw, Sharlee D'Angelo and Mike Wead. However, Snowy, Sharlee and Mike have already left the band. The 3 new members were Darrin Anthony (drums), Herb Simonsen (guitars) and Chris Estes (bass). Even though this album has been written about 5 years before its release, it came out only early 1995 Entitled the Spiders lullabye.
In early 1996, 2 new albums came out. The first to be released was Mercyful Fate's Into The Unknown. A short while later, during the Into The Unknown tour, Michael Denner left the band to celebrate his second son's birth. Michael asked the band to bring Mike Wead in the band to replace him. Then came out the new King Diamond album, The Graveyard. All the King Diamond albums have stories that touch very deep on the human mind and human nature, but this time, the story touched on a subject that is often taboo: incest. This subject seemed to touched so much King that we often have the feeling its King going insane.
In 1997, Michael Denner told the band he would not come back in the band, so Mike Wead stayed permanently in Mercyful Fate. That same year, drummer Darrin Anthony been victim of a car accident, which forced him to leave the King Diamond band. He have been replaced by John Luke Hebert. The following King Diamond album have been released in February 1998. Originally, this album was meant to be called The Plague, but the more the story grew on, the more King realized the story was too similar to "The Eye", so King decided to put that story aside. While King was looking for a new story for the album, bassist Chris Estes, who was taking courses at the college at this time, talked to King about voodoo. Chris had access to a library where he got King five books about that. After reading all that stuff, King was so fascinated that he made of it the topic of the album. In an interview, King once said that he may write a sequel to Voodoo someday, just like the "Them"/Conspiracy albums. To participate to the album, King asked Pantera's Dimebag Darrell, a friend of him, to play a solo on the title track. Only a few days after the release of Voodoo, Herb left the band. Then came the Canadian guitarist Glen Drover to replace him. For many fans and critics, Voodoo was the best King Diamond album in many years, it was a very-well acclaimed album. Four months later, it was the turn of Mercyful Fate to release its new album, Dead Again.
In June 1999, Mercyful Fate released their album called 9. For the first time, the band decided to modify its logo. With this album, the band wanted to get a heavier sound, just like the Don't Break The Oath album.
After the Mercyful Fate tour following the release of 9, King Diamond entered the studios on January 3rd 2000 for the recording of his upcoming album. Then Chris left for personal reasons. To replace him, John suggested bringing in an old friend of him, David Harbour. In addition of recording his new album, King recorded some vocals on the title track of Necronemesis, the upcoming album of the Chicago-based death metal band Usurper. The new King Diamond album, House Of God, came out in June 2000 and the American tour began on july 20th. A couple of weeks after that, David have been kicked out of the band about 7 months after his arrival. The guy who came in to replace him was someone who was in the band a decade before: Hal Patino. Then left John Luke Hebert on November 8th.Right after John's departure, Glen announced he would leave the band too. Mike Wead told King that he could do the tour if King found no one to fill the spot. King seemed very interested.
In January 2001, drummer Matt Thompson entered the band. Then on February 19th, King released a live album recorded on September 30th 1980 in a concert of his former band, Black Rose. This album was called King Diamond & Black Rose: 20 Years Ago - A Night Of Rehearsal. On the following march 11th, Mike Wead was officially announced to be the replacement of Glen Drover. It's then on may 15th that the recording sessions of the next King Diamond have began. Titled Abigail II: The Revenge, this album is the sequel of the album Abigail, released 14 years ago. The recording process finished in the following september. After a long wait, it was in late January 2002 that Abigail II: The Revenge finally came out. Even though the album sold very well, there were suddenly rumours that there would be no tour following that release. After many months of uncertainty, King Diamond sadly announced officially in the following month of July that there will definitively have no tour to promote this album. During this time, King already wrote another story for his upcoming album. That one is called The Puppet Master, and, as King said, "It will be the most gruesome story to ever leave my sick mind!!!". The story takes place In Budapest, Hungary. It all starts nice and romantic, and then very mysterious and painful, and everything ends in complete and total tragedy, and no one will never guess the ending. There is a song called So Sad, especially designed to bring tears to our eyes. 2004 saw the release of the first live cd since Abigail LIVE. The title of the album is called Deadly Lullabyes. It was recorded during the Puppet Master tour, and featured many songs that havent been heard on an official live cd before. Its a really good representation of everything the band King Diamond has done over the years. Also King himself probably sounds the best in this live album than he has before. Definetly something worth being picked up!
