Year : 2015
Style : Heavy Metal
Country : Denmark
Audio : 320 kbps + scans
Size : 253 mb
Info:
Kim Bendix Petersen (born 14 June 1956, Copenhagen, Denmark),better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Grammy Award nominated Danish heavy metal musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his extensive vocal range, in particular his usage of falsetto. He is the lead vocalist for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond.King Diamond's first heavy rock band was called Brainstorm (1974–76), with Jeanette Blum (Jean Blue) vocal and bass, Michael Frohn (Mike West) guitar and Jes Jacobsen (Jesse James) drums. King Diamond left Brainstorm and began singing with local Danish hard rock band Black Rose. It was during this time in Black Rose that King Diamond began experimenting with horror themed theatrics as well as shaping a malevolent quasi-Satanic stage persona. he left Black Rose and joined the punk-metal band Brats where he met Hank Shermann. Soon after, the two of them were asked to help Michael Denner (also formerly a member of Brats) with his own project Danger Zone. This band included Timi Hansen and the mentioned musicians would join with King Diamond in 1980 to become Mercyful Fate.Following Mercyful Fate's 1984 release of Don't Break the Oath and the subsequent tour (which saw them play in the U.S. for the first time), King Diamond split ways with Mercyful Fate. With him, he took two of his bandmates (Hansen and Denner) to pursue a solo career under his own name.Mercyful Fate reunited in 1992 (while King Diamond simultaneously continued his solo career) and recorded five more studio albums. In 2000, King decided to put Mercyful Fate on hold and continue on with his solo career. Though Mercyful Fate continues to remain dormant, the band is still under contract with Metal Blade Records. Also in 1999, King Diamond and Hank Shermann performed the song Evil with Metallica live. This performance also has King Diamond without his famous makeup. In recent interviews, King Diamond has stated that Mercyful Fate will record and tour again when the timing is right, saying "It's definitely not finished.In 2001, King Diamond worked out a deal with the band Usurper to sing backup vocals on the song "Necronemesis" in exchange for them shifting their recording schedule around to accommodate the recording of Abigail II: The Revenge. In 2004, King Diamond contributed vocals to "Sweet Dreams", which was the final track on the album of Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project Probot. In late 2005, King Diamond appeared on the Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions album, contributing vocals for his song "In the Fire", which featured multiple Roadrunner Records musicians (past and present) working together to create individual songs. King Diamond also guested on the Cradle of Filth song "Devil Woman" in late 2005.
Album:
Most metal fans know the Dane Kim Bendix Petersen by a different name than his birth name, but most of us have at least heard of him. Many of us respect his work greatly and consider it a part of our induction into heavy metal, although this was of course when he was the singer in Mercyful Fate, a band which was hugely influential on not bands like Metallica, Slayer and Pantera, but also a multitude of black metal bands.King Diamond and the rest of Mercyful Fate created music, which has gone into metal history and is consistently admired by musicians and fans alike, but to be honest, I always liked his solo albums better than the Mercyful stuff. To me, it was less shrill, had a darker expression. I think ‘Abigail’ (1987), ‘Them’ (1988) and ‘Conspiracy’ (1989) by far are the best albums King has released over the years, although ‘Don’t Break the Oath’ is also a tremendous album in my humble opinion.Metal Blade Records are now reissuing King Diamond’s 1995 effort ‘The Spider’s Lullabye’, re-mastered by King’s trustful aide, Andy LaRocque, just in time for the Christmas trees out there. The release includes four demo versions from the Spider’s sessions.‘The Spider’s Lullabye’ never was one of my favourite King Diamond albums. This is not due to the album being bad. Not at all. The explanation should probably be found in the directions of my interests around 1995. Fear Factory were big for me. Type O Negative, Cathedral, Life of Agony, Carcass, Death, Deicide, Faith No More, Morbid Angel, White Zombie, Moonspell, Paradise Lost and Trouble. These bands took up most of my ear-space. I still loved the releases I mentioned above, but I didn’t seek out King Diamond the same way I’d done six or seven years before, although I did purchase the disc, collector as I was/am.Listening to the album again, you can’t deny the fact that King and LaRocque are strong composers. There is a foundational craftsmanship, which is simply in place in everything they do. Not all songs have the catchy element you’d want, and perhaps you don’t agree with King’s vocal style, but that said aside, even the lesser King Diamond albums are strong releases.So is ‘The Spider’s Lullabye’.Listen for example to album opener From the Other Side, a typical up-tempo piece with lots of energy and melodic soloing by LaRocque. And there is To the Morgue, the conclusion of the album proper. One of the heavier tunes King has made over the years, catchy and with a great flow. Also the title track of the album, with its cembalo theme (again typical for King) and almost proggy build-up, is a song you can’t really circumvent if you’re putting together a best-of collection of King Diamond tunes.The inclusion of the four demo songs is a nice little extra. Supposedly, this is King himself doing everything, LaRocque adding nothing but solos. The demo songs are of course raw, but it certainly gives you an idea how focused the man is on this ideas and just how complete they are before the band actually enters the studio. Kind of impressive, I’d say.If you’re considering beginning to listen to King Diamond, ‘The Spider’s Lullabye’ is an alright place to begin, but I’d have to suggest you to listen to ‘Abigail’, ‘Them’ and ‘Conspiracy’ immediately afterwards. They are the reference works.
Line-Up:
King Diamond - Vocals, Keyboards (1985-present) - See also: Mercyful Fate, ex-Black Rose, ex-Brats, ex-Danger Zone, ex-Brainstorm, ex-Roadrunner United
Andy LaRocque - Guitars, Keyboards (1985-present) - See also: ex-Illwill, ex-X-World/5, ex-Death, ex-E.F. Band
Mike Wead - Guitars (1990-1995, 2000-present) - See also: Bibleblack, Hexenhaus, Kamlath, Nattas, Mercyful Fate, ex-Memento Mori, ex-Warchild, ex-Candlemass, ex-Maninnya Blade, ex-Abstrakt Algebra, ex-Warning, ex-Hemisfear, ex-Kryptillusion
Matt Thompson - Drums (2000-present) - See also: Aghora, Legacy of Disorder, Shaolin Death Squad, Synkronizity, ex-Surgeon, ex-Truncator, Deuxmonkey, ex-Bat Castle, ex-Michael Harris, ex-Autumn Silence, ex-Judgement
Livia Zita Vocals (additional) (2003-present)
Tracklist:
CD1:
01. From the Other Side
02. Killer
03. The Poltergeist
04. Dreams
05. Moonlight
06. Six Feet Under
07. The Spider’s Lullaby
08. Eastmann’s Cure
09. Room 17
10. To the Morgue
CD2:
01. Moonlight (Demo)
02. From the Other Side (Demo)
03. The Spider’s Lullabye (Demo)
04. Dreams (Demo)
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