SAN FRANCISCO — One of the most influential steel singers to emerge after the 1970s, when he rose to fame with Danish band Mercyful Fate, King Diamond would revel in even greater good fortune from the horrific concept albums he delivered with his eponymous band.
With a voice ranging from a guttural growl to a raised falsetto and his somber face painted through a corpse, Diamond and Mercyful Fate pioneered black steel thanks to the anthems heard on the band’s founding albums Melissa and Don’t of the early ’80s. Although the band broke up in 1985 due to musical differences (apparently between singer and guitarist Hank Sherman), their limited production and fierce gigs—i. e. , their first U. S. tour with Motörhead in 1984—exerted a major influence on Metallica, Slayer, and a host of excessive steel bands that would stick in their wake.
Diamond would go on to shape his self-titled band which, firstly, included Fate guitarist Michael Denner and bassist Timi Hansen, releasing their debut album Fatal Portrait in 1986. Following this effort, the organization continued to explore a more narrative technique with the acclaimed horror conceptual efforts Abigail, “Them,” and Conspiracy. Always a menacing live figure with his crossbone-down microphone (made of a real human femur and shin), King Diamond enhanced theatricality by introducing a more elaborate level of art, adding costumed actors and illusionistic tricks to develop. his execution of dark and gothic visions.
Mercyful Fate would reunite in 1993, but Diamond controlled recording and touring with either band for the decade until Fate took another hiatus in 1999. The singer and his band released more successful concept albums with Abigail II and The Puppet Master in the 2000s, however, he curtailed his travel efforts.
Diamond had a severe fitness attack in 2010 when he underwent triple bypass surgery after suffering several attacks at the center. The singer, despite everything, made his first post-op to return to the level in 2011, performing a combination of Mercyful Fate hits with Metallica for a long time. Fate enthusiasts and former bandmates Hank Shermann, Michael Denner and Timi Hansen showcase Metallica’s 30th anniversary at the Fillmore.
In 2014, Diamond and his band embarked on their first full U. S. tour. He was released in the U. S. for a decade by a moment of ecstasy before joining Slayer the following summer as part of the last Rockstar Mayhem Festival in 2015. The following year, Diamond toured performing his old album Abigail in its entirety with other solo hits and Mercyful Fate tracks, betting on steel festivals on both sides of the Atlantic and re-establishing the band as a live giant.
Since then, Diamond has worked hard to paint his band’s next new album, originally scheduled for release in 2020. The Institute will provide King Diamond’s latest dark story about madness and angst in an intellectual hospital and mark the group’s first new effort. 16 years old. In the summer of 2019, the singer also announced the first Mercyful Fate reunion performances that were scheduled for European festivals in 2020 but were delayed by two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This main announcement unfortunately marked the recent death of the former bassist. Timi Hansen from cancer.
The downtime led Fate to begin painting what would be her first new clothing album in more than two decades. His appearances at a number of steel festivals last summer, his first live performances since 1999, received rave reviews such as Diamond and the existing lineup of Mercyful Fate with founding guitarist Hank Shermann, King Diamond guitarist Mike Wead, drummer Bjarne T. Holm and bassist Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning) have titled Sweden Rock, Graspop Metal Meeting, Waken Open Air, Bloodstock among many others. The band also headlined Psycho Las Vegas in August, marking their first U. S. performance in more than two decades. CBS SF recently sat down with King Diamond of his two bands prior to Mercyful Fate’s existing fall excursion landing at Sacramento Hard Rock in Wheatland on Oct. 30 with the titans of German thrash Kreator and blackened steel team Cleveland Midnight.
CBS SF: I read that “The Salzburg Jackal” is about the witch hunt in Austria in the late seventeenth century. I was wondering if there was a theme, old or not, with the new Mercyful Fate costume that goes in the direction of your own band’s concept and scripted albums?
King Diamond: These will still be single songs for Mercyful Fate, but it’s a longer song. I didn’t know that story or component of the story in Austria until this year, and when I found out, I was shocked. Of 130 people, 139 of them, 109 were young people between 10 and 4 years old and they burned them alive, hung them, cut off their hands. They did everything they had done to any other sorcerer at that time. And he was a 20-year-old boy at the time. I think in 1675 they burned his mother alive. And two years later, they started hunting him down because they discovered that his mother had been tortured and that she had abandoned many people. They were going after in all those other cases that she. . . Under torture – he had invented.
So now they were going after this guy, their son, whom they accused of colluding with Satan and doing witchcraft in this thick forest. We went to the royal castle where it happened. It’s a two-hour bus ride from Salzburg, yet it’s still called Salzburg, probably a province or something. But today there is this state of castle in all its splendor. You can stop by and see it and get a guided tour and all that. It is such a charming landscape, the valleys and mountains and many forests, where this user hid from the witch hunt. The castle looked more like a barracks of justice and they did all kinds of justice there. Or injustice or whatever.
So we went to the castle there. And it’s not just that time; The headquarters had been there for a long time. I think there was a bishop there who claimed the lives of more than 2000 women. Completely crazy. And there were others, however, the deaths of the Salzburg jackal occurred in this era from 1675 to 1690. And where they hunted this guy who called the jackal. And there were many children, most commonly beggars, who were taken away and they were asking them things and they were pointing. They were like, “Hey, what did you do? Maybe we want to communicate with you in the Castle. “
And they said, “No, no, no, no! I know what you’re talking about. But I didn’t do that. I saw them in the forest. There was a jackal walking on two legs and there were other young people dancing with this and that. “So they make things up, you know? Sometimes he will say, “You seem to know a lot. Maybe we deserve to take you to the castle and see what you know, really. And they just tortured and pointed fingers. The jackal was never caught, but many other people died. “It’s hunting. It simply shows what human beings are capable of. Even today! We do it today, only in other ways, but we still do it.
When we went there and saw the castle, it is quite pretty, but it looks very disturbing from the outside. I shot a little video outdoors while we were talking about it and filmed another one with Joey and I. where we brought the new song that we could use long-term when it comes out. Inside, we were able to move into the dungeon where they had what I would call the “courtroom,” and next door is the torture camera. There are all those torture tools on the walls and in those rooms in one position to be used. They are right there and have been used. These are the things that have killed and tortured so many other people. The wheel where they absolutely separate the other people where you are tied with your hands at one end and your feet at the other end. They had this tip where they put other people. Just terrible things.
And I think they were used on young children. It’s so terrible to see what was going on there. There was a sword that after seeing it, I need to put it in the lyrics of the song. There was an inscription and I think the judging was to turn it, and then, no matter how it landed, there was another graphic on every aspect of the sheet. One aspect had a stem and the other had the wheel. So it wasn’t a question about whether you were at fault; You were already at fault when you entered this room. Is it going to be cool and simple in power, or is it going to be slowly torn apart on the wheel?
Just brutal to see those things, the genuine things. It was a brutal place, but despite everything we saw it in real life and it was very exciting to have this opportunity. We also went to Dracula’s castle in Romania and went to another castle in the Czech Republic that was quite similar to the gate to hell. Very strange. It was a castle [called Château Houska] built around a hole in the floor that they couldn’t fill with anything. Eventually they covered it with steel plates and built a chapel in it. But they say that demons would come out of the hole as if it were a door to hell.
CBS SF: I wanted to ask you some questions about the wardrobe, adding the new helmet and ram mask and costume you wore in Las Vegas and on the summer tour. It’s very different from the look you had alone and with Mercyful Fate. What is the inspiration for such a radical change?
King Diamond: Well, it’s a collaboration. But this is the original inspiration dating back to 1975. I saw Genesis with Peter Gabriel and they were doing The Lamb Lies Down Broadway. It started in 1974 in the United States, but happened in Europe in the spring of 1975 and they played Copenhagen there. And later that year, I saw Alice Cooper in the fall doing her Welcome to My Nightmare exhibition. Peter Gabriel would get like the head of a fox, he would wear the mask of an old man. being hoisted through cables. He did a lot of things during “The Musical Box” and I think “The Return of the Giant Hogweed,” some of the hardest rock songs of his really progressive songs. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway double album total was an incredible display, I never will. But it’s a wonderful inspiration. I’d like to do that someday.
Management knew someone who also worked with Slipknot. I had these concepts for this thing here, this song, the script and all that. There were new things to come. And I saw what this young lady from Los Angeles had done before. I saw a crown, but it was different from what I had in mind. I looked for it much shorter. It’s much bigger in the end and so on. So I asked him, “Can you do this?What’s up with this? There was a mask he had made with the head of a ram that he had also made before. I said, “But I can’t use it like that. Can you close it so that it becomes almost a total head instead of just a face mask?”And he did those things as we expected, and the jackets and the dresses.
In fact he went to a. . . I do not know if it was a museum, but there they had an exhibition of old clothes of the seventeenth century. And she was able to copy a trend and a measure, I think. with gloves, this seventeenth-century bishop’s tunic. So that’s what they’re based on; Genuine trends of the coat. She made a red and a black, it was my choice. I looked for crosses on my back. He did an amazing job. She recreated this flavor that would have been used in the seventeenth century.
CBS SF: I wanted to ask you a little bit how you talked about this revival of Mercyful Fate not being a reunion. In your mind, the destination never ended. . .
King Diamond: Yes, not from 1999. Es the same lineup, unless we were looking to bring Timi back and play all the old songs like we do now. in the group. Sharlee [D’Angelo], who, you know, is part of Arch Enemy, is a bass player. He uses a pick and is very busy with Arch Enemy. Timi was invited back to the band and said yes, but then he was given up for ill. They gave it better, but then they gave it much worse. And in the meantime, we look for another bass player.
I checked Joey, one day he was playing Fates Warning here in Dallas and I went downstairs and watched the show. Timi was very aware of Joey and said, “Maybe he can help us if I get sick. Or if I can only do safe portions of exhibits and things like that. “That’s what we said: “Timi, you have the place. You deserve it, definitely. “I was very interested in doing it again, but it just didn’t work. But Joey is in it. It is definitely a permanent member.
CBS SF: You kind of explained why Michael Denner is rarely very worried since Mike Wead once in the band. One thing I wanted to ask you. From what I understood of the initial split of Mercyful Fate in the ’80s, it was Hank Sherman who looked to move in a more advertising direction, which didn’t interest you. Is there any irony in that they are now the only original members of this edition of Fate?
King Diamond: Hank became interested in [hard rock/funk band] Mother’s Finest. And it was a taste I was looking for to see if we could incorporate it. And I said, “There’s no way I’m going to sing about That’s not how I feel. I can only do things where I really feel 100%. “So Hank suggested, “Well, maybe we can do what I love on the one hand, and on the other hand, you and Michael Denner can collaborate and write your own songs. “I had already written “Come to the Sabbath” and “The Oath” on my own and collaborated with Denner on “Gypsy” on the music side. I’ve done the lyrics.
That’s how back then. It’s about being fair to ourselves and the fans. If we had gone through the other taste and combined it like that, I think it would have been like spitting at the fans. Why would I do things I can’t stand? And I’ve never, ever done that in my entire career. I like, “Okay, I like that we’re developing on these things and say, ‘Let’s see what we can do separately. ‘”And it has become that. I didn’t even think I had a recording contract at the time, you know?I said [to the record company], ‘Well, the band disbanded, so that’s it. I need to keep playing, but I have to position myself precisely. what I have to do. ” And they said, “Oh, no, you’re still signed!”
I said, “Noooooooon, I don’t think so. ” It’s not that I didn’t have to sign. But then they said, “No, they’re signed separately and together. That’s what’s written in the contract. ” OK [laughs]. What does this mean? You know, let them inform you the hard way. They said, “You’ll be called King Diamond, which you are and the fans already know you. That’s what you’re still with. ” So I accepted that and we established a new logo contract that was not tied to the original Mercyful Fate contract as such. They said, “We’ll give you a new contract, blah, blah, blah. “
And then, once it was set up, it was fine. I contacted Michael Denner and Timi Hansen: “Do you need to continue?”And they said, “Yes, absolutely!” Therefore, it was mandatory to locate new members. We discovered Mickey Dee [original King Diamond drummer] betting on a Danish band called Geisha, with a bass player who was part of Brats [the Danish punk band from the 70s that had Hank Shermann as its original member]. We discovered a Swedish guitarist who didn’t prepare for studio time to record Fatal Portrait. And that’s when we met Andy [LaRoque] and finally, everyone was there for Fatal Portrait. But we went into the studio like a quartet and Michael Denner played the rhythm. guitar. He’s not the loudest rhythm guitarist; Andy is much, much stronger, but he wasn’t available when we were there [in the studio]. Arrived here after the evening.
So it’s an evolution, like a conversion of the guard, you can say. Since then, Hank has done very heavy things with his own projects that he has had. There was a time when he did very Mercyful Fate stuff. This just before we met at Fate. I heard things just before moving to the US. I thought “Wow, this sounds almost too merciful for us not to do!”And since then, for a long time, since 1999, there have been many King Diamonds, many other things that have happened, also in terms of health.
But sometimes I’ve been asked, “Are you going to remake Mercyful Fate?What’s the matter?” And I’ve said it has to be pure. If we do something, we have to do it 100%, thoroughly. There is no point in going out and doing half-baked things that would damage Mercyful Fate’s wonderful reputation. And the stars aligned when we had a new direction. I think that’s when we really put ourselves in position and we can see that, hey, we can do it again, in the right way.
And at the time, I know Dana was a little bitter or whatever, but I might not care less, because I have nothing to do with him for I don’t know how many years. Mike Wead played many more years with him. Mike Wead, in my opinion, is an older guitarist. Pure and simple, much bigger. His rhythm guitar and lead guitar are amazing. Hank is starting to see what Mike Wead has in those days, and he’s already told me several times on tour, “Oh my God, I can’t stop thinking about how amazing he is live, in the studio, whatever. “Why do you think I’ve been playing with him all those years?It doesn’t go anywhere unless it needs to pass itself. Mercyful Fate or King Diamond, for that matter. There is an explanation for why it is there. And there’s no way someone named Michael Denner would walk in and say, “I deserve to have this place. “
Should I fire Mike Wead so you can come play? When you haven’t been with us for I don’t know how many years. And when you were there, you left I don’t know how many times. You can go back and take a look at the details. Michael Denner has passed I don’t know how many times, but he’s not bad. He was also fired several times. But that is not the challenge here at all. This is not a reunion of the old lineup. Kim Ruz. why is it not mentioned? I mean, I don’t get those things here. He definitely won’t be coming [on tour] instead of Bjarne, are you kidding me? Kim Ruzz is an amazing drummer, absolutely. Michael Denner I can also say that he is an incredible… he has done incredible things, you know? He is not my favorite guitar player. I mean, he never needs that. But he made some incredible plays. What moves me is “Into the Coven” – the intro – and the intro of “Melissa”. These are things that stand out. And there’s something he did on a song called “Time” that I think was ArrayArray well created through him.
Michael Denner had a taste for the guitar where he liked to play very freely recording, and that’s where he discovered strong things. But then they would have to be informed. The thing is, you don’t come and say you want to be part of a band, because maybe now there’s money. I don’t think we’ve done this task with him. It would never have taken off. I mean, Michael Denner was never very satisfied with touring. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But he was never very satisfied with the tours. So today, I don’t think he would do anything we do, even if we asked him to and if he had compatibility [to do it].
But there are also other things that play a role that shouldn’t even be mentioned. I don’t communicate badly about people. I just don’t waste my time with this, you know?Michael Denner has nothing with him as a person, however, there are reasons why he cannot do what we would like him to do if we were looking for this scenario. But there are no Demons, we would need this scenario. Why would you tell Mike Wead that he can’t play with us?Along with Hank, those are the most productive guitars I’ve ever played on Mercyful Fate. Absolutely.
This is serious. It’s not “Oh, let’s be friends and laugh, laugh for a few weeks. “It’s a full album. It’s very serious, man. We come up with an exhibit that Mercyful Fate never dreamed of having right now, and you’re going to see for yourself. But you will see a merciful destiny that you will think, “Oh my God. “God, I wonder if they would have been like this back then, what would have happened?”What if we had, say, control interested in us at first?I guess a lot of other people said maybe too excessive and “Ahhhh, they’re not going anywhere. They are too excessive. “
But here today, we’ve never done more than we’re doing now. Absolutely not. And the same goes for King Diamond. Full, fair and what we have been. There are no strange plans or underlying reasons or anything. That’s right. Right, frank; Anyone can open the eBook and view it directly. We are not hiding anything here.
CBS SF: I know the tour starts there in Dallas, your followed city in the United States, before heading west. And I’m sure you’ve heard enthusiasts complain about where the band plays and doesn’t play. a little surprised that there isn’t a date in San Francisco given their fan base here and the history of the band betting on SF. Connections with Metallica made the reunion for Metallica’s 30th anniversary performances in 2011. Is the plan, once the album Mercyful Fate is released, in all likelihood to make more dates in the US?once it is launched?
King Diamond: I have no idea what will happen in the future. There is no possibility to say what is going on. But I have the idea that what counted as a date in San Francisco because of what I was told.
CBS SF: It’s a little far away. I mean, it’s not that it doesn’t happen to do it anyway. I’m not happy I couldn’t move on to Psycho Las Vegas, but logistically, I didn’t make it. But the Oct. 30 exhibit is just hours away from San Francisco. Much closer to Sacramento. . .
Diamond King: Aha. But you see, I don’t know. I don’t ebook the excursions. I can guess what the reasons for this are. A fairly informed guess is that they are looking to take this tour, with a call to, to positions slightly larger than many stalls that Mercyful Fate has played before. The Factory, King Diamond has played before. There are several such positions that King Diamond has played in before, but Mercyful Fate has never played in those positions before. And that’s where they happen. I don’t know if there’s a stall of that length in San Francisco where they pass. I don’t know, because I know there are many villages where they say, “Well, if you need this length, you have to move on to the next city. “
And it’s kind of a herbal progression for stockpile agents. They are looking to build it. It’s also a counterfeit package with Kreator, you know?So you have high hopes for this excursion. And we wrote for two groups. We can’t just start traveling a lot and then about the albums that you really want to make so you can start new cycles for each band. And this excursion was born because King Diamond said, “No, we have to release the whole album to be able to do the full tour, the full cycle, for this new album coming out. “
Mercyful Fate may release a few other singles after the release of “The Jackal of Salzburg. “Another one may come out before King Diamond has the new album and the new cycle begins. And Mercyful Fate will wait, write and terminará. su album. I have the new canopy from the Mercyful Fate album. I showed it to [Metal Blade Records founder and CEO] Brian Slagle. He was about to go crazy. It’s fantastic. He was blown away by the feeling he feels without looking like Melissa or Don’t Break the Oath; You know, copying the old canopy. Leave them alone. I mean, they’re classics, in my opinion. Totally new, but the guy what I think he has, the taste he has. It is an ancient representation, with many years, and simply breathes Merciful Fate. They are running at full power, but there are many things falling at the same time. No one can say what will happen.
On December 4th we played just before Kiss at Hell and Heaven Metal Fest. I think they are full, more than 100,000 people. It’s going to be interesting. And then, two days later, we were invited through Judas Priest to play in Monterey with them and Pantera. So two presentations in the Mexique. Et what will happen next, I don’t know. Write, write and record, and write and record. So there are many new and clever concepts that come with either group.
CBS SF: Are you thinking about converting the playlist in terms of what you were already doing in Europe and what you did in Las Vegas?There are some Fate albums from the 1990s that include songs that would be smart to listen to live. . .
King Diamond: Absolutely, but that’s for the future. The concept of releasing with [songs from] the mini-LP, Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath, and then doing anything new that has that style. Because that’s how we feel. Everything was replaced in order after we made the first trip to Europe. There were a few things I didn’t think were right regarding the way the dress adjustments happened and where they happened on set. Some of them didn’t leave enough time or were just not in the right place; There is too little of this and too much of that.
So we came here with a new series and a new way to make dress adjustments and things like that. And the first concert after when we came back here, I think it was in Romania, or maybe Bulgaria was the first. And after the show, Hank said, “Oh my God, that was it!It cannot be changed. The flow was so intense and the looks that come to the enthusiasts as we go through the track list are fantastic. “And I totally agree with that. So we played the last 8 shows in Europe with this new track list and stocked it for Las Vegas. That’s the track listing. This is the excursion we are going to do this year.
But I know what you’re saying. There are many songs that I would like to do later. Eventually, when the album comes out and there’s a genuine Mercyful Fate cycle, that’s the plan, and what we’re going to play at that point will be different. I am tied to what we are doing here. There are linked songs that I would like to play. “Burn in Hell” just didn’t forget how great it was to do it. Ego Público: I would like to hear this one live again. Because it has a great reader. But there are many of them. There are quite a few albums. But those elders here that there is something for them. It’s like what it deserved to have been in the early days; what deserved to have looked and sounded.
Wait until you hear what it sounds like. I think you’re going to be dumbfounded. The sound engineer we have, the lighting engineer we have, the paintings they make. . . You’ll leave there and you never will. I swear you never will, in a smart way. It is very present. So everyone I know, who is very critical, has told me, the sound is amazing and the visuals are anything else. And if we had been like this in the past, who knows what would have happened. But it is vital. at this time. It is now and so it is. You’re warned!
Mercyful Fate is his fall excursion with German thrashers Kreator and blackened speed-metal band Midnight at Sacramento Hard Rock in Wheatland on October 30.