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Steel Blade Information founder and CEO Brian Slagel spoke to Canada’s The Steel Voice concerning the progress of the songwriting periods for brand spanking new studio albums from each KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE. He mentioned (as transcribed by Phoosi.com): “I had a extremely good dialog with [King Diamond, who fronts both KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE] the opposite day, and he is engaged on each KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE. I might need heard a demo or two that sounded actually, actually good.
“I do not know when both of those information are gonna come out, ‘trigger King likes to do issues at his personal pace,” he defined. “It is, like, ‘Hey, no matter works for you is completely nice with me.’ However I used to be very proud of what I’ve heard to this point. So hopefully all people will probably be fairly comfortable.
“MERCYFUL FATE is doing a bunch of festivals this summer season — knock on wooden — so long as they do not get canceled. After which they’re additionally enjoying Psycho [Las Vegas] fest in Las Vegas, which I believe will certainly be the one U.S. date. There is a chance there might be a Canadian date someplace alongside the road right here too. However we’ll see.
“However there will probably be a brand new KING DIAMOND file, I am hoping, in 2023. And there may even be a brand new MERCYFUL FATE file someday soon-ish.”
Final month, King mentioned that he was engaged on lyrics for the long-awaited new album from his namesake band. Titled “The Institute”, the group’s first studio LP in 15 years is tentatively subsequent 12 months by way of Steel Blade.
Again in November 2019, KING DIAMOND launched its first new track in 12 years, “Masquerade Of Insanity”. A month later, guitarist Andy La Rocque informed The Steel Voice that he got here up with the music for the observe first earlier than passing it off to King, who “wanted to rearrange a couple of issues and alter only a small few issues for making it work together with his vocals. After which, in fact, he wrote the lyrics for it,” the guitarist revealed. “So we [went] a little bit backwards and forwards till he felt like, ‘Okay, that is cool, man. That is the suitable key to sing in,’ and all that.”
La Rocque, whose actual title is Anders Allhage, informed The Steel Voice that the tentative plan is to launch “The Institute” as “a single album” as a part of a two-LP horror idea story, with the second half arriving at a later date. Andy additionally mentioned his imaginative and prescient for the brand new KING DIAMOND album, saying that it is going to be stuffed with nice “melodies, in fact. Tremendous essential. With out melodies, there isn’t any music,” he defined. “I am additionally envisioning a extra natural sound of the album. Should you look again to the older albums, when Mikkey [Dee] performed [drums for the band], for instance, it is, like, a little bit bit up and down in tempo, and that makes it dynamic and likewise natural. In order that’s one factor that I wish to hear on the subsequent album, for certain. However build up a dynamic, sort of natural really feel, the drummer is a extremely essential factor right here, in fact. And I do know that Matt Thompson [current KING DIAMOND drummer] is the suitable man to do that, for certain.”
In March 2019, King informed Full Steel Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio present that the subsequent album from his namesake band will probably be “completely ugly” with a narrative set in a Nineteen Twenties psychological establishment. “I selected that as a result of I believe it is a very creepy state of affairs,” he defined. “And a number of the issues that go on that we’re gonna present onstage can be issues that definitely was occurring again then, when medication was starting to take a useful flip in historical past and truly with the ability to assist human beings dwell longer. However there was some experimentation occurring, too, that was completely ugly. A few of that’s concerned within the story, but it surely’s one thing completely completely different. When you get to the second a part of the story, you’ll start to all of a sudden perceive that, ‘What the hell is happening right here? What is that this actually about?’ ‘Trigger there’s an entire completely different story that won’t come to you until second half. However within the first half, you are gonna get to know so much individuals at a sure place… A few of it takes place right here, this world, and a few of it takes place in a parallel world. And there is a correlation between what occurred to me and what occurs to some individuals on this place and the place they all of a sudden seem. And one can find out why they’re there, how they seem there and the locations down the highway. I will not say an excessive amount of proper now, but it surely’s gonna be very creepy.”
KING DIAMOND obtained a Grammy nomination within the “Greatest Steel Efficiency” class for the observe “By no means Ending Hill” off the band’s final album, 2007’s “Give Me Your Soul … Please”.
“Give Me Your Soul … Please” bought 4,500 copies in america in its first week of launch to debut at place No. 174 on The Billboard 200 chart.
KING DIAMOND launched a DVD/Blu-ray, “Songs For The Lifeless Reside”, in January 2019 by way of Steel Blade Information. The set captures 1987’s seminal “Abigail” album in its entirety, twice, and in very completely different locales: Belgium’s Graspop Steel Assembly in June 2016 and Philadelphia’s Fillmore in November 2015. The performances function KING DIAMOND‘s present band, comprising of guitarists La Rocque and Mike Wead, bassist Pontus Egberg and Thompson.
MERCYFUL FATE‘s most up-to-date studio album, “9”, arrived in 1999.
The band’s present lineup consists of King Diamond, Hank Shermann on guitar, Bjarne T. Holm on drums, Mike Wead on guitar, and Joey Vera (ARMORED SAINT, FATES WARNING) on bass.
In 2019, it was introduced Vera could be changing authentic MERCYFUL FATE bassist Timi Hansen for the band’s summer season 2020 European pageant appearances as a result of Hansen‘s most cancers analysis. Hansen handed away in November 2019 and MERCYFUL FATE‘s 2020 summer season pageant appearances have since been rescheduled for 2021, after which for 2022, as a result of ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
