When it comes to spooky, epic metal, no one weaves a wicked tale like King Diamond. As the frontman of Mercyful Fate in the ’80s, he brought a new painted face to sinister music and helped paved the way lyrically for countless death and black metal bands.
And as a solo artist, Diamond created a new genre of epic, conceptual and operatic horror metal, starting in 1986’s with the much-overlooked Fatal Portrait. Each of Diamond’s 12 albums has combined heavy, progressive riffs, complex arrangements and atmospheric textures to form concrete horror stories, many of which would make killer movies.
His 12th and most recent opus, Give Me Your Soul… Please, is loosely about two children — a brother and sister — who are killed by their father and fear they’re going to hell. So the sister crosses back to earth to try to find a soul that’s free of sin, with the hopes that, if she brings it back to the underworld, her brother can go free.
Such is the stuff that Halloween is made of — which is why we asked the Danish-born metal legend to take part in an special podcast about All Hallows Eve, the night when ghosts and demons play tricks on the living and children celebrate the dead as they travel door-to-door in search of treats. Diamond graciously accepted the podcast offer, and, during our 40 minute conversation, we discussed the meaning of Halloween, why children never used to come to his house, how he would like to freak out the conservative parents in his neighborhood, his favorite horror films, who would win in a fight between werewolves and vampires, and how, for him, every night is Halloween.
So, step into the darkness and join us for the HBB Blog Halloween podcast interview with King Diamond (also available on iTunes).
Since we posted King Diamond’s video for “The Family Ghost” a couple days ago, here’s Mercyful Fate’s clip for “Nightmare be Thy Name”:
October 26th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
[...] Original post here [...]
October 27th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
king diamond fn rules, saw him on the 87 tour abigail, have kept up w/most of his new stuff; hope he gets bk w/andy l and mikkey d sometime.keep metal alive king, you rule!
October 31st, 2007 at 6:00 pm
[...] favorite TV show of our misspent youth, MTV’s Headbangers’ Ball, features this week a special Halloween podcast with scary Danish metal musician King Diamond and [...]