King Diamond

King Diamond live at Tuska 2013

King Diamonds solo band logo

King Diamond (born June 14, 1956 in Copenhagen ), real name Kim Bendix Petersen , is a Danish musician . He gained fame through the band Mercyful Fate and his solo project King Diamond.

Life

childhood

Kim Bendix Petersen grew up with his three years younger brother in Hvidovre near Copenhagen. By his own account, he had a good childhood, a little strict, but with a lot of freedom. He has always been very close to his brother and his parents. They have always been proud of his career and he has always enjoyed their trust. Like himself, his parents had occult experiences. They would have seen themselves as Christians and never as Satanists , but apparently believed in the same things as him. His father, who died around 1987, had been part of the Danish resistance against the National Socialists during World War II .

From the age of 8, Petersen went through several youth national teams as a football player, including playing for Hvidovre IF . During this time he played with Søren Lerby and Frank Andersen, among others, and reached an almost professional level, although there was no professional team in Denmark at the time.

Youth until 1973

In Petersen's youth there was a radio program on Danish radio every day at 3 p.m. that played rock music and recorded it on cassettes. After he first time in 1970 Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin heard he wanted the sound of Jimmy Page can generate guitar itself. In 1971, at the age of 15, Petersen got his first record player and bought the LPs Fireball from Deep Purple , Aqualung from Jethro Tull and Master of Reality from Black Sabbath , shortly afterwards Wishbone Ash from the band of the same name . Led Zeppelin was also important to him, especially her debut of the same name . A few months later he bought his first guitar.

“I ran home with it and scrubbed on it. But it just went 'pring, pring' and I was pissed off. [...] I didn't know that you had to play this instrument through an amplifier ! "

- King Diamond : Interview at Rock Hard

A friend of his parents' pity built him a primitive amplifier with an on / off button and one for distortion . Petersen didn't have a girlfriend during his school days, so he invested his time in his soccer training and music. He was often absent from school to listen to old Mountain albums with a friend . He didn't do much for them, but thanks to his good memory he got good grades and learned for work mostly by reading through his friend's homework.

Musical career until 1985

Petersen's musical career began in 1973 when he became guitarist for the band Brainstorm. With her he gave his first concert in 1976, in which each band played three songs. At this he already appeared with make-up, like the other members of the band. Petersen had the idea in 1975 after seeing Alice Cooper's show Welcome to My Nightmare . Cooper remained Petersen's main influence. Members adopted pseudonyms , with Petersen adopting the name King Diamond. In the beginning, Diamond only applied black make-up, but the difference cannot be seen on old black-and-white pictures. At the age of 20, Diamond ended his career as a football player because he didn't have the time to continue training at his level. After he left high school, he worked as a laboratory assistant, but he didn't enjoy it; he had to u. a. Carry out experiments on rats.

In 1978 Diamond left Brainstorm to become the lead singer of Black Rose. He actually wanted to be their guitarist, but the band was just looking for a singer and their guitarist wanted to play alone. Since Diamond was not a singer then, his voice was undeveloped and his high notes initially sounded more like screaming than singing, and he quickly became hoarse; but it improved over time. The band covered bands like Deep Purple and Rainbow , not covering songs like Smoke on the Water , but heavier songs like Living Wreck and Fools , and also wrote their own pieces. After one of her performances, Diamond was approached by a concert goer to use the falsetto voice more often, with particular reference to the song Road Ride . King was unfamiliar with the term at the time, but he tried to use this voice more often and forced himself to sing higher and higher. Since he never wanted to take singing lessons, he is self-taught as a singer, but he describes a particularly persistent fan as his "singing teacher". The band's main influence was Alice Cooper, which was evident in their stage show. For example, Diamond had two male nurses drive her onto the stage in a straitjacket and sitting in a wheelchair. After the first song, he threw off the straitjacket and the wheelchair into the audience and continued the performance. In addition, props were used such as a doll filled with blood and viscera, which Diamond sacrificed, who smeared himself with blood and threw the viscera into the audience. Since the brainstorm drummer worked in a large butcher shop, the band got hold of the material easily. Pig heads were also set up and Diamond smashed them with an ax. He used his experience as a laboratory technician for explosive substances, occasionally stealing material from his place of work.

In November 1980 Diamond left the band Black Rose after about ten joint concerts. The decisive factor was that her keyboardist sold his instrument in order to be able to afford the new apartment they shared with his girlfriend. Then Diamond got a call from René “Hank De Wank” Krolmark , the guitarist of the punk / metal band Brats , and their manager, who wanted to recruit him as a singer. A friend who worked with the Brats musicians advised him to meet them and give it a try. Her 1980 album polarized the critics and was described as "mixed", and Diamond didn't necessarily like it either:

“I only liked half of the Brats album [...] because it was very punk. I wasn't exactly the biggest Sex Pistols fan ... "

- King Diamond : Interview at Rock Hard

Diamond stipulated that he didn't have to sing in the punk style, he just wanted to sing heavy metal. However, their new songs tended towards metal anyway. At that time, Hank De Wank changed his pseudonym to Hank Shermann. In January 1981 the band invited a representative from CBS to their rehearsal room in Copenhagen. The next day the band was told that the music was too extreme for CBS and that they would have to play softer, gentler music if they wanted to release their album on CBS; For the record company, the material is "far too uncommercial, far too unpolished, not too catchy," and the band should sing in Danish. Diamond and Shermann refused on behalf of the band. In addition, the offered budget was too low, so the band ended the collaboration with CBS. In the following months the band wrote new songs and gave one concert in Denmark and one in Sweden. Because of the terminated CBS contract, the members Yenz and Monroe got out in March 1981. At the end of the month, the three remaining members recorded three tracks for a demo recording at The Rocktape Studio in Copenhagen. Due to the stylistic development, they saw a name change as necessary. The name Back to Hell was pondered until the manager's girlfriend suggested Merciful Fate. The name was adopted but changed to Mercyful Fate when their classic Fraktur script was created that same month. Since this is an archaic spelling, it should not be regarded as a typo. Diamond continued to work as a graduate chemist, developing drugs to improve kidney blood flow and testing them on three rats a day. Diamond finally quit in 1982, shortly after the founding of Mercyful Fate, to become a professional musician, but initially lived on welfare for a year.

In April 1981, Diamond and Shermann were asked by Michael Denner to help him make a demo recording for his new band Danger Zone. She hadn't found a suitable singer, her songs Leavy My Soul Alone and MDA were released by Mercyful Fate in 1992. Danger Zone and Mercyful Fate were merged into one band due to the good collaboration. With Mercyful Fate, too, Diamond used stage effects such as the “exploding nun ” at the end of performances or the burning cross at a performance in Amsterdam around 1983. In late 1982 or early 1983, the band performed together with the British band Girlschool , whose singer Kim McAuliffe suffered a severe electrocution from which she almost died. The members of Mercyful Fate attribute this incident to a black mass that was held before the Girlschool performance and for which the members of Mercyful Fate used the blood of their manager Ole Bang, which is said to have attracted something. Diamond also mentions events in his haunted apartment at the time, such as a glass that rose by itself after the Mercyful Fate demo recording was played, things that fell off the shelf, someone who was torn by the hair, and Diamond's altar that moved by itself. At that time he was already interested in occultism , which these events increased. Due to differences between Hank Shermann and King Diamond regarding the continuation of the band, which had released an EP, a single and two albums, they split in 1985.

Solo career

The beginnings as a solo artist and the debut "Fatal Portrait"

King Diamond live at Tuska 2013

After the end of Mercyful Fate, King Diamond continued under his name with Michael Denner and Timi Hansen, while Shermann founded the hard rock band Fate . The drummer was Mikkey Dee from the band Geisha, who brought along Floyd Constantine (also from Geisha) as a second guitarist. Diamond had already written material for the upcoming album and was helped by Denner, with whom he wrote the remaining songs in collaboration. It should be the only time Diamond would write material with someone else because he hates it and can't take the time to explore certain riffs; some other songs would later be written by both Diamond and other members, each working alone and contributing to each other's work. The band went to the Sound Track Studio in Copenhagen in July and August 1985 to record the first King Diamond album. On the first day of recording, however, Constantine was kicked out of the band; he was not good enough, in Diamond's view, and spent too much time partying and drinking. He was replaced by Anders Allhage, the former guitarist of the EF Band, who renamed himself Andy La Rocque shortly afterwards. He had previously played in a band with Dee, who had proposed him as a fellow musician. King Diamond's first release was the single No Presents for Christmas , which came out on December 25; With its "funny-evil interpretation of the Yuletide spirit", the single shows a humorous side of Diamond for the first time. The song Charon was on the B-side as a foretaste of the album announced for the following year. A concert was held in Copenhagen on December 20th to celebrate King Diamond's first solo release. On March 14, 1986 the debut album Fatal Portrait was released , of which more than 100,000 copies were sold in the United States alone. Fatal Portrait tended towards the concept album , as five of the nine songs ( The Candle , The Jonah , The Portrait , Dressed in White and Haunted ) belong to the same story. On Fatal Portrait , Diamond also avoided using the name Satan while adding more magic and mystery to the lyrics . He also played the guitar on the instrumental piece Voices from the Past , because Denner was bored and this Diamond gave the guitar and told him to play it himself. It is the only piece on which all guitar parts were played by Diamond himself, but he would later contribute individual passages on later albums. The band went on a successful tour through Europe and the USA with Megadeth ; although the band played mostly in clubs and the budget was modest, Diamond continued to experiment with stage effects and theatrical performances inspired by Alice Cooper and horror films . In September a limited picture disc for the song Halloween was released , the B-side of which contained The Candle and The Lake ; The Lake was inspired by a film, was recorded at the same time as Fatal Portrait and was available exclusively on the Picture Disc until its re-release on The Dark Sides and various new editions of Fatal Portrait, making it a rarity. All subsequent studio albums except The Spider's Lullabye were to become concept albums.

"Abigail", "Them" and "Conspiracy"

From December 1986 to February 1987 King Diamond returned to the Sound Track Studio to record a second album. Because Denner's apartment was only ten minutes from the studio and La Rocque and Dee lived with it, the band often came there. This time, for the first time, the band made extensive use of Roberto Falcao, the same sound engineer as on Fatal Portrait ; Falcao had a sense of the band's direction. With the second album, Abigail , Diamond wanted to continue the idea of ​​the concept album, Abigail would be the first in a long line of concept albums. Diamond wanted to write a full horror-themed concept album that, as far as he knew, nobody had done before, and wanted to create something for his band that was original and challenging. He had wanted to write concept albums back in the Mercyful Fate days, but that didn't seem to go with the music, which wasn't theatrical enough; therefore Diamond had only started with the five pieces on Fatal Portrait . The idea for the story behind the Abigail album came to Diamond when he woke up one night at around 2:00 am during a thunderstorm and ideas came to his mind, which he wrote down; this is where the entire plot and all names were created; Most of the album was finished within an hour and a half, and 90 percent of the album was written over the course of the night. Parts of the story were also inspired by what his mother told him. Another inspiration came from a photograph that an American fan had sent him; it showed the tombstone of a girl who had died on July 7, 1777. Diamond adopted the date as well as the name of the dead girl's mother, Abigail. The hard part was adapting the concept to the songs and being able to put everything Diamond wanted to say into the album. Most of the music was created before the idea for the album. After the story, Diamond wrote the two or three remaining songs with some help from Denner and La Rocque. At the time, Diamond considered Abigail his best lyrically album to date, and it helped him develop his voice as he had to portray so many different characters with different emotions. During the recording of Abigail Diamonds father, where the album was dedicated died. It was released on June 15, 1987, sold over 175,000 times in the United States, entered the Billboard Top 200 charts as the first Roadrunner release, and reached number 123 on the Billboard charts. After release, Diamond shot a promotional music video for The Family Ghost , which featured a single with B-side Shrine the following month ; this song had been removed from the Abigail album because it lyrically did not fit its story.

As King Diamond's success grew, so did the demand for a re-release of the first Mercyful Fate EP. In October 1987 Roadrunner Records released the compilation The Beginning , which included the tracks from the EP, four other songs, three from the BBC recording from 1983 and Black Masses from the B-side of the Black Funeral single. Shortly afterwards, just before the start of the tour through Europe, Michael Denner left King Diamond in order to spend more time with his family, as he could not leave Denmark for a long time, needed time to relax and the tours were a burden for him. However, there were no musical or personal differences. After leaving, Denner opened a record store in Copenhagen. The band went on tour instead with Mike Moon , who had just left the Swedish band Madison because he wanted to play "heavier" music. Moon was replaced after the tour by Pete Blakk, whom La Rocque and Dee knew from their time at Geisha. Then Timi Hansen left the band because his girlfriend blackmailed him into leaving him with their child otherwise; he gave up the music, but six months later his girlfriend left him with her child. Hansen was replaced by Hal Patino from the band Maltese Falcon. Although Hansen had left the band, he spent some time with her in the studio the following year, teaching Patino his bass runs. Now Diamond was the only former Mercyful Fate member in his new band. In early June 1988, King Diamond moved to Los Angeles, California. The main reason was that it made appearances in the USA easier and offered more opportunities for interviews. In June 1988 the album Them was released , which became the most successful solo album with more than 200,000 copies sold in the USA and a music video for Welcome Home King Diamonds.

The seal of the Baphomet

During one of his appearances, Diamond was invited by some witches to meet Church of Satan founder and author of the Satanic Bible, Anton Szandor LaVey, in San Francisco. Diamond spent the night in church, having an hour and a half conversation with LaVey in the ritual chamber. He spoke to LaVey about his relationship with Satanism and asked for his opinion. LaVey then removed the Baphomet's seal from his jacket and pressed it into Diamond's hand, which he called an incredible experience. Diamond was mentioned in LaVey's biography, among others, and went out a few times with LaVey's daughter Zeena . Around this time, Zeena LaVey also appeared on Geraldo Rivera's television show Geraldo on a special program about Satanism. King Diamond was interviewed in Florida where he was performing; only a few seconds of the 45-minute interview with him were used, taken out of context and accused Diamond of talking nonsense.

In October the EP The Dark Sides followed , which contained some rarities such as No Presents for Christmas , Shrine , The Lake and Phone Call . The release was followed by a lawsuit from the lawyers of Kiss bassist Gene Simmons . In their letter, they claimed they had reason to believe Diamond's makeup on The Dark Sides was based on that used by Simmons in Kiss' 1970s and 1980s. Diamond has also been accused of imitating the stage effects of old Kiss performances. Diamond said he had to laugh about it first; no one had ever mistaken him for Simmons, never heard of Simmons resembling him, and wondering how he could make a point of bullying others; Simmons was not even the first made-up musician, but only came after Alice Cooper, David Bowie , Peter Gabriel and Al Jolson . He hoped not to become like Simmons later; until then he was a Kiss fan, but then parted with his records. However, the biography on Diamond's website says he still likes Kiss and continues to respect Simmons and Kiss. As early as 1984, the then Kiss drummer Eric Carr had said in an interview with Metal Hammer that Diamond looked "just like Gene, maybe a little worse, like a cheap copy". Diamond's biography also points out the big differences in the stage effects: Kiss used props such as spitting fire , bloodshed or fire alarms, while Diamond's appearances are theatrical. The lawyers on both sides reached an out-of-court settlement; their agreement forced Diamond to change his make-up, which he had already planned for the upcoming album; he thought the matter was ridiculous, but Kiss was ridiculed for it in the press and that ended the matter.

After recording Conspiracy (1989), Mikkey Dee left, who was replaced by Snowy Shaw . "Conspiracy" ties in lyrically and in terms of content to its predecessor "Them". Both albums are considered a coherent horror story in which King Diamond himself falls victim. This connection was shown on the stage on the "Conspiracy" tour in 1989 as the artist's cremation in an open coffin.

Appointments and Reorientation - The 1990s and early 2000s

The successor The Eye was recorded with a drum computer . Hal Patino was replaced by Sharlee D'Angelo and Pete Blakk by Mike Wead in late 1990. Blakk then formed his own band Totem. In 1991 King Diamond's first live album In Concert 1987 - Abigail was released, which, as the title suggests, was recorded in 1987.

In 1992 King Diamond released A Dangerous Meeting , which also contained old pieces from Mercyful Fate times; this was his last album on Roadrunner Records before moving to Metal Blade Records ; there was also the reunion of Mercyful Fate. In the original line-up (apart from drummer Kim Ruzz, who was replaced by Snowy Shaw on the accompanying tour), the album In the Shadows was recorded and released in 1993. From 1993 Diamond published alternately recordings of his solo project and his band. This is followed in 1994 by the Mercyful Fate live EP The Bell Witch and the album Time and in 1995 the solo record The Spider's Lullabye with a completely new line-up, with Herb Simonsen on guitar, Chris Estes on bass and Darrin Anthony on drums. In 1996 the solo album The Graveyard should appear at the same time as the Mercyful Fate record Into the Unknown , but the label gave preference to Into the Unknown . 1997 saw the next line-up change for Mercyful Fate: Michael Denner was replaced by Mike Wead, after which the line-up for the next two Mercyful Fate discs Dead Again (1998) and 9 (1999) remained constant for the time being.

After a serious car accident in 1997 Anthony was replaced by John Luke Herbert for the recording of Voodoo (1998). After the publication of House of God (2000), Chris Estes left, who was briefly replaced by David Harbor and then Hal Patino.

In February 2001, King Diamond & Black Rose 20 Years Ago (A Night of Rehearsal) was released ; until then, no one had heard of Black Rose's material, as Diamond had owned the only copy of it and Mercyful Fate did not play Black Rose songs.

On Abigail II (2002) Mike Wead played guitar again and Matt Thompson played drums. In 2003, The Puppet Master was released, which was released in Europe on Massacre Records due to a dispute between King Diamond and Metal Blade . The following year Deadly Lullabyes - Live was released as a double CD, which with 20 tracks represents a cross-section from Abigail to The Puppet Master . In 2007 the album Give Me Your Soul… Please was released . The song contained on it Never Ending Hill was nominated for a Grammy in the category Best Metal Performance in 2008, but did not win the trophy.

Setbacks and stage comeback

In December 2010, King Diamond had an open heart surgery. Three cardiac arteries were e.g. Sometimes very calcified, and apparently the King has already had several heart attacks without realizing it. The operation went well, as did the rehabilitation that followed immediately. However, it was completely open when King Diamond would record the next studio album and release the two DVDs that were already planned. In December 2011 King Diamond performed as part of the Metallica group's 30th anniversary concerts at the Fillmore in San Francisco and played some songs with some of the band members of Mercyful Fate. At the end of January 2012, King Diamond returned with a video message on YouTube . It was revealed that Diamond has fully recovered from his surgery and is planning a world tour. Appearances as headliners at the French Hellfest 2012 and the Sweden Rock Festival 2012 also took place. But plans for further appearances were then denied. Various festival appearances in Europe were announced for 2013.

On January 25th, 2019 the record publisher "Metal Blade" released a DVD / Blu-Ray Disc of two 2018 in Philadelphia (Fillmore Auditorium) and at the Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium during the "Abigail" world tour. The recordings known as "Songs for the dead - Live" show the theatrical show of the artist. The records also show that King Diamond is vocal assisted by a backing singer.

Trivia

In 2012, the Swedish paleontologist Mats E. Eriksson named an extinct worm Kingnites diamondi , based on King Diamond; In 2006, Eriksson named the worm Kalloprion kilmisteri after Lemmy Kilmister from Motörhead .

Musical and ideological background

King Diamond is known for his falsetto voice and stage performance. He himself believes that paying audiences expect more than a perfect reproduction of the album they own. He tried to imitate Alice Cooper . The music is the most important part of King Diamond, but the effects make up half of the performance. A heavy metal concert is similar to a ritual , but the band is all about the entertainment of its fans. In contrast to Vincent Damon Furnier, the person behind the pseudonym Alice Cooper, he sees Kim Bendix Petersen and King Diamond as identical and would see it as lying to speak of the latter in the third person, as Furnier does with Cooper. While Cooper was his main influence, David Byron was his inspiration for singing, along with Diamond's influences from progressive rock . But he doesn't want to copy anyone, and in order to avoid unconscious parallels with other artists, he sometimes doesn't listen to music for several months when he's writing songs.

King Diamond was one of the few metal musicians with serious references to Satanism in the 1980s . This also flows into his texts, but he emphasizes never to preach with his music; one's own beliefs are a personal matter; the personality of the individual is more important. Therefore, other musicians don't have to share the statements of his lyrics in order to play in a band with him.

“In the beginning the fans thought we were very extreme. I've been asked many times for my opinion on Satanism, but I've always made it clear that I'm there for the music and the theatrical aspect. People can believe whatever they want. But what is important to me personally: I like and respect King for the person he is. "

- Andy LaRocque : Interview at Rock Hard

Diamond emphasizes that he is indifferent to the beliefs of other people, so he would have no problem performing with a Christian band like Stryper ; he has also performed with the Doom Metal band Trouble , whose members, however, are not "hardcore Christians" and whose lyrics are more vague than Stryper's. He considers it stupid to impose religion on others and describes people like the PMRC activists as ignoramuses and idiots who would pick metal as an easy target but not classical music that inspired people like Aleister Crowley fought.

Initially, Diamond only came across literature that conveyed the Christian view of Satanism using stereotypes such as infant sacrifice. He himself couldn't do anything with this point of view. Therefore he did not feel connected to the content of the psychedelic rock band Coven , which convey "Christian Satanism", although he was enthusiastic about their singer Jinx Dawson and her vocal range. Diamond remained curious and got Anton Szandor LaVey's Satanic Bible , which he named as a source of inspiration; however, he regards himself as “not religious”, for him Satanism is “not a religion, but a philosophy of life”, which he already lived before he read the Satanic Bible ; to him the word Satan was of "special importance". He became a member of LaVey's Church of Satan . and made a Life Member by LaVey. He stood by his satanic beliefs and to occasionally incorporate them into his music, which provoked negative reactions. Most of his texts, however, are purely fictional; the Mercyful Fate title Satan's Fall, for example, describes the view most Christians have when hearing the word "Satan", but the essence of the song lies in the statement "Use your demon eyes, uncover the disguise" ; Diamond means that you should know about it before you criticize it. One should read the Bible first and then make a decision. Those who have not read the Bible should not degrade Satanism. His attitude towards forces like those at work in his apartment in the early 1980s is evident in songs like Welcome Princes of Hell .

However, since the critics only see evil in Satanism , Diamond would prefer his belief to have a different name. To avoid controversy, Diamond's bands stopped using the words Satan and Lucifer without actually changing the lyrics themselves. According to the reactions of the listeners, they now seem to understand better what Diamond wants to convey with his lyrics; however, people also told him that they were happy about his textual departure from Satanism, even though he had only changed his language. However, Diamond's band was still accused of being satanic, even though the lyrics of their Abigail album tell a purely fictional horror story. When asked about his beliefs, he responded politely, but over time he found it annoying to constantly have to explain his interpretation of Satanism. In addition to the now more subtle references to Satanism, Diamond also likes to add other ambiguous statements, such as the reference to his birthday in Night of the Unborn with the verses: "13 days have come and gone / Since we had the first of June" .

Diamond has a clear vision of death, according to which people on earth should gain knowledge and experience in several lifetimes before they ascend to a higher plane of being. There is a force in everyone that will one day combine with a greater one.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		FI	SE	DE	US
1986	Fatal portrait	-	SE33 (1 week) SE	-	-
1987	Abigail	-	SE39 (2 weeks) SE	-	US123 (13 weeks) US
1988	Them	-	SE38 (2 weeks) SE	-	US89 (12 weeks) US
1989	Conspiracy	-	SE41 (1 week) SE	DE67 (5 weeks) DE	US111 (8 weeks) US
1990	The Eye	-	-	-	US179 (8 weeks) US
1995	The Spider's Lullabye	FI31 (4 weeks) FI	-	-	-
1996	The graveyard	FI23 (2 weeks) FI	-	-	-
1998	voodoo	FI27 (4 weeks) FI	SE55 (1 week) SE	-	-
2000	House of God	-	SE60 (1 week) SE	-	-
2002	Abigail II: The Revenge	FI24 (1 week) FI	SE42 (1 week) SE	-	-
2003	The Puppet Master	-	SE36 (1 week) SE	-	-
2007	Give Me Your Soul… Please	FI25 (1 week) FI	SE28 (2 weeks) SE	-	US174 (1 week) US

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Live albums and compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		FI	SE	DE	CH	US
2019	Songs for the Dead - Live at the Fillmore in Philadelphia	-	SE45 (1 week) SE	DE7 (1 week) DE	CH91 (1 week) CH	-	First published: January 25, 2019

More live albums and compilations

• 1991: In Concert 1987: Abigail live album
• 1992: A Dangerous Meeting Split
• 1999: Collector's Item Massacre Classx Shape Edition EP
• 2001: Nightmares in the Nineties
• 2001: 20 Years Ago - A Night of Rehearsal King Diamond & Black Rose (Rehearsal Tape from 1980)
• 2003: The Best of King Diamond
• 2004: Deadly Lullabyes: Live album

EPs / singles

• 1985: No Presents for Christmas c / w Charon
• 1986: Halloween c / w The Candle & The Lake
• 1987: The Family Ghost c / w Shrine
• 1988: The Dark Sides

Other publications

• 2000: Usurper : Necronemesis (vocals with Necronemesis )
• 2004: Cradle of Filth : Nymphetamine (vocals with Devil Woman on the Special Edition)
• 2005: Probot
• 2005: Roadrunner United : The All-Star Sessions
• 2013: Volbeat : Outlaw Gentleman & Shady Ladies (vocals at Room 24 )

Web links

Commons : King Diamond  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l} Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. In the Beginning ... Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on August 30, 2012 (English). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z} Götz Kühnemund : A History of Horror . In: Rock Hard , No. 282, November 2010, pp. 20-27.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} Mike grid: King Diamond's Terrifying Conspirarcy . In: Thrash , 1989, pp. 19-22.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o} Mark Putterford: A Kind of Magic . In: Kerrang , 1987, p. 10 f.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. Black Rose. Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on August 30, 2012 (English). 
6. ^ ^{A b c} Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. Mercyful Fate. Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on August 30, 2012 (English). 
7. ^ ^{A b c} Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. Don't Break The Oath. Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on September 3, 2012 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} INTERVIEWS. Mario's Metal Mania. Retrieved September 3, 2012 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. The first solo works. Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on September 5, 2012 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Leece Lee: King Diamond . In: Aardschok , 1987.
11. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. "Them". Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on October 4, 2012 . 
12. ^ Paul A. Royd: KISS . In: Metal Hammer , No. 10/1984, p. 7.
13. ↑ KING DIAMOND Undergoes Triple-Bypass Heart Surgery. Blabbermouth.net, December 11, 2010, accessed September 5, 2012 . 
14. ↑ Winter moon : KING DIAMOND back on stage! .
15. ↑ Website of the band: false reports about performances .
16. ↑ Tour Dates & Booking , accessed April 11, 2013.
17. ↑ King Diamond | Official website. Retrieved March 13, 2019 . 
18. ↑ Mike Hohnen: Scientist Names Newly Discovered Species After King Diamond , September 18, 2012, accessed October 16, 2012.
19. ^ Andreas Himmelstein: Andy LaRocque . In: Rock Hard , No. 282, November 2010, p. 25.
20. ↑ Michael Moynihan , Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos . Extended and revised edition. Index Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-936878-00-4 , pp. 26 .
21. ^ "An amazing singer, her range ... not that I stand up for the viewpoints on their Witchcraft record, which was like good old Christian Satanism. But they had something about them that I liked ... "Michael Moynihan, Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos , First Edition, Feral House 1998, ISBN 0-922915-48-2 , p. 8.
22. ↑ Michael Moynihan, Didrik Søderlind: Lords of Chaos . Extended and revised edition. Index Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-936878-00-4 , pp. 31 .
23. ↑ ^{a b} Nate Denver: King Diamond. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 29, 2010 ; accessed on February 17, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
24. ↑ Shane and Amy Bugbee: The Doctor is In ... 1999, accessed February 17, 2010 . 
25. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources albums: Charts FI Charts SE Charts DE CH Charts US