Them (album)
| "Them" | ||||
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| King Diamond studio album | ||||
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Publication |
1988 |
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admission |
1988 |
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| Label (s) | Roadrunner Records , Roadracer Records, MCA Records Canada, Estúdio Eldorado, Far East Metal Syndicate, Columbia House Record Club | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD, audio cassette |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
53:29 |
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| occupation |
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King Diamond, Roberto Falcao |
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Studio (s) |
MMC Studio, Copenhagen |
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Them (spelling on the album itself: ”Them” ) is the third studio album by heavy metal singer King Diamond with his solo project of the same name. It is a concept album .
Emergence
After the tour of the previous album Abigail , the band broke up with Michael Moon, who, according to drummer Mikkey Dee, “was just too young and inexperienced to be able to get through a month-long tour. In addition, our music didn't quite meet his expectations. ”Timi Hansen, on the other hand, had to leave the band because“ [s] a woman […] had left him with a two-year-old child from one day to the next ”and he“ of course didn't want to To give up adoption ”. Originally he was supposed to play the bass himself, but his replacement Hal Patino from Geisha “got used to the material so quickly that we ultimately decided on him. It's just fairer to Hal, because the fans can tell right from the start that he is a full replacement. ”The album was recorded at the Midi Music Center in Copenhagen in early March 1988 ; the drum tracks were recorded in the first three days, a week later the recordings of the bass tracks were completed. Them was produced and mixed by King Diamond and Roberto Falcao, who was also responsible for the keyboard effects; They were assisted by Andy LaRocque and Mikkey Dee. Worldwide release was announced for June 15, 1988. For live performances, the band planned to recreate the house in which the story takes place and to integrate scenes from it into the stage show.
Track list
- Out from the Asylum - 1:44 (King Diamond)
- Welcome Home - 4:36 (King Diamond)
- The Invisible Guests - 5:04 (King Diamond)
- Tea - 5:15 (King Diamond)
- Mother's Getting Weaker - 4:02 (King Diamond, Andy LaRocque)
- Bye, Bye Missy - 5:08 (King Diamond)
- A Broken Spell - 4:08 (King Diamond, Andy LaRocque)
- The Accusation Chair - 4:21 (King Diamond)
- Them - 1:56 (King Diamond, Andy LaRocque)
- Twilight Symphony - 4:10 (King Diamond)
- Coming Home - 1:11 (King Diamond)
Music style and lyrics
King Diamond "uses his voice in different pitches now more variably" than on Abigail ; instead of the maximum of eight vocal tracks on the previous album, he used twelve to eighteen tracks here. With his singing he represents the different characters in the history of the album, whereby “[the] relationship between high and low voices [...] naturally changes from title to title, but overall I used the lower voices a little more often ". According to Holger Stratmann from Rock Hard, the changes compared to its predecessor are “minimal. So the sound is maybe SOMETHING less powerful and transparent [...]. "The new pieces are" technically of high quality, one edge harder, four to five minutes long (and therefore more compact), but not necessarily more catchy "and" contain countless complicated breaks , which are strongly reminiscent of the old Mercyful Fate and put the technical skills of the King Diamond musicians in the foreground more than ever ”, as Götz Kühnemund wrote after listening to the four-track demos. King Diamond himself also confirmed the return to the style of his previous band Mercyful Fate. The music has become “harder, more complex and more demanding, but at the same time more melodic and catchy - a mixture that we certainly did not always succeed in in the past. In hindsight we are proud of ABIGAIL, and it might sound implausible when I tell you that the new album will bring an improvement - but I'm really convinced of that! The guys have developed a lot on their instruments so that we can go a step further in every respect. ”According to Diamond, the title track is“ gigantic choirs, effects of all kinds […] and even backwards recorded guitar runs "the highlight of the album; the reason for these unusual passages is understandable when listening.
The story told on Them begins with a prologue in which the protagonist writes a letter after a "terrible phone call" that his grandmother had invited him to an old house. He did not want to return, but had to do so. The letter alludes to events from the time when the protagonist lived 18 years earlier with his mother and sister Missy in his grandmother's old house. The grandmother had been in a mental hospital and was declared crazy when she talked about "them" (English them ); the protagonist was told that she was on vacation. The letter signed with the initials KD and dated December 3, 1987 "gives clues, but does not yet reveal the story". In unison Out from the Asylum , “'their' voices can be heard in the attic of the old house”. In a retrospective, “they” talk about their grandmother's upcoming return. In the first actual song, Welcome Home , the grandmother returns from the alleged vacation; the piece is held in a medium tempo with "varied [r], melodic [r] guitar work [...] and [...] driving [r] rhythm section". The following night, which is sung about in the faster, Mercyful Fate reminiscent of The Invisible Guests , the protagonist hears strange voices from the attic next to which his room is located. Looking through the keyhole, he sees his grandmother sitting in a rocking chair talking to invisible people and several teacups moving as if by themselves. Suddenly the door opens and the grandmother stands in front of the protagonist and asks him to come in; he will "soon get to know the secret of Amon ". A few minutes later he is sent back to his room and falls asleep. The following Friday, which is being treated in Tea , the grandmother knocks on his door at night and leads him into her room in order to let him in on the secret. The mother sits asleep in the rocking chair. The protagonist sees a knife floating towards her and slitting her wrist. Your blood is dripping into an old teapot. As if in a trance , they “drink the bloody mixture together with the invisible guests and suddenly feel heavenly feelings. Everything around us becomes unimportant, we are just happy. ”The piece“ starts off slowly, but also contains faster parts, acoustic guitars, Metallica- like staccato riffs and outstanding harmony solos ”. After "[d] three nights [...] in grandmother's room with the bloody tea", the mother, who is "under a spell, [...] has lost one and a half liters of blood and feels weaker and weaker." That evening Missy comes into my room, takes me by the hand, and leads me down the stairs to my mother's bed. Weeping, she urges me to call a doctor because my mother is hardly alive. But I cut the phone cord and leave the room indifferently. ”These incidents are dealt with in the“ guitar- focused uptempo number ” Mother's Getting Weaker , which closes the A-side.
The B-side begins with Bye, Bye Missy , "a very straight song by KD standards, which stands out especially with an unusual lead break in the middle section". The protagonist and his grandmother are sitting in their attic again at night and drinking the mixture of blood and tea with "them" when Missy suddenly rushes in and screams at them in panic. The grandmother “just says 'we better get rid of her she's too young anyway' and laughs. Then Missy breaks the old teapot. Suddenly you can hear 'she' shouting with demon voices: 'She broke Amon - she must die!' ”When Missy is being dragged down the stairs by invisible hands, her brother realizes what is happening and runs after her. In the next piece, A Broken Spell , he stumbles out of the house because "they" no longer have any power over him outside. His mind struggles with his body until he falls to his knees. Through the cellar window he sees the ax that was found next to his grandfather's body moving up the cellar stairs to the stove in the kitchen. At that moment the protagonist passes out - which frees Diamond "from describing in the text how Missy is dismembered and burned"; musically this is implemented by a “hectic entrance, brilliant breaks, an acoustic part, mainly lower voices”. In the following play, The Accusation Chair , the protagonist returns to the grandmother's attic, tries to deceive her, lures her out of the house and kills her outside. “They” try to help her, but “their strength is not strong enough outside the home. In my fear I call the police and suddenly I find myself in the same situation as my grandmother when her husband died. Of course, nobody takes a word from me and I am taken to an institution. This is followed by an instrumental entitled 'Them', which also contains the guitars played backwards. 'They' are trying to get me back. ” The Accusation Chair is“ a really fast, driving song with a dramatic keyboard part in the middle ”. In the last real song, Twilight Symphony , the protagonist explains his situation 18 years after these events and writes the letter after he received the call from his dead grandmother. The ending Coming Home describes his return to the old house. It contains the sounds of the old music box when he knocks on the door. His grandmother opens the door for him, you greet each other and enter the house. Their voices become quieter until the grandmother finally says, “I bet you'd dying for a good of tea.” Then the front door slams, which ends the album.
Reviews
After listening to the four-track demos, Kühnemund wrote that they sounded “more than promising - both in terms of instrumental and vocals”. The album was LP tip of the month in Metal Hammer / Crash ; King Diamond had "not promised too much - THEM, the new concept album [...], clearly outshines all previous releases of the horror master and has truly earned the title 'LP of the month'". Stratmann wrote in his review of Them that the “ingenuity of some records” only becomes apparent “later. 'Abigail' only got an 8.5 from me at the time, one point too little. In order not to make the same mistake again, I listened to 'Them' seven or eight times. "The album is" strong as usual, the line-up changes are hardly noticeable. Precise riffs, strong leads and the usual good performance from drummer Mikkey Dee. The king himself has probably finally brought his own style to perfection and now uses his voice in different pitches more variably (which cannot hide the fact that it still gets on my mind every now and then, despite all the familiarization ...) . [...] What is missing a bit is the genius and variety that characterized 'Abigail'. Otherwise, 'Them' is a first-class and mature album in the typical KING DIAMOND style, which by and large meets expectations […]. ”He gave the album nine out of ten points.
he vom Musikexpress, on the other hand, gave the album three points and wrote that the horror “doesn't let up from the first to the last groove. Grandfather's head is cut off and Sister Missy is chased through the chimney. The King plays the heroes of his story, chased by delusions, damn realistically. The band helps to the best of their ability. Two lead guitars rise up and down the pitch in wild whirlpools. The lack of any melody ideas makes itself felt for another 40 minutes but then quite tiring. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Götz Kühnemund : King Diamond . Studio report . In: Metal Hammer / Crash , May 1988, pp. 134f.
- ↑ a b c Holger Stratmann: King Diamond . Them . In: Rock Hard , No. 27, accessed January 20, 2013.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Götz Kühnemund: King Diamond . Them . In: Metal Hammer / Crash , July 1988, p. 47.
- ↑ he: King Diamond . Them . In: Musikexpress , September 1988, p. 99.