King Diamond
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| King Diamond
<tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:King Diamond.jpg </td></tr> | ||
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| Background information
<tr><td>Birth name</td><td colspan="2">Kim Bendix Petersen</td></tr><tr><td>Born</td><td colspan="2">June 14, 1956</td></tr><tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Denmark</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Heavy metal |
King Diamond (born Kim Bendix Petersen, June 14, 1956, Denmark) is a heavy metal musician known for his wide vocal range and Satanic shock rock image. As the frontman for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond, his music has had an influence on many bands across a variety of metal sub-genres; Metallica, for instance, occasionally performed lengthy medleys of Mercyful Fate songs during their concerts.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Mercyful Fate era
Diamond's first band, with whom he played guitar, was called Brainstorm. Feeling creatively dissatisfied, Diamond left Brainstorm and began singing with local Danish hard rock band Black Rose. It was during his time in Black Rose that Diamond began experimenting with horror themed theatrics as well as shaping the malevolent quasi-Satanic stage persona that he would become known for in the future. In 1980, he left Black Rose and joined the punk-metal band Brats. It was in Brats that Diamond met the three musicians (Hank Shermann, Michael Denner, Timi Hansen) that would join with Diamond in 1980 and become Mercyful Fate. Because of the group's stage presence, make-up and occult lyrics, Mercyful Fate are often considered thematic progenitors of what would become black metal. Their musical style is somewhat reminiscent of heavy metal, power metal, progressive metal and rock opera. As a vocalist, Diamond is known for his use of falsetto, mixed with mid-range vocals in most of his music.
On stage, Diamond uses a trademark microphone stand consisting of two femur bones in the shape of an inverted cross. Also a live trademark, was Melissa, a full human skeleton, which Diamond would sing to. In the mid-1980s Melissa's skull was stolen after a performance in the Netherlands. It was claimed to have been finally returned in 2006.[1], however this was denied by King Diamond himself. He was once sued by KISS bassist Gene Simmons because Simmons claimed that Diamond's use of face make-up was too similar to his own. Diamond has changed the design of his make-up often over the years. With Conspiracy, he wore a mesh of black and white line war paint, with some red "blood" made to look like a wound coming out of his forehead. With his last album The Puppet Master, he used very little white and mainly had black inverted crosses going up and down his face.
[edit] King Diamond era
Following the 1984 release of Don't Break the Oath and the subsequent tour which saw them play in the U.S. for the first time, Diamond, frustrated by creative differences with Shermann, split ways with Mercyful Fate and took with him two of his bandmates (Hansen and Denner) to form a new band under his own name, King Diamond.
A distinct feature of Diamond's music is his frequent use of lyrics and music to create characters and tell stories in the form of concept albums. Albums meld together as one story - features present already in The Fatal Portrait album, but carried to more intricate levels with the albums, Abigail, Them , and the end?? To the dramatic story, Conspiracy. Typical of both the Abigail and Conspiracy tours was that King Diamond re-enacted the scenarios on stage, using special effects in the show much in the style of metal-musician Alice Cooper, of whom Diamond is a fan. King Diamond albums also often feature dueling guitar solos. On the CD inserts, the performer of each solo is credited, often using a symbol.
[edit] Mercyful Fate Reunion
Mercyful Fate re-united in 1992, while the band King Diamond continued as well up until 1999, at which point he decided to put Mercyful Fate in retirement and continue on with King Diamond. He released House of God in 2000, Abigail II: The Revenge in 2002, and The Puppet Master in 2003. He released a double disk live album from the Puppet Master Tour (his first in over a decade) and another warm up tour in 2005.
In late 2005, King Diamond appeared on the Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions album. He did vocals to a song called "In the Fire". The song is on an album being released by Roadrunner Records featuring multiple musicians working together to create individual songs. Also in late 2005, King Diamond lent his vocals to a Cradle of Filth song, "Devil Woman".
He and his band members are currently working on a 2007 full album release.
[edit] Satanism
Despite numerous claims otherwise, Peter H. Gilmore, The High Priest in The Church Of Satan, has confirmed in a 6/6/06 interview on the news show "The Hour" that King Diamond is in fact a member of the Church thus ending the controversy. It is rumored that King Diamond also possesses copy number 666 of the Simon Necronomicon.
[edit] Discography
King Diamond has participated on all Mercyful Fate and King Diamond albums. For a complete listing see King Diamond discography and Mercyful Fate discography.
[edit] See also
- Mercyful Fate
- Mercyful Fate discography
- King Diamond
- King Diamond discography
- Black Rose
- Brats (pre-Mercyful Fate)
[edit] References
- Liner notes to King Diamond/Mercyful Fate A Dangerous Meeting, a compilation album released by Roadrunner Records in 1992.
- King Diamond is referenced in the motion picture Clerks 2, during a scene where the characters Randall and Elias are discussing Transformers, Elias is convinced Transformers are a gift from God, whereas Randall implies Transformers are evil and Satan-influenced. Randall then begins singing King Diamonds "Welcome Home", and is joined by another character "Jay", as they begin singing "Invisible Guests". Both songs as well as the dialogue of the Transformers scene (labeled "The First of The Fallen") appear on the Clerks 2 soundtrack CD. The song "Welcome Home" is also featured in one of the internet exclusive trailers for Clerks 2, which can be viewed on the www.clerks2.com website.
- King Diamond has recorded various voices for 4 episodes of the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, including Dr. Ronald Von Monoldburg ("Skwisklok"), Employee 421 ("Murdering Outside the Box"), the manager at Dimmu Burger ("Go Forth and Die"), and The Blues Devil ("Bluesklok")
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- www.king-diamond.de - German fanpage
- www.kingdiamond.ru - Russian fanpageda:King Diamond
de:King Diamond es:King Diamond fr:King Diamond it:King Diamond he:קינג דאיימונד hu:King Diamond no:King Diamond pl:King Diamond pt:King Diamond ru:King Diamond sk:King Diamond fi:King Diamond sv:King Diamond
