House of GodKing Diamond |
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Imagine going from the calm serenity of a place like "Babylon" to being jarred awake by that which has invaded many a peaceful dream… and the darkness that surrounds you… beckoning you to beware, and yet it's too late! The King has come calling yet again and his intentions this time are no less disturbing than at any time before! "House of God," another haunting tale of fictional reality from the almighty mind of madness, one King Diamond, the foreboding voice of unholy terror revisits that old "house" on the hill and another chilling tale that's been trapped within the silent gates of memory for over two hundred years… or so we begin. Following the expected introduction… the warning, we're quickly lifted "Upon the Cross," and forced to relive that fateful day all those years ago… but not quite carried out in the expected tradition. "The Trees Have Eyes" features the King and his loyal right hand man-or left as it were-Andy La Rocque brandishing some razor sharp riffs and the impeccable if not imprecision with which they are delivered. The King's been noted for a rebirth of sorts both on his own and with Mercyful Fate in recent years and "House of God" lacks a little in the depth charts-a not so uncommon occurrence when productive exploits allow more than the required light to shine in on the expected darkness. Now the title track suffers little on all counts and lives right on the cusp of their creative peak-and here's where La Rocque really ups the ante on one of KD's most adventurous tracks as the "Nights of heavenly sin" are finally revealed! "Black Devil" is a blasphemous account of self-inflicted mental wounds having been previously realized and it's become obvious this "House of God" that is the focal point of the story is no ordinary church… But then you knew that already. And worship can take on many, many different meanings… and that's the intriguing nature of a recurring thought as it rises to the surface within that graveyard that is the mind of one King Diamond! Another great piece where La Rocque, teamed again with guitarist Glen Drover cross swords in a structurally efficient and alluring trail of "Black Devil," "Just a Shadow," another six string uprising amidst a wall of flames that sees little means for escape once the bellowing cries for "Help!!!" have faded in the distance. An otherwise wasted moment after a solid four through eight song block of future King classics, before "This Place is Terrible" relights the flickering flame and the passage to Hell is again cleared while we're left to battle our own inner demons while somehow trying to make sense of something that can simply never be resolved. King Diamond's music will do that to you… always and forever. He doesn't always deliver us from… or to evil for that matter but as with most cases, we're left lingering at some point in between, sometimes stunned, sometimes bewildered but never quite at peace with ourselves… "House of God" doesn't uphold the expectations left in the wake of his great "Voodoo" concept a while back but its distorted visions and disturbing views remain enough of the time to keep the wolves at bay at least for the moment… Released by Metal
Blade Records GmbH, P.O. Box 1332, 73054 Eislingen, Germany.
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20 Years Ago: A Night of Rehearsal King Diamond & Black Rose |
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It's almost scary to think about what the existence of King Diamond must have been like before achieving his/their level of success throughout these past two decades… Considering all of the onstage exploits and macabre imagery they've used to fuel their reputation as one of the darkest and dangerous bands in Heavy Metal, what must have preceded one could only wonder about… until now. That's where Black Rose comes in, the King's earlier band which at long last is put on exhibition here for the first time. And in fact, skimming through the cover booklet as I'm prone to doing in advance, some of the tricks they pulled leading up to their well-documented shock tactics were the stuff of either legend or pure filth-and not necessarily in that order. But that's for listeners' to discover later on. An all Danish five piece, the music of Black Rose was quite a bit different that what we've come to expect from the King today though no less dark-in fact listening to some of its contents, it does in fact possess those very same eerie and ominous characteristics that King Diamond would build a career on. The music they captured on tape, somewhat audibly deficient as expected as this is very much 1980, lends to a certain intrigue in its style, much more like early Deep Purple or even Uriah Heep in some instances, very dependent on the bass-heavy organ music while the King's vocals are more in line with an Ian Gillan type, subdued with only a pointed shriek as the song calls for. Musically it's very much the same as one would expect but again with the very heavy Deep Purple element thrown in the mix. The songs were no less "charming" as the death taunts or satanic configurations of a "Melissa" type record and in fact with titles as "Kill For Fun," "The End," and "Soul Overture," had even less concern for… decency. There was a reason they were written of as the next big thing to come out of Denmark-and okay, big deal, but in fact with such statements as "Violent Rock, Insane, Nerve Wrecking," used to hype them and those sort of enviable qualities you want to have out of a future million seller, well they were on the money. The tunes aren't always what you'd expect and in some cases aren't very good yet this is one of those rare collections that surfaces from the catacombs-quite literally in this case-that helps put things in perspective in a group's career while throwing the fans an extra bone until the next record. Twenty years ago this was some pretty wild stuff and they end off with a pretty warped cover of Golden Earring's "Radar Love" before fading off into some background static and interpersonal commentary. King Diamond & Black Rose, a look back into the origins of what would surface as one of the most devastating and respectable Heavy Rock acts to ever disgrace the world's stage… and here's a look back to where it all began. Released by Metal
Blade Records GmbH, P.O. Box 1332, 73054 Eislingen, Germany. Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |