KIng Diamond

The Once and Future King Diamond

Audio

At the Sound of the Demon Bell

TRACK #242:

At the Sound of the Demon Bell by Mercyful Fate

By association, Shindig Superhero King Diamond finally becomes the Shindig All-Star he was always meant to be.

From Mercyful Fate’s 1983 debut album, Melissa, comes this Satany as shit foray into Halloween with Mr. Diamond at the helm, falsetto and all.

And, for King Diamond fans, the name Melissa is an important one.

According to the album’s final song (and title track) Melissa was a witch who owned the heart of King. She was (presumably) burned at the stake by a priest, to which King Diamond swore revenge.

Melissa then reappeared the following year, again on the final track, of the album Don’t Break the Oath called Come to the Sabbath. That song details the performance of a ritual that will curse the priest responsible for murdering Melissa.

King with his famous Melissa mic stand, though I doubt that’s the original skull.

Finally, Melissa appears on the 1993 Mercyful Fate reunion album, In the Shadows, on the song Is That You, Melissa? Here, King attempts to convince a Coven to perform a ritual which will allow him to speak with Melissa’s ghost. Though the Coven refuses, King is later visited by her spirit. They share a kiss and Melissa is never spoken of again.

However, Melissa holds even more significance to Mr. Diamond than that. See, sometime in 1981, King procured human remains from a medical school in Copenhagen. He then proceeded to named those bones “Melissa.”

King would go on to form his legendary mic stand from the femur and tibia of “Melissa’s” remains. Additionally, he would carry her skull around with him on stage. That is, he did, until one night at a show in the Netherlands (he reckons) Melissa’s skull was stolen!

King still uses his Melissa mic stand to this very day, but her skull has never…been seen…again.

At the sound of the demon bell,

Everything will turn to hell

Rise, rise, rise…

It’s Halloween!

 

Audio

Trick Or Treat

TRACK #125:

Trick or Treat by King Diamond

It’s time once again Weeners for the King of Halloween himself, Mr. King Diamond.

Sure, this song isn’t really about Halloween or even Trick or Treating for that matter, but the King is playing a game called Trick or Treat and damn it if that’s not good enough for the Ole Shindig.

Ever the theatrical, King Diamond’s catalog consists mostly of concept albums, as the majority tell very detailed and horrific stories. Why no one has turned one of these into a movie yet is beyond me. There’s a couple of real good ones.

In particular, the gem from which our next tracks hails, 1996’s The Graveyard.

The Graveyard tells the story of an unnamed King Diamond character who is wrongfully committed to a sanitarium by Mayor McKenzie. Seems King used to work for the him and one night happened upon the The Mayor molesting his own daughter. Yikes.

So the Mayor cooked up a story and tossed King Diamond into the meat grinder.

After years in Blackhill Sanitarium losing his mind, King kills a nurse, escapes and takes refuge in The Graveyard, where he begins to plots his revenge. He also murders some other people and becomes obsessed with the idea of a person’s soul living inside its decapitated head forever, but mostly it’s the revenge he’s interested in.

And that’s where we join our story…

King has kidnapped the Mayor’s daughter Lucy and buried her alive in one of seven graves. Mayor McKenzie has 3 tries to discover which grave is holding Lucy or he will murder them both…

::my best John Kassir impression::

…in a little game the King is calling…Treat Or Treat…yeeehahahahaaaaa.

 

Audio

Halloween

TRACK #3:

Halloween by King Diamond

With the first 2 tracks simply serving as atmosphere, the the unofficial start to Halloween Shindig is here. And what better herald is there than King Diamond to usher in our festivities? Halloween (or our Shindig) doesn’t truly begin until King Diamond fucking says so.

But to King Diamond, every night is Halloween, and he looks damn prepared for it…always. Check it out.

Anything anyone who looks anything like this 90% of the time has to say about Halloween is probably true, so we should just listen.

But, I’m not sure how that works exactly. If Halloween is just constantly occurring, what’s all the fuss about? What are any of us doing here? Why is there a party, and why do you need music for it?

That’s because, in deference to whether King gets his sack out and goes trick-or-treating every night, Halloween is still Oct. 31st, and you’ve got a party to host. A party King Diamond will most likely not be attending…at least not physically anyway.

So, in the true spirit of Halloween, the eve of the dead…..crank it up, and let the spirit of King Diamond make an appearance at your Shindig.