On May 18th, King Diamond will release LP re-issues of the classic albums Abigail, Fatal Portrait, and Them via Metal Blade Records. “You can spiral yourself into darkness with these classic King Diamond albums, or you can exhibit them on your wall like I will. Either way, enjoy.” – King
Abigail track-listing:
SIDE A
1. Funeral
2. Arrival
3. A Mansion in Darkness
4. The Family Ghost
5. The 7th Day of July 1777
SIDE B
6. Omens
7. The Possession
8. Abigail
9. Black Horsemen
Fatal Portrait track-listing:
SIDE A
1. The Candle
2. The Jonah
3. The Portrait
4. Dressed in White
SIDE B
5. Charon
6. Lurking in the Dark
7. Halloween
8. Voices from the Past
9. Haunted
Them track-listing:
SIDE A
1. Out from the Asylum
2. Welcome Home
3. The Invisible Guests
4. Tea
5. Mother’s Getting Weaker
SIDE B
6. Bye, Bye, Missy
7. A Broken Spell
8. The Accusation Chair
9. Them
10. Twilight Symphony
11. Coming Home
About King Diamond
Widely regarded as one of the finest vocalists in all of metal (who possesses a multi-octave range), Danish theatrical rocker King Diamond first rose to prominence as a member of gothic black metal group Mercyful Fate before launching a solo career in 1986. Known for his elastic falsetto, distinctive face-paint, occult leanings, femur- and tibia bone-adorned microphone stand, and seminal 1987 concept album Abigail, Diamond is one of late 20th and early 21st century most iconic heavy metal figures, issuing a slew of quality, narrative-driven albums, including Conspiracy (1989), The Graveyard(1996), Abigail II: the Revenge, and Give Me Your Soul…Please (2007), the latter of which earned a Grammy nomination.
Born Kim Bendix Petersen in Denmark on June 14, 1956, the future King Diamond was originally drawn to theatrically based hard rock due to such trailblazers as Alice Cooper, and soon began fronting local bands in the ’70s, including a punk-metal outfit called the Brats. Shortly thereafter, the group mutated into Mercyful Fate. But despite a promising future, Mercyful Fate broke up when a common musical style couldn’t be agreed on (Diamond wanted to continue with thrash metal, while a few of the others wanted to explore more mainstream-oriented hard rock).
Undeterred, Diamond launched a solo project, which was almost identical in approach, both musically and visually, to his former band. King Diamond’s first three solo releases, 1986’s Fatal Portrait, 1987’s Abigail, and 1988’s Them, are widely considered to be Diamond’s finest, as the singer continued to issue further releases until the early ’90s (1989’s Conspiracy, 1990’s The Eye). It was also around this time that Diamondfound his name embroiled in controversy — due to a Geraldo Rivera TV special on music with supposed “hidden messages,” and Kiss’ Simmons served a lawsuit against the singer, claiming that the makeup design Diamond had been using too closely resembled the one that Simmons used in the ’70s and early ’80s, which resulted in an out of court settlement with Diamond being forced to modify his makeup design. (Source)
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