CBS SF talks to Mercyful Fate singer King Diamond (Part 2)
SAN FRANCISCO -- One of the most influential metal vocalists to emerge after the 1970s when he first came to fame fronting Danish band Mercyful Fate, King Diamond would rise to even greater success with the horrifying concept albums he delivered with his eponymous band.
With a voice that ranged from a guttural growl to a soaring falsetto and his sinister, corpse-painted visage, Diamond and Mercyful Fate were pioneers of early black metal thanks to the anthems heard on the band's seminal early '80s albums Melissa and Don't Break the Oath. Though the band split up by 1985 due to musical differences (reportedly between the singer and guitarist Hank Sherman), it's limited output and ferocious live shows -- particularly their first U.S. tour supporting Motörhead in 1984 -- exerted a major influence on Metallica, Slayer and a host of extreme metal bands that would follow in their wake.
Diamond would form his eponymous band that initially included Fate guitarist Michael Denner and bassist Timi Hansen, releasing its debut album Fatal Portrait in 1986. After that effort, the group went on to explore a more storytelling approach with the acclaimed horror concept efforts Abigail, "Them" and Conspiracy. Always a menacing figure live with his upside-down bone cross mic stand (made from an actual human femur and tibia), King Diamond upped the theatrics by introducing more elaborate stage craft, including costumed actors and illusionist tricks to flesh out his dark, gothic visions when performing.
Mercyful Fate would reunite in 1993, but Diamond managed to record and tour with both groups through the decade until Fate once again went on hiatus in 1999. The singer and his group put put out more successful concept albums with Abigail II and The Puppet Master during the 2000s, but scaled back its touring efforts.
Diamond had a major health scare in 2010 when he underwent triple-bypass surgery after suffering multiple heart attacks. The singer eventually made his first post-operation return to the stage in 2011, performing a medley of Mercyful Fate hits with longtime admirers Metallica and old Fate bandmates Hank Shermann, Michael Denner, and Timi Hansen during Metallica's 30th anniversary shows at The Fillmore.
In 2014, Diamond and his band embarked on their first full tour of the U.S. in a decade to ecstatic audiences before joining Slayer the following summer as part of the last ever Rockstar Mayhem Festival in 2015. The next year, Diamond toured performing his the classic Abigail album in its entirety along with other solo hits and Mercyful Fate tracks, playing metal festivals on both sides of the Atlantic and reestablishing the group as a live juggernaut.
Since then, Diamond has been hard at work on his band's forthcoming new album that was initially set for release in 2020. The Institute will present King Diamond's latest dark tale of madness and misery set in a mental hospital and will mark the band's first new effort in 16 years. In the summer of 2019, the singer also announced the first Mercyful Fate reunion shows that were slated for European festivals in 2020 but were delayed for a full two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That major announcement was sadly underscored by the then recent death of former bassist Timi Hansen to cancer.
The downtime led Fate to begin work on what will be its first album of new material in over two decades. Their appearances at a string of metal festivals this past summer -- their first live performances since 1999 -- were greeted by rave reviews as Diamond and the current line-up of Mercyful Fate featuring founding guitarist Hank Shermann, King Diamond band guitarist Mike Wead, drummer Bjarne T. Holm and bassist Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning) headlined Sweden Rock, Graspop Metal Meeting, Waken Open Air, Bloodstock among many others. The band was also a headliner at Psycho Las Vegas in August, marking their first concert on U.S. soil in over two decades. CBS SF recently spoke with King Diamond about both of his bands ahead of the current Mercyful Fate fall tour that lands at the Hard Rock Sacramento in Wheatland on October 30 with support from German thrash titans Kreator and upstart Cleveland blackened speed metal crew Midnight.
CBS SF: I read that "The Jackal of Salzburg" is about the witch hunts in Austria during the late 1600s. I was wondering if there was a theme, historical or otherwise, with the new Mercyful Fate material that's along the lines of your own band's typically concept and story-driven albums?
King Diamond: It will still be individual songs for Mercyful Fate, but that's a longer song. I didn't know about that. story or part of history in Austria till this year, and when when I heard about it, I was shocked. I think it was out of 130 some people, 139 of so, 109 were children between the ages of 10 and 4 who they burned alive, they hung them, they cut their hands off. They did everything they'd done to any other witches at the time. And he was a 20-year-old guy at the time. I think it was in 1675 that his mom was burned alive. And two years later, they started hunting him because they found they had tortured his mom and she'd given up a lot of people. They were examining all these different cases that she -- under torture -- had come up with.
So now they were chasing this guy, her son, who they were accusing of being in league with the devil and doing witchcraft in this thick forest. We went to the actual castle where this took place. It's a two-hour bus drive out of Salzburg, but is still called Salzburg, probably a province or something like that. But there is this castle standing in its full glory today. You can go in and see it and get a guided tour and all this. It's such beautiful landscape, the valleys and mountains and lots of forest, where this person was hiding from the witch hunt. The castle was more like a justice headquarters and they were doing all kinds of justice there. Or injustice or whatever.
So we went to the castle there. And it was not just that period; the headquarters were there for a long time. I think there was one bishop who took the lives of over 2,000 women. Completely insane. And there were others, but the Jackal of Salzburg deaths took place in that period of 1675 to 1690. And where they hunted this guy that was called the Jackal. And there were a lot of the kids, mostly beggars, who was taken in and they would ask them about stuff and they would point fingers. They'd say "Hey, what have you done? Maybe we need to talk to you at the Castle."
And they'd say, "No, no, no, no! I I know what you're talking about. But I did not do that. I saw them. I saw them in the forest. There was this jackal walking on two legs and there were other children dancing with this and that." So they make things up, you know? Sometimes he will be like, "You seem to know an awful lot. Maybe we should take you into the castle and see what what you know, for real." And they'd just torture and point fingers. The Jackal was never caught, but a lot of people died during the hunt for him. It just shows what human beings are capable of. Still today! We do it today, just in different ways, but we are still doing it. It's just nasty business.
When we went there and saw the castle, it's a nice castle, but it looks very ominous from the outside. I shot a little video outside as we talked about it and we shot another one with me and Joey where we introduced the new song that we might use in the future when it comes out. Inside we got to go down into the dungeon where they had what I would call the "justice room," and next to it is the torture room. There's all these torture instruments on the on the walls and in these rooms ready to be used. They're standing right there and they were used. These are the things that killed and tortured so many people. The wheel where they pulled people apart completely where you're tied with your hands on one end and your feet on the other end. They had this spike they would put people on. Just horrible things.
And imagine they were used on little kids. It's so horrifying to see what was going on there. There was a sword that after I saw it I want to put it into the lyrics of the song. It had an inscription and I think the judge would spin it, and then however it landed, there was a different graphics on each side of the blade. One side had a gallows and the other side had the wheel. So it wasn't a matter of whether you were guilty; you were already guilty when you entered that room. It was how you're going to die, you know? Is it going to be nice and easy on the gallows, or you're gonna be torn slowly apart on the wheel.
Just brutal to see these things, the real stuff. It was a brutal place, but we finally saw it for real and it was very exciting to actually get that chance. We also went to Dracula's castle in Romania and we went to another castle in the Czech Republic which was like the gateway to hell pretty much. Very weird. It was a castle [called Houska Castle] built around a hole in the ground that they couldn't fill up with anything. They eventually covered it up with metal plates and built a chapel on top of it. But they say demons would come out of the hole like it was a gateway to hell.
CBS SF: I wanted to ask a little bit about the costuming including the new headpiece and ram's mask and the wardrobe that you used in Las Vegas and on the summer tour. It's very distinct from the look you've had both on your own and with Mercyful Fate in earlier iterations. What was the inspiration for such a radical change?
King Diamond: Well, it's a collaboration. But it is the original inspiration comes from back in 1975. I saw Genesis with Peter Gabriel and they were doing The Lamb Lies Down Broadway. It started in '74 in the US, but it came to Europe in the spring of '75 and they played Copenhagen there. And later that same year, I saw Alice Cooper in the autumn doing his Welcome to My Nightmare show. Peter Gabriel would wear like a fox's head, he would wear a mask of an old man. He would "walk" through the air after being hoisted by cables. He did many things during "The Musical Box" and I think "The Return of the Giant Hogweed," some of the harder rock of their really progressive songs. The whole double album of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was an amazing show, I'll never forget it. But that's a big inspiration. I would love to do that someday.
Management knew someone who has also worked with Slipknot. I had these ideas for this thing here, this song, the storyline and all this stuff. There was some new things coming into it. And I saw what this girl Missy from Los Angeles had done before. I saw a crown, but it was different than what I had in mind. I wanted it much shorter. It was much taller at the end and different. So I asked, "Can you do this? Can you do that? What about this?" There was a mask she had done with a ram's head she had done earlier as well. I told her "But I can't use it like that. Can you do it this way? Can you close it so it becomes almost a whole head instead of just a front mask?" And she did these things like we hoped for, and the jackets and the robes.
Actually, she went to a...I don 't know if it was a museum, but it was where they had an exhibit of old 17th century clothing. And she got to copy a pattern and measure, I think with gloves on, this 17th century bishop's coat. So that's what they are based on; actual patterns from the coat. She made one red and one black -- that was my choice. I wanted it to have crosses on the back. She did an amazing job. She really recreated that style that would have been used in the 17th century.
CBS SF: I did want to ask a little bit about how you've talked about this revival of Mercyful Fate is not a reunion. In your mind, Fate never really ended...
King Diamond: Yeah, not since 1999. It's same line-up, except for we wanted to bring Timi back in and play all the old songs like we're doing now. The finger playing style was quite important for us to bring back into to the band. Sharlee [D'Angelo] -- who you know is in Arch Enemy -- is an amazing bass player. He uses a pick and he's very busy with Arch Enemy. Timi was invited back in the band and he had said yes, but then he got sick. He got better, but then he got much worse. And in the meantime, we looked for another bass player.
I checked Joey out, actually one day he was playing with Fates Warning here in Dallas and I went down and saw the show. Timi was very aware of Joey and said, "Maybe he can help us if I get sick. Or if I can only do some parts of shows and stuff like that." That was what we said: "Timi, you've got the spot. You deserve it, definitely." He was super interested in doing it again, but then it just didn't work out. But Joey is in it. He's definitely a permanent member.
CBS SF: You've kind of addressed the reason Michael Denner isn't involved as far as Mike Wead having been in the band already. One thing I wanted to ask about. As far as my understanding regarding the initial Mercyful Fate split in the '80s, it was Hank Sherman who of wanted to go in a more commercial direction, which you were not interested in doing. Is there any irony that now it's the two of you who are the only original members in this version of Fate?
King Diamond: Hank had become interested in [hard rock/funk band] Mother's Finest. And that was a style he wanted to see if we could incorporate. And I said, "No way can I sing to that kind of stuff. That's not what I feel. I can only do stuff that I really feel 100%." So then Hank suggested "Well, maybe we can do one side my style, and the other side you and Michael Denner can collaborate and write your own songs." I had already written "Come to the Sabbath" and "The Oath" on my own and collaborated with Denner on "Gypsy" on the music side. I always did the lyrics.
So that was the way it was back then. It was about staying honest to both ourselves and the fans. Had we gone ahead with the other style and mixed it up like that, I feel would have been like spitting on the fans. Why would I do stuff that I can't stand behind? And I've never, ever done that in my entire career. I was like, "OK, I kind of like that we're being grown up about this stuff and saying, 'Let's go and see what we can do separately.'" And that became that. I didn't even think I had a record deal back at that time, you know? I told [the record label], "Well, the band has dissolved, so that's that. I want to continue playing, but I need to figure out exactly what I want to do." And they said, "Oh no, you're still signed!"
I said, "Nooooooo, I don't think so." Not that I didn't want to be signed. But then they said, "No, you're signed individually and collectively. That's what it says in the contract." OK [laughs]. What does that mean? You know, you learn the hard way. They said, "You should call yourselves King Diamond, which you are and the fan know you already. That's the thing you should continue with." So I agreed with that and we set up a whole new contract that was not related to the original Mercyful Fate contract as such. They said, "We'll give you a new contract, blah, blah, blah."
And then once it got set up, it was okay. I contacted Michael Denner and Timi Hansen: "Did you want to continue?" And they said, "Yeah, absolutely!" So then we had to find some new members. We found Mickey Dee [original King Diamond drummer] playing in a Danish band called Geisha, actually with a bass player who was in Brats [the Danish punk band from the late '70s that included Hank Shermann as an original member]. We found a Swedish guitarist who didn't get ready for the the studio time to record Fatal Portrait. And that's when we met Andy [LaRoque] and eventually, everybody was together there for Fatal Portrait. But we were entering the studio as a four piece and Michael Denner played the rhythm guitar, He's not the strongest rhythm guitar player; Andy is much, much stronger, but he was not available at the time that we were there [in the studio]. He came later.
So it was a development, like a changing of the guard, you could say. Since then, Hank has been doing very heavy stuff with his own projects that he's had. There was a time when he did some stuff that was very Mercyful Fate. That was right before we got reunited in Fate. I heard some stuff right before I moved to the U.S., and was like, "Wow, that sounds almost too Mercyful Fate for us not to do it!" And since then, for a long time, since 1999, there's been a lot of King Diamond, a lot of different things that have happened, also health wise.
But I've been asked many times, "Are you gonna do Mercyful Fate again? What's the deal?" And I always have said it has to be pure. If we do something, we have to do it 100%, full on. There's no point in going out and doing some half-assed stuff that would damage the great reputation that Mercyful Fate has. And those stars aligned when we got new management. I think that's when really fell into place and where we could see that, hey, we can do it again, the right way.
And at that point there, I know that Dana has been a little sour or whatever he is, but I don't really give a damn, because I've had nothing to do with him for I don't know how many years. Mike Wead has played many more years with us than Michael Denner. Mike Wead, in my opinion, is a better guitarist. Pure and simple, much better. Both his rhythm and lead guitar is unbelievable. Hank is beginning to really see what Mike Wead has nowadays, and he's said to me many times already on the tour, "My God, I'd totally forgotten how unbelievable he is live, studio, whatever." Why do you think I've played with him all these years? He's not going anywhere unless he wants to go himself. Mercyful Fate or King Diamond, for that matter. There's a reason he's there. And there is no way in hell that someone called Michael Denner can come walking in and say, "I should have that spot."
I should fire Mike Wead so you can come and play? When you haven't been around us for I don't know how many years. And when you were around, you left I don't know how many times. You can go back and look at the details. Michael Denner left I don't know how many times, but it's quite a few. He was also fired a couple of times. But that's not the issue here at all. This is not a reunion of the old line-up. Kim Ruzz. why isn't he being mentioned? I mean, I don't get these things here. He's certainly not coming [on the tour] instead of Bjarne, are you kidding me? Kim Ruzz is an amazing drummer, absolutely. Michael Denner I also can say he's an amazing...he has done amazing things, you know? He's not a favorite lead guitarist of mine. I mean, he never wans that. But he did some amazing pieces. What sticks out to me really is "Into the Coven" -- the intro -- and the intro to "Melissa." Those are things that really stick out. And there's something he did on a song called "Time" that I think was really, really, well created by him.
Michael Denner had a style of guitar where he liked to play very free for during recording, and that's where he had some strong things he came up with. But then he would have to learn them afterwards. The thing is, you just don't come and say that you want to be in a band, because maybe there's money now. I don't believe that we would ever have been able to do this project with him. It would never had taken off the ground. I mean, Michael Denner was never very happy with touring. And there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But he was never very happy about touring. So today, I don't think he would be to be doing what we're doing at all, even if he was asked and if he was in the shape [to do it].
But there are other things that play a role too that should not even be mentioned. I don't talk bad about people. I simply don't waste my time with that, you know? There's nothing bad about Michael Denner as a person whatsoever, but there are reasons that he can't do what we would like him to do had we wanted that scenario. But there's no way in hell that we'd want that scenario. Why would I tell Mike Wead that he can't play with us? He's the best guitars together with Hank that I've ever played with in Mercyful Fate. Absolutely.
This is serious. This is not, "Oh, let's be friends and have a fun time, have a fun couple of weeks." This is a full album. This is dead serious, man. We are coming with a show Mercyful Fate would never have dreamed of having right now, and you're gonna see that yourself. But you will see a Mercyful Fate that you will think, "Oh my God, I wonder if they had been like that back then, what would have happened?" Because that was many years ago. And if we had -- let's say -- management interested in us in the early days? I guess a lot of people have said that it was too extreme maybe and, "Ahhhh, they're not gonna go anywhere. They're too extreme." It's very possible.
But here today, we've never done better than we're doing right now. Absolutely not. And the same goes for King Diamond too. We just continue; full, honest and what we've always been about. There is no weird underlying plans or reasons or whatever. It is what it is. Straight, upfront; everybody can open the book and see straight in. We don't hide anything here.
CBS SF: I know that the tour starts there in Dallas, your adopted hometown in the States, before heading west. And I'm sure you've heard some fan grumbling about where the band is playing and isn't playing. I'll admit I was a little surprised that there wasn't a San Francisco date given your fan base here and the band's history playing SF. The connections with Metallica having done the reunion for the Metallica 30th anniversary shows in 2011. Is the plan, once the Mercyful Fate album comes out, to eventually do additional dates in the States once it's released?
King Diamond: I have no idea of what happens in the future. There is no chance of saying what happens. But I thought that it was what counts as a San Francisco date as far as what they've told me.
CBS SF: It's a little ways away. I mean, not that I wasn't gonna make it regardless. I was sad I couldn't go to Psycho Las Vegas, but logistically I couldn't pull it off. But the October 30th show is a couple of hours outside San Francisco. Much closer to Sacramento...
King Diamond: Uh huh. But you see, I don't know. I don't book the tours. What the reasons are behind it, I can guess. A reasonably educated guess is they're trying to take this tour -- with the demand -- to a little bit bigger places than a lot of the places Mercyful Fate has played before. The Factory, King Diamond has played before. There are several of these places that King Diamond has played before. but Mercyful Fate has never played those places before. And so that's where they go. I don't know if there is a place at that size in San Francisco that they're going fo. I don't know, because I know that there are a lot of cities where they say, "Well, if you want that size, you have to go to the next city."
And it's kind of like a natural progression that they're going for with the booking agents. They're trying to build it up. It's a strong package with Kreator too, you know? So they have their hopes up for this tour. And we are writing for two bands. We can't just start touring a lot and then forget these albums that really need to be done so we can start new cycles for each band. And this tour came about because King Diamond said, "No, we have to get the full album out so we can do the full tour, the full cycle, for this new album that's coming out."
Mercyful Fate might have another single out after "The Jackal of Salzburg" comes out. There might be one more coming out before King Diamond has the new album and the new cycle starts. And Mercyful Fate will be waiting and writing and finishing their album. I have the new cover for the Mercyful Fate album. I showed it to [founder and CEO of Metal Blade Records] Brian Slagle. He was about to have a cow about it. It was fantastic. He was blown away about the feel that it has without trying to be Melissa or Don't Break the Oath; you know, copying these old covers. Leave them alone. I mean, they're classics, in my opinion. So totally new, but man what I feel it has, what a style it has. It's an old painting -- hundreds of years old -- and it just oozes Mercyful Fate. So yeah, these things are up and running at full power but there are a lot of things that are being done at the same time. No one can say what will happen.
This year, there are two shows in Mexico. On the fourth of December, we're playing right before Kiss actually at the Hell and Heaven Metal Fest. I think they're sold out, over 100,000 people. That's going to be interesting. And then two days later, we were invited by Judas Priest to play Monterrey with them and Pantera. So two shows in Mexico. And what happens after that, I don't know. Except we're going to write, write, write and record, and write and record. So it's a lot of good, new ideas coming in with both bands.
CBS SF: Do you have any plans to change the setlist as far as what you were already doing in Europe and what you did in Las Vegas? There are those Fate albums from the 1990s that have some fantastic songs that would be great to hear live...
King Diamond: Absolutely, but that's for the future. The whole idea was to go out with [songs from] the mini-LP, Melissa and Don't Break the Oath and then do something new that would be in that style. Because that's how we feel. The set changed in sequence after we did the first stint in Europe. There was some things I didn't feel were right with how the costume changes were happening and where in the set they happened. Some of it did not leave enough time or was just not in the right spot; there was too little of this and too much of that.
So we came up with a new sequence and a new way of doing the costume changes and stuff like that. And first show after when we came back, I think it was in Romania, or maybe Bulgaria was the first one. And after the show Hank said, "Oh my God, that was it! It cannot be changed. The flow was so intense all the way through and the looks that come across to the fans as we progress through the setlist is fantastic." And I totally agree with that. So we played the last eight shows in Europe with that new setlist and we kept it for Las Vegas. So that's the setlist. This is the tour that we're doing for this year.
But I know what you're saying. There are lots of songs that I would like to do later on. Eventually, when the album comes out and there will be a real Mercyful Fate cycle -- that's the plan -- and what we're going to play at that time will be different, I'm sure from what we're doing right here. There are certain songs I would love to play. "Burn in Hell," I just remember how cool it was to do. And I would really love -- for my own personal ego -- I would love to hear that one again live. Because it has such a drive. But there's a lot of them. There's quite a few albums. But these old ones here that there's something to them. This is like what it should have been in the early days; what it should have looked like and sounded like.
Wait until you hear what it sounds like. I think you're gonna get blown away. The sound engineer we have, the lighting engineer we have, the job they do...You will go away from there and you will never forget it. I swear, you will never forget it, in a good way. It's very present. From what everybody that I know -- who are very critical -- have said to me about it, the sound is just incredible and the visuals are just something else. And had we been like that back in the old days, who knows what would have happened. But it does matter right now. This is now and this is how it is. You've been warned!
Mercyful Fate brings its fall tour with German thrashers Kreator and Cleveland-based blackened speed-metal band Midnight to the Hard Rock Sacramento in Wheatland on October 30.