King of heavy metal King Diamond has had a long and influential career. Starting in the 70s and constantly writing and performing ever since, there are few other people who could be considered living legends of music. They’re about to release a huge DVD, Songs For The Dead Live, so I grabbed my best pewter goblet of suspiciously red wine and settled in for the show.
It starts off with the stage in darkness. Discordant piano starts to play. I began to realise I was in for something special when a withered figure got wheeled out in a wheelchair. This was accompanied by the intro track from the album Them, Out From The Asylum. It was seriously creepy. The lights rose to reveal the stage, a gothic masterpiece of staircases, gargoyles and inverted crosses. No-one can claim that King Diamond does half measures. The band comes out, shortly followed by Mr. Diamond himself, to raucous applause and they smash straight into the classic track Welcome Home.
Brandishing his traditional mic stand made of human bones, King Diamond is certainly a commanding stage presence. His vocal range is nothing short of jaw dropping. He can hit notes that can normally only be reached by undergoing some sort of surgical procedure only available from doctors with questionable ethics. If only I was that cool when I get to his age. The band was tight as a drum from start to finish. There was some serious feeling going on in the guitars, especially with those subtle bends and such that gave the songs so much personality. Seriously, they performed better than the albums and it was a sheer pleasure to behold.
They certainly didn’t skimp on the audio quality. Often live show recordings can lose a bit of fidelity due to them not being recorded in the real world rather than a specially built soundproof box. This show however sounds amazing even on my ancient home office Logitech speakers. I don’t know if the band went back after the shows to do a little bit of pickup recordings to spruce things up a bit, but it seriously kicks arse.
The setlist is a mix of all the classic hits from both Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. For MF fans you have your Melissa, Halloween, To The Sabbath and others. Diamondheads however will be even happier, as a major feature of this show in particular is that they play the album Abigail in full. To go along with this, they had actual actors performing scenes from the concept album. How cool is that?! I won’t spoil too much, but if you’re familiar with Abigail then you may have an idea as to what happens.
One thing that’s unusual about this King Diamond DVD is that it’s actually two performances. On my initial viewing I thought this was one of those live recordings that’s been filmed over multiple concerts and spliced together. In other DVDs this is so they can accumulate the highlights of a particular tour and put it all together into one movie for the pleasure of home viewing. This King Diamond one though is actually two distinct shows; Graspop Metal Meeting 2016 and The Fillmore in 2015. Running in at a meaty 2 hours 46 minutes you certainly get value for money. I just wish there was more to differentiate the two, as the setlists are the same for both shows. It does seem a bit of a strange decision to put two almost identical full concerts into the one package, but ah well.
The copy I have was just the concerts, so I can’t say anything about potential bonus features on the physical release. I’ve never seen a King Diamond show before and I’ve got to say I’m seriously impressed. If they ever come to Perth, I’ll be first in line to get a ticket.
Graspop Metal Meeting track-listing
1. Out from the Asylum
2. Welcome Home
3. Sleepless Nights
4. Halloween
5. Eye of the Witch
6. Melissa
7. Come to the Sabbath
8. Them
9. Funeral
10. Arrival
11. A Mansion in Darkness
12. The Family Ghost
13. The 7th Day of July 1777
14. Omens
15. The Possession
16. Abigail
17. Black Horsemen
18. Insanity
The Fillmore track-listing
1. Out from the Asylum
2. Welcome Home
3. Sleepless Nights
4. Eye of the Witch
5. Halloween
6. Melissa
7. Come to the Sabbath
8. Them
9. Funeral
10. Arrival
11. A Mansion in Darkness
12. The Family Ghost
13. The 7th Day of July 1777
14. Omens
15. The Possession
16. Abigail
17. Black Horsemen
18. Insanity
