The Metal Files

It’s tough writing reviews sometimes because I have trouble being objective when trying to talk about seeing some of my favorite bands.

There was something incredibly special about last night’s King Diamond show that I just don’t know if I can put my finger on it or properly describe in words better than just saying, “That was fucking awesome!”

And it was. It was fucking awesome. Really fucking awesome.

I’ve loved King Diamond (KD) since Abigail came out. That album had me delve back in time to quickly get into Fatal Portrait and Mercyful Fate. But Abigail is #1 for me in KD’s catalog.

I’ve see King twice before tonight (’88/2000) and Fate twice (’93/’99).  All of those shows were special in their own ways, especially that ’88 show on the Them tour.  King sounded great in all 4 of those shows.  With it being 14 years since the last time I had seen him, I had concerns that his voice wouldn’t be what it once was.  That thought was quickly removed from my head once they broke into the opener, The Candle.  They quickly kept it running hard and heavy with Sleepless Nights and Welcome Home which went over very well with the crowd.  Everyone knows the “grandma song”.

They mixed it up with songs from Them, Puppet Master and Give Me Your Soul…Please, not to mention 2 Mercyful Fate songs, Evil and Come To The Sabbath.  It was a very metal crowd that was very into the show.  King’s stage set up was over the top filled with a giant goat’s head pentagram and upside crosses.

Andy LaRouque and Mike Wead were shredding it as expected.  Matt Thompson did a fine job handling Mikkey Dee’s drum lines, but he’s no Mikkey Dee.  Few are.  That’s no slight to Matt, he was killer.  Pontus Edberg held down the bass perfectly.  The mix was great, especially for an outside venue.

Highlights for me were Sleepless Nights (love that drum line), Family Ghost and especially Black Horsemen.  That song is the best ending to any album I have ever heard and it was the perfect closer to last night’s set.  It gave me goosebumps last night and I have them again writing this.  It was such a powerful show all the way around.  I did notice, however, that King had a female backup singer that sang some of the high notes along with him.  I tried to listen to the difference in the voices (his and hers) and really couldn’t tell.  There were times that he was hitting the notes perfectly and she wasn’t singing at all, so maybe she was just there for harmony and melody purposes.

What a great fucking show!

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