King Diamond

Danish theatrical rocker King Diamond earned widespread acclaim as one of metal’s premier vocalists thanks to his multi-octave range, initially attracting attention through his role in the gothic black metal unit Mercyful Fate before striking out alone in 1986. His elastic falsetto, striking face-paint, interest in the occult, microphone stand embellished with femur and tibia bones, and landmark 1987 concept album Abigail have established him as one of the most recognizable heavy-metal figures spanning the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, during which he delivered a string of strong narrative-driven records such as Conspiracy (1989), The Graveyard (1996), Abigail II: The Revenge, and Give Me Your Soul...Please (2007), the last of these earning a Grammy nomination.

Born Kim Bendix Petersen in Denmark on June 14, 1956, the future King Diamond first gravitated toward theatrical hard rock through the pioneering example of Alice Cooper and soon took the helm of several local acts in the 1970s, among them the punk-metal band the Brats. That group soon evolved into Mercyful Fate, whose roster featured Hank Shermann on guitar, Michael Denner on guitar, Timi Hansen on bass, and Kim Ruzz on drums alongside Diamond. By then the singer had cultivated an affinity for the occult that shaped the band’s lyrical themes, while he also began applying makeup reminiscent of a blend between his idol Cooper and Kiss’ Gene Simmons.

Once several demos circulated throughout Europe and reached the United States via tape-trading circles among metal enthusiasts, Mercyful Fate released a four-track self-titled EP and subsequently signed with Roadrunner Records. The five-piece delivered two thrash-metal landmarks, Melissa in 1983 and Don’t Break the Oath in 1984, whose Satanic content provoked considerable reaction from outside observers. Despite bright prospects, the band dissolved after failing to settle on a shared musical direction, with Diamond favoring continued thrash-metal intensity while several members leaned toward more commercial hard rock.

Refusing to be discouraged, Diamond initiated a solo endeavor that mirrored his previous band in both sonic and visual character. The initial lineup incorporated former Mercyful Fate colleagues Hansen and Denner, yet personnel shifted over the years, leaving guitarist Andy LaRocque as the sole steady member besides the frontman himself. King Diamond’s opening trio of solo efforts—Fatal Portrait in 1986, Abigail in 1987, and Them in 1988—are broadly viewed as his strongest work, though he continued releasing material into the early 1990s with Conspiracy (1989) and The Eye (1990). Around the same period his name became entangled in disputes stemming from a Geraldo Rivera television segment on purported hidden messages in music; Kiss’ Simmons filed suit alleging that Diamond’s makeup design too closely echoed the one Simmons had worn in the 1970s and early 1980s, ultimately resulting in an out-of-court settlement that required Diamond to alter his design.

Entering the early 1990s, Mercyful Fate found itself frequently cited as a key influence by countless new thrash and death-metal acts, prompting the original lineup—minus drummer Ruzz—to reunite and produce further albums: In the Shadows (1993), which featured a re-recording of “Return of the Vampire” with Metallica’s Lars Ulrich on drums, Time (1994), Into the Unknown (1996), Dead Again (1998), and 9 (1999). Midway through the decade Diamond resumed issuing solo albums concurrently with his Mercyful Fate output, beginning with The Spider’s Lullabye in 1995 on his new label Metal Blade. The doomy The Graveyard (1996) charted successfully in Finland, as did the bayou-set witchcraft story Voodoo (1998). He located his ninth studio album, House of God, in southern France to honor the conspiracy-laden site of Rennes-le-Château, then revisited his best-known tale with Abigail II: The Revenge in 2002. The grisly Budapest-set Puppet Master followed in 2003, succeeded by the Grammy-nominated Give Me Your Soul...Please in 2007. Diamond’s recording activities paused in 2010 after triple-bypass surgery, yet he resumed live performance in 2012 with a celebrated return at the Sweden Rock Festival. He contributed his trademark wail to “Room 24” on Danish metallers Volbeat’s 2013 album Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies, securing another Grammy nomination, and in 2014 Metal Blade issued Dreams of Horror, a two-disc retrospective spanning the Roadrunner era (1986–1990) and the Metal Blade years after the mid-1990s reunion. The live album Songs for the Dead, documenting complete performances from Belgium and the United States on the 2015 Abigail tour, appeared in 2019. Later that year the first single from the band’s forthcoming thirteenth studio album The Institute, “Masquerade of Madness,” was released.