King Diamond - House of God (2000)

For the follow-up to Voodoo, King Diamond brought on a few new hard hitters, including Canadian axe wizard Glen Drover and another former Chastain/Leather alumni in bassist David Harbour who had worked with John Luke Herbert before. This was unquestionably a stronger lineup than the last one, though it would be sadly short-lived (Drover, Herbert and Harbour would all depart before Abigail II) since Diamond and LaRocque would start waxing nostalgic. House of God is also arguably one of the most interesting albums in terms of its concept, but I'd think of it not so much as a 'horror' record, but a conspiracy theory involving a bit of the supernatural, and by that I mean a shape shifting temptress, a Faustian bargain and the preserved body of Jesus Christ lying in the crypt of some old French church.

No, it's not scary, but really, were ANY of King Diamond's albums 'scary' unless you were the sort that jumped in his/her seat at the sight of Freddy Krueger? Perhaps in the right mood, by candlelight, Fatal Portrait might grant me a few shivers, but really, I have never turned to Petersen's lyrics and music for an A-great chillfest, instead I just really love the guy's music (for the most part). At least the narrative here feels relatively fresh territory for the King to explore, we needed a respite from the usual ghost story and he gave us one. I will say though that the creativity of House of God expands beyond its central concept to the actual music. I'm not sure if it was so much the new members, of if they just found Voodoo a bit too redolent of their past works, but the riffing set used for this Y2K doesn't feel as derivative. Not that House of God is all that well written or more than faintly memorable, or that the guitar progressions are that unusual for a mix of thrash/power metal, but at least this felt like a 'new' album.

In terms of its production, this is slightly less atmospheric than Voodoo but thicker and appreciably juicier than the dry spell that had been The Graveyard. A lot of clean, bold chugging sequences permeate cuts like "Black Devil" or "Help!!!", and Harbour has a copious tone which moves and grooves beneath the rhythm guitar. The man himself, King Diamond delivers a pretty anguished, straightforward performance that, while not exceeding any of his legendary displays of falsetto prowess in the late 80s, at least manages a fine balance of shrieking and mid-ranged, venomous narrative, nicely layered across a few tracks. There are some pitch shifted, goofy vocals in the intro "Upon the Cross" or "Black Devil" that are so ludicrous that they create an instant hurdle for anyone to care about the album's theme, but otherwise the atmospheric shorts like "Passage to Hell" or the ghoulish, gliding vocal/lead guitar arrangement in "Goodbye" feel pretty true to the form of past interludes. Organs and keys are still used occasionally but not a prominent feature of the core metal songs.

Most of the guitar lines are just downright simple, which isn't in itself a negative or unexpected trait, but sadly this translates into a fair degree of mediocrity here. You get some pedestrian chugging, some decent glazed leads, but nothing bordering on the chilling atmosphere that once dominated an album like Abigail or "Them". I laud that this doesn't seem like much of a rehash of safer times, but even the last album Voodoo had a better selection. As such, pitifully few of the songs here manifest anything bordering on a catchy procession of notes that demand constant replay. I've seen some of the tunes performed live, and they fit in well enough with the backlog, but there are no 'hits' on this album whatsoever, no individual cuts that I'd include on a King Diamond playlist on my iPod. Like both its predecessors, it just doesn't seem to age all that well, and I had to blow a fresh layer of dust off it before this listening/review.

It doesn't surprise me that this was never given a highly positive reception by the fan base, and if I'm not mistaken it even sold less than the two preceding albums. There are a couple good, screamed vocals lines and a few of the leads pop right out of the mix to sweeten the ear, but even taken in as a whole it feels like the band's songwriting was still in the same slump that it had experienced since about 1991. But ultimately, it's not a 'bad' album like The Graveyard, merely an average affair. It's never dull enough that would anger anyone, and in the background it provides an accessible, acceptable King Diamond experience, just not one that either evolves the boundary's of the bands style for the new century, or features the brilliant level of composition that thrust him into the naughty nightmares of shock metal fans in the 80s. The lyrics and the theme of House of God are actually quite mature and stirring when compared to any of the other albums, only mildly dweebie due to King's usual affection for character dialogue; they ask some interesting questions, but unfortunately the music does not.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10] (just her name)


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King Diamond - Voodoo (1998)

Voodoo was the first King Diamond album in history that i actually found myself not looking forward to, and the blame could be largely placed upon the shoulders of its pathetic predecessor The Graveyard. Thankfully, my apprehension wound up misplaced, because while it's certainly not one of the better recordings in the King's backlog, it at least returns to a stronger production sensibility and the songwriting is vastly superior to that 1996 tar-pit of creativity. Voodoo is muscular and atmospheric, the album that should have been the direct follow-up to The Spider's Lullabye; even if it lacks tracks that really stand out to me like "Killer" or "Eastmann's Curse", you could tell that the band was at least trying to retain that sense of shrill ghastliness and nocturnal grandeur that it mastered so many years prior.

The recurrent supernatural themes of this album reek of those found on "Them" and Conspiracy, only set in the context of a Mississippi River community in the 30s. Probably inspired by the classic film White Zombie, only not exactly due to the change in location and a slightly different plot. 'King' himself was not a character in this particular tale, but as usual those he scripts wear their personalities on their sleeves. Like 'Nurse Needle' in The Spider's Lullabye, here we have 'Salem' a practitioner of dark magic, who decides to side with his religion against a local rich family (whom he works for as a house servant) that wants to destroy the local voodoo grounds. Seriously, who could blame them? That shit is creepy, and Salem ends up justifying their hostilities and suspicion as the grisly events of the story play out. As usual, it's a simplistic story with a few twists and turns, the sort of light fare Diamond is always trying to squeeze into the confines of a single album, so one should not expect some literary, impressive narrative.

I didn't care for the little ditties wedged in between a few of the full-length songs, like "Unclean Spirits" which is more or less The Exorcist on a King Diamond record or the intro "Louisiana Darkness" which at least sets a theme and setting with the buzzing insects and river of gentle falsetto and tribal drumming. But there are some half-decent metal cuts here like "Loa House", which took me straight back to the years of "Them", or the interesting "One Down Two to Go", which surges between periods of calm and some savage riffing, grooves and acrobatic slices of lead-work. I can't cite Voodoo as being highly original, since most of the guitars still feel like echoes of finer years, with a few new notes re-arranged and a slightly bouncier overall veneer, but this is at least the King Diamond I knew and loved those many years stirring itself back to form.

It clearly sounds better than The Graveyard, because the guitars have some true power and depth to them, wisely disposing of the parched punch I had to endure there for nearly an hour. The rhythms don't involve a lot of incredible hooks, nor are the vocal lines particularly haunting or resonant with me these many years later, but the drums possess a heavier thunder here, possibly due to the acquisition of pounder John Luke Hebert who had played on a great Chastain record, For Those Who Dare in 1990 (and former Chastain vocalist Leather Leone's solo album Shock Waves the year before that). For bassist Christ Estes and guitarist Herb Simonsen, this would be the last studio effort with the King, and they turn in adequate enough performances that they can be forgiven for the dry spell two years earlier. I enjoyed the leads far more than The Graveyard, but then they don't exactly have the most compelling foundation of riffs to build upon.

All told, this is twice the album that it's predecessor was, and managed to curb the dread I was feeling for the band's future, but far from the first King Diamond album I'd reach for when I find myself in the mood for a supernatural falsetto drama. The voodoo angle is one the band was destined to explore, yet it doesn't leave a lasting taste thematically like an Abigail or The Eye. Nor does the music.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10] (pins through their little heads)

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King Diamond - The Graveyard (1996)

Not only does King Diamond's 7th full-length The Graveyard give off the appearance of boredom incarnate, but its internal compositions radiate the sort of ennui that leads me to wonder why this one even got out the gates. Comprised of material that wouldn't even be fit as an afternoon fly snack for its arachnid-obsessed predecessor, much less the band's brilliant mid through late 80s legacy, it seems like someone had the bright idea to put forth an hour of filler and cash in on the 'brand name' alone. Sure, the music is identifiable as King Diamond, it doesn't exactly break the formula of prior records in terms of its stylistic choices or horror narrative, but that is not enough to spare it from utter vapidity. If this were coming from many other bands, it would seem like mere mediocrity, but from the King, whose standards of quality had been so high (in both his bands) up to this point, it's almost offensive.

The tale itself behind The Graveyard is perhaps one of King's more morbid, possibly even the most socially relevant of his albums, as it involves child molestation, corruption and revenge, but he maintains a supernatural spin on the story thanks the lead character's cemetery obsession. Still, none of this rescues it from a feeling of redundancy, especially in terms of horrible things happening to young girls. Abigail. Missy. Lucy. When will it end? And never before had the intros and interludes on a King Diamond record seemed so worthless and washed up, especially where Petersen presents us with his schizoid array of voices in 'Them'-like vignettes. In fact, the album feels relatively exhausted from the opening piece "The Graveyard" and it never quite builds from that point on. I wouldn't say the man's voice wasn't holding up here, but it seems like a lot of the vocal lines don't seem to have that same level of effort and melodic manipulation he had mastered on earlier outings. The lyrics suck terribly, though some lenience can be applied as they follow the same dialogue-driven format as they always had.

But King's own lackluster showing here is not the album's chief flaw. It's the enormously dry and tedious feel of the production. The guitar tone here is punchy and uninspired, lacking so much of the resonance from the other albums. Perhaps for 1996 this felt like a more 'modern' and sincere approach than saturating the music with so much glitter and screaming resonance, but it feels like they polished off the tracking and barely did anything to lend it effectiveness. It almost has a demo level feel to it which I'm just not buying up. The drums are poppy, the bass is thick but does nothing exciting, and the guitars are at best clinical in the more thrash-oriented riffs, not unlike Flotsam & Jetsam's 1990 disappointment When the Storm Comes Down. Now, if the riffing progressions were more interesting, with even a fraction of the catchiness of The Eye or Abigail, I could forgive the way it sounds, but these too seem hollow, a grab bag of paraphrased patterns from the older albums at best. LaRocque's leads are competent, as usual, but lack the burning mystique they once reveled in.

You're still getting a cross-section of speed/power, thrash and even a little doom/groove to the verses of a track like "Digging Graves" or "Heads on the Wall", but pitifully few of the songs sink their hooks in. Really, I struggled to form any recollection of a single track on the album in leading up to this review. It's one of those cases where I purchased the CD on release, found it a miserable disappointment and promptly placed it on the shelf, to revisit it every few years with the unlikely hope that it might 'grow on me'. The Graveyard seemed like such a shocking dip in quality after The Spider's Lullabye that it really caught me off guard, until I later learned that that album had been written in 1991, just never recorded or released. Thus, The Graveyard might be viewed as the first truly 'new' King Diamond material after the surprisingly solid Mercyful Fate reunion of that decade, and a potentially disastrous portent of things to come.

It would be easy to blame this on a combination of the band's lineup and a phoned in lack of interest from the primary parties (Andy and King), but I also can't help but feel that King in particular hard probably just worked himself into exhaustion by the middle of the 90s, and this is the untimely result (along with some of the underwhelming Fate albums to follow it) of such a high level of productivity. There were far greater disappointments in these years, like Metallica's Load or Slayer's Diabolus in Musica, but The Graveyard certainly scrapes the bottom of the barrel in terms of the King Diamond canon, and is best forgotten by all parties involved and everyone unfortunate enough to have experienced it. Strangely, the album was hardly a 'failure' in terms of its sales, but this was a time when Hootie and the Blowfish were selling gangbusters, so sucking and selling very often coincide.

Verdict: Fail [3.25/10] (what am I doing here)

http://www.covenworldwide.org/

King Diamond - The Spider's Lullabye (1995)

Five consecutive years of home run horror-themed concept albums, and then five years of relative silence. This would be King Diamond's legacy going into the former half of the dreaded 90s, and in a different world, The Spider's Lullabye might have original come out in 1991 and continued the streak. Or at least tried to. That said, the band's sudden absence was not without an understandable reason: Kim Bendix Petersen had reunited with Mercyful Fate for some touring and studio time, which rewarded us with the albums In the Shadows and Time, both of which were surprisingly good, so who could complain? Eventually, Diamond got around to putting together another 'solo' effort, with Andy LaRocque returning and then an entirely new rhythm section consisting of Herb Simonsen (guitars), Chris Estes (bass) and Darrin Anthony (drums).

The Spider's Lullabye is perhaps the last of the 'essential' King Diamond records, or if not essential, then the last of the 'good' King Diamond albums for several years to come. It's got a few issues, especially with the rather lame story (even by the usual Diamond standards, which were not high), and a few duds waiting in the wing...err, webs, but there's enough money riffing here to save it from the flaming pits. Hell, I'm not even sure I could call this album a 'disappointment'. Just about anything might seem lackluster after that 1986-90 period, especially when it ended with The Eye, an unsung masterpiece. As happy as I was that Mercyful Fate had reformed and written some quality material for the first time in a decade, in 1995 I was simply content that Kim was not planning on abandoning his solo material indefinitely, and The Spider's Lullabye is just compensation for the five-year gap even if it was only the calm before the shitstorm abortion The Graveyard, which might have forced me into a deep bout with alcoholism had I not been so busy with the rest of life.

This album is not quite as involved or busy as Conspiracy, nor is it as eloquent and beautiful as The Eye, but it's definitely a manifestation of similar atmosphere to what they were doing in 1990. In particular, the use of the organs as an important backing element to tracks like "The Poltergeist" felt very familiar, and of course the due diligence Diamond gives each of the verse and chorus sequence certainly feels like a natural followup. There is a great deal of versatility in the riffing, from the Sabbath swagger of "To the Morgue" to the rampant melodic speed metal of "Eastmann's Cure" (one of the best songs here), and a distinct lack of narrative interludes or intros to drive the tale. Or tales, rather, since The Spider's Lullabye is only 40% concept album, the final four songs (title track, "Eastmann's Cure", "Room 17" and "To the Morgue") telling the saga of Harry Eastmann, an arachnophobic hermit who ends up in the 'wrong hands', if you will, playing out almost like a Lucio Fulci giallo.  The other tunes all feature their own nods to various horror cliches, with "Six Feet Under" providing a sort of 'alternate' ending to Them/Conspiracy.

King sounds really airy here with his falsetto, though when he's singing about things like, well, spiders, it's a little difficult to take seriously. Not that anyone ever did in the 80s, but at least his shrill wailing was a decent match for ghost stories or witch trials. The riffs are still quite strong in general,driving and creative within the hybrid foundation of speed, heavy, power and thrash metal the band had manifest in the prior decade. Tunes like the fattened "Room 17" literally swell with atmosphere like a corpse bloated with spider hatchlings, but there were only a few in particular which I found as immortal as, say, an "Eye of the Witch" or "Burn". The second song, "Killer" slowly builds through chugging and mid-range sneers to this brilliant, cyclic swagger which almost seems like it would fit right at home on a 'pirate metal' record. "Eastmann's Cure", which I had mentioned was one of the highlights of the album, has a lot of unforgettable, driving melodic elements and a gleaming, spectral chorus to it; while I love the atmosphere during the speed metal rush that develops in "The Poltergeist".

The rest of the tracks are all acceptable, and more than fit the mood of their lyrical themes. This is not an album I can't pull off the shelf and listen through in its entirety, but a number of the compositions have a hard time engraving themselves into my mind. The rhythm section here, while competent enough to do the job, simply doesn't seem as interesting as the old lineup with Patino, Dee and so forth. Thus, the music relies so heavily on Diamond and LaRocque and there's just not coming up with the same level of consistent hooks as they once did. That said, while The Spider's Lullabye was the first of their records that didn't seem to mark a poignant evolution (forward or sideways) in the King Diamond sound, it's still a success, especially in the middle of such a dead period for traditional metal aesthetics, when bands were selling themselves down river to alternative rock, groove metal and so forth. The production is pretty straightforward, with some potency to the rhythm guitars that works in the framework of general heaviness, though I do rue the understated majesty of the prior album.

To sum it up: The Spider's Lullabye might seem a rung or so down the ladder from its predecessors, but when compared to its own, miserable followup The Graveyard it could be considered a work of genius. If you enjoyed any of the classics leading up to it, or Mercyful Fate's In the Shadows, then this is worth the pocket change.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (oh, they live in every corner)

http://www.covenworldwide.org/

King Diamond - Conspiracy (1989)

Conspiracy bears immediate distinction as the first King Diamond 'sequel' album. It is not the only case of this happening in his career, but whereas Abigail II was separated from its narrative predecessor by a span of 15 years, this arrived just over a year after "Them" had, and there was quite a lot of anticipation from a portion of the band's fans to see what exactly would happen to this central 'King' character when he was all grown up. Personally, while I appreciate the thought he put into them and found the ideas unique at the time in terms of concept albums, I have never found the actual 'stories' in most of the albums all that compelling (with the possible exception of The Eye). 'King' returns to his ancestral home, drafts up a few terms with the malevolent spirits there, and gets to visit with his dead sister while others, corporeal or otherwise, conspire against him and his inheritance. Big whoop.

But then, Conspiracy doesn't exactly need to aspire to Stephen King or Clive Barker levels of fictional quality, because the music written for this thing is so splendidly contagious that it ranks among one of the best in all the King Diamond canon, and a crucial cornerstone in his winning 'streak' that persisted from his Mercyful Fate years through 1990's witching masterpiece. I would argue that this was the technical peak for the band, in terms of the band's arrangements and instrumental proficiency. Not that Andy LaRocque couldn't pull out a more difficult or intense lead somewhere down the roll of years, but this album put such a cap on the level of ability that it's successor, The Eye had no choice but to broach a more atmospheric direction (which I'm thankful it did) if Petersen and friends wanted to experience any sort of growth or evolution whatsoever. Conspiracy is just that precise, intimate, intimidating, unique and well written that it makes a great deal of both the US and European power/speed metal of the mid to late 80s seem positively infantile by comparison. And I don't make such a statement lightly, because that period represented a clear summit for the style.

Just as one might expect from a sequel to the spectral "Them", much of Conspiracy is devoted to building a haunting backdrop for the surgical techniques of the core musicians. You'll hear a lot of funeral organs, schizoid whispers and synthesizer glaze coursing through the album to better compel its central theme. Miraculously, the Danes decided to avoid clotting up the album with brief, narrative ligaments. Only the shock feature "Let It Be Done" is anything less than instrumentally rewarding, and this even has some freakish pianos along with Petersen's deeper spoken word timbre. There is one instrumental "Something Weird", but the phantasmal melodies that Pete Blakk and LaRocque morph into the keyboard orchestration are so rich and wondrous that it becomes one of the most striking pieces on the record, sans vocals or steady percussion. After all, they had a thing for fantastic instrumentals, the melodic acoustics of "Insanity" off The Eye will haunt me forever.

Everywhere else, though, Conspiracy is built on the backs of a staggering array of metallic riffing that could rival anyone else coming out of such a creative European field in 1989. One might struggle to define this album as either speed/thrash or heavy/power metal, for surely it contains enough elements of both to qualify it as a hybrid of these and even a touch of progressive/speed not unlike what younger Stateside masters Toxik and Realm were producing at the time (also in the extended Roadrunner/RC Records family). You'll hear steadied, rampant triplet rhythms, delirious outbreaks into speed and flair akin to what Randy Rhodes and later Zakk Wylde brought to the Ozzy Osbourne solo camp, flashy and effective lead sequences. King Diamond had been implementing the blues-based grooves as far back as Mercyful Fate, and certainly we heard a few through Abigail and "Them". But with Conspiracy, they become these emotionally resonant, triumphant bulwarks that instantly exude testosterone. What man could not ball his fists and bang his head to the adrenaline inductive intro and verse riffing in "Victimized", or the choppier grooves permeating "Lies"? I've not met him.

As usual, Petersen lends credibility and effort to each and every vocal line, BAR NONE, throughout the whole 48 minutes of the experience. Crystalline clarity that few others in the field could emulate, in both his herniating mid range and the falsetto cries that have come to define the man by both his harshest critics and stalwart supporters. It's obvious the guy had a lot of fun carving these disturbed characters, both ghostlike and fleshly through the story, and though one might become lost without the physical assistance of the lyric booklet, they're just as amusing to listen to. The rhythm duo of Mikkey Dee (drums) and Hal Patino (bass) also deserve some credit, creating a flexible foundation for the guitars and vocals to waltz over, but I would say that the unsung hero on this album might just be the elusive Robert Falcao, whose keys have a more prominent role than the other full-lengths he contributed to, even if they are outdistanced by the axe-work.

Of course, Falcao also had his hands tied with some of the engineering and production work, in which he was joined here by the legendary Chris Tsangarides, who everyone knows from albums like Painkiller, Metal on Metal, and The Eternal Idol. Together with the band, they create this amazingly high budget feel to the record which surpasses its predecessors in terms of sheer polish, without becoming stale or plasticized. The level of reverb and general airiness of Conspiracy is a little less brash and saturated than "Them", and while I had no problem with either of those things to begin with, I think what manifests here moved the group in a more accessible direction for their expanding audience, while allowing the effects on the leads and melodies and the myriad vocal tracks to really shine without competing with the bottom end of the bass and rhythm guitars.

Could I possibly summon forth any complaints about this album, I would settle them on the fact that there is one song among the many that I found less than perfect, and that would be the lullabye-fronted "A Visit from the Dead". Don't get me wrong, it matches the aesthetic of its part on the story, and there are a number of great guitar licks in there, but where its neighbors just clobber me with incessant genius, this is the one piece I might gladly skip past if I were in a rush. The cover also seemed a little lazy. I realize there are few figures out there as iconic as Diamond when it comes to flashing his gums and paints for a photo shoot, but he had already done this for The Dark Sides EP and I would not have minded a little cover artwork. But really, this is an insignificant qualm since the shot here is beloved by so many, and it's not like the guy is pretending to be some sex symbol, he looks ghastly, bloodied and his eyes penetrate your soul almost as much as his pitch.

In the end, and forevermore, Conspiracy is easily one of the best of King Diamond's catalog and capitalizes in every way on its predecessor, even surpassing it by a slim margin in terms of song quality. Sleek and graceful, but explosive and muscular where needed, it's the epitome of a horror metal concept album in such a time that very few bands were attempting the feat. The composition level was riding its all time high, the song selection was versatile and loaded with more memorable leads and riffs than one could hope for in six other records of its niche, and it provided further evidence that, despite the shock rocker gimmicks and almost caricature nature of Petersen's vocals, this guy was no laughing matter. If forced to pick favorites among his records, I might slightly favor Abigail and The Eye to this record, since those felt the most effective in matching their stories with unforgettable atmosphere, but this is certainly nipping at their heels, almost close enough to pull an upset and snap the finish line ribbon itself.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.75/10] (there are things I must know)

http://www.covenworldwide.org/

King Diamond & Mercyful Fate - A Dangerous Meeting (1992)

While you'd expect a career like King Diamond's to be cluttered up with scads of cashed in compilation appearances, this has thankfully not been the case. There are a few exceptions, like the worthless Best of King Diamond that Roadrunner would release in 2003, one of several cut and paste efforts in the series that particular label would discharge on the listening public like drainage from a waste station. But rather than dwell on the predictable details and rating of such sewage in my coverage of the discography, I'll instead pay a little visit to the one collection that stands to mind. Not because A Dangerous Meeting is itself much of a value, but because it was somewhat of an unusual, unique release of this type.

The main reason being that, while heavily marketed as a 'King Diamond' release, this is actually a split covering material from both that band and his reunited alma mater Mercyful Fate. I can't really imagine why the label thought this was a great idea, however, on a fundamental level it makes sense to combine the two if you're seeking to give a newer audience just a glimpse of Kim Petersen's history. The styles of the bands are obviously comparable; Diamond's shrill meandering narrative the key, binding component, but musically they were not far off one another. Denner and Shermann might have used a more broadside, muscular tone to their riffing where LaRocque has a lot more flash, speed and airiness to his approach. Mercyful Fate kept the lyrics distinct, usually to each individual track, where King Diamond is far more conceptual minded. Otherwise, though, the two brands feature many of the same characteristics, after all it's not like Petersen was trying to 'escape' his years with Fate (he'd return to them and keep both running simultaneously).

At some level, though, you have to understand that Roadrunner was still trying to squeeze money out of the acts after Diamond had swapped over to Metal Blade. The 1990 effort In Concert '87: Abigail was one such case (albeit a contractual closer), but A Dangerous Meeting is a far more transparent example of giving something for nothing. It functions in that it's drawing upon what is unquestionably the best material that either of the acts had put out, and useful to a new listener as a sort of 'sampler', but anyone will tell you that albums like Don't Breath the Oath, Fatal Portrait, Abigail, "Them", Conspiracy, and The Eye are all mandatory whether you're into the distinct, melodic speed/heavy metal Petersen and his compatriots create or you worship the band as a sort of champion of proto-black/occult metal aesthetics. And at its core, A Dangerous Meeting is a mere 'bare bones' selection of cuts from such impeccable masterworks.

Very strange that both logos aren't featured prominently on the front of the package, almost as if they wanted to market it just for the group that was 'hot' at the moment. I do like Andreas Marschall's cover art, which is instantly recognizable to fans of his work with Running Wild and Blind Guardian, and I also admire the picture of 'pirate' Petersen, in full makeup, manning the helm of some ghost ship in the booklet. As for the actual audio content, the tracks follow a chronological order, beginning with the Mercyful Fate cuts "Doomed by the Living Dead" and "A Corpse Without a Soul". The two groups aren't exactly represented equally, since King Diamond had more albums available, but close enough. The 'second' side, or the solo band tracks rather, are thicker on Fatal Portrait and Abigail than the more recent albums for the time, some of which are only given a meager presence with just "Welcome Home", "Sleepless Nights" and "Eye of the Witch", all formidable in their own right, but those records are just so damned good...where do you start?

It's this skimpy selection which ultimately rendered A Dangerous Meeting worthless to me, as someone who already owned the constituent albums and loved them to tears, but there's also a lack of rare and unreleased material. "No Presents for Christmas" is on the disc, but by today you find the song on a number of CD re-issues so it doesn't hold much importance. All the songs here are great, and it wouldn't have been a bad find for a dollar or two in some random used bin in 1992, at least for those seeking exposure to Mercyful Fate retroactively for the first time (their albums were a bit scarce then), but in the end the King Diamond tunes are just so much better experienced in the full narrative of their respective homes, and Don't Break the Oath is positively essential. A curious collection thanks to its split identity, and maybe something collectors might covet (though, which numerous re-issues I'm not sure how rare it is), but personally I find its pretty face is not good for much but collecting dust in recent years, and its best avoided. As compelling as sticking your chubby digits into some antique rotary phone when your cell is sitting in your coat pocket with a clear signal.

Verdict: Epic Fail [1.5/10]

http://www.covenworldwide.org/

Abnormality - Contaminating the Hive Mind (2012)

The brutal death sound has always maintained a respectable crowd in New England, but I can't say that it's ever been a hotbed for producing acts in the niche. We've had (and continue to have) a few bands like Goratory, Leukorrhea and Dysentery in my home state of Massachusetts, all of whom are decent, but Abnormality might just be the first band in a few years to happen upon a real shot at success. Their 2010 short player The Collective Calm in Mortal Oblivion showed some promising chops, they managed to land a bonus track on the Rock Band 2 video game, and now they've found a home with Sevared Records, more or less the perfect place for this sound to develop and broach the broader, international audience.

It would be dishonest to claim that the quintet has the most unique style going for it, but certainly there are some inventive twists woven through the songs that add a fresh coat of cement to the bedrock foundation from which they mete out severe aural punishment. Forceful, palm muted burst rhythms are threaded with tremolo guitar progressions and a copious use of dissonant, atmospheric grooves. Those seeking out slam sequences will hardly be disappointed, as a number of tracks like "Monarch Omega", "Hatred Relentless" and "Fabrication of the Enemy" feature harried, enormous breakdowns that feel like the band are bouncing cinder blocks across your face; but they certainly don't pigeonhole themselves into a 'mosh now, mosh only, mosh forever' niche thanks to the surgical explosions of accelerated technicality that keep the pacing varied and the ears affixed to the adventurous guitar players who hold nothing back in their quest up and down and all over the fretboard.

Contaminating the Hive Mind wouldn't be possible without such top notch musicianship, and trust me when I say that in this regard, the band is filled to overflowing, the collective experience of a dozen or more other local groups under their belts, several of which hail from related sounds (Sexcrement, Deconformity, Goratory and so forth). Jay Blaisdell is a storm incarnate, with so much celerity in his hands and feet that he makes the blasting and double bass seem effortless. Guitarists Jeremy Henry and Ben Durgin run the gamut between heavily syncopated rhythmic complexity and spurious, well plotted leads that inject all manner of hysterics into the frenetic architecture of cuts like "Shooting the Messenger". Scene veteran Josh Staples brings up the low end with suitable elasticity, and even though the hugely percussive nature of the music doesn't always favor the bass over the drums and guitars, listen closely and this plunking dynamo will dizzy you with some appreciable finger work. The rhythm section is so tight in conjunction that you'll need a lubricant just to process it.

Also likely to draw attention are Mallika Sundaramurthy's vocals, which have improved considerably over the previous EP, catapulting her into position as one of the better female presences to vomit into a microphone this side of Sinister's ex-growler Rachel Van Mastrigt-Heyzer. Her intonation is deft and guttural, almost like a faster and harder George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher inundated with wretched spasms of snarling, laying to waste any childish misconceptions that gender defines brutality. I also really enjoy that this band has a more political and dystopian bent to the lyrics somewhat akin to a Suffocation or some of the recent West Coast maulers like Inherit Disease. Heavens know there are enough bands paraphrasing Cannibal Corpse and Mortician; give me a flood of thoughtful, restless and intense imagery with some meaning behind it, any day.

Ultimately, your taste in death metal will go a long ways in tempering your reaction towards an album like this. If you scoff at surgical polish, staggering proficiency, and above all, sheer brutality or have no interest in anything more modern than Sweden, Florida and Incantation circa the early 90s, then chances are this is not going to change your mind. On the other hand, if you were to pull at your roots and unearth the fundamentals established by bands like Suffocation, Cryptopsy and Deeds of Flesh near the close of that decade, or if you find yourself constantly mining the rosters of labels like Unique Leader, Comatose, and Sevared for additional sounds, then this is one case of constant whiplash well worth shelling out the few dollars it will cost you. Contaminating the Hive Mind is a clear success, standing alongside recent efforts from Germany's Pighead and Japanese newcomers Desecravity as one of the better brutal/technical death albums I've heard in 2012.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://www.facebook.com/AbnormalityOfficial

Stalwart - Manifest of Refusal (2012)

Stalwart is perhaps one of the best kept secrets in Russian extreme metal, because for all the talent and consistency I hear on this album (and the one before it, 2009's Annihilation Begins), they don't seem to have yet gotten the level of press that a band of their potential often receives. With luck this will change, because Manifest of Refusal is another massive statement of intent that will likely thrill a huge cross section of fans. The key to their style is variation, the core being a mixture of mathematical, crushing grooves and more harried flights of brutal death metal, but then, this is really only a start, because they're really not afraid to incorporate anything that will help the songs along. The result is like a conglomeration of aesthetics from bands as diverse as Meshuggah, Fear Factory, Behemoth and Napalm Death.

If you couldn't guess by the cover, the St. Petersburg quintet takes on a very futurist, dystopian aesthetic to the lyrics and visuals that is a great match to their mechanistic bombast. But while they're not averse to incorporate synthesizers and industrial noises from time to time, the backbone here is in the sheer weight of performance. The drums are enormous, the bass plugs along like a feed belt in some factory and the guitars are generally very muscular in and out of their chugging and grooving. The vocals of Oleg Sobolevskiy are a little difficult to pin down, think of heavier early 90s Max Cavalera dowsed in brutal gutturals for most of the heavier sequences, and yet where the band clears for a brooding, darker progressive passage he also takes on this unnerving, eerie aural hue which is near Gothic in delivery. When I referenced Meshuggah earlier, that wasn't to say that Stalwart are some generic djent wannabe, but they have a similar sense for the thick rhythmic grooves that course below the atmospheric dressings like oily blood en route to a rusted, metallic aorta.

Manifest of Refusal certainly favors its heavy side, and at times can feel a little too much to handle since its just so robotic in delivery, but then that's really the point of it. Though there are occasional lapses in the rhythmic forcefulness, like in opener "The Karma Circle" or the later title track with its shuddering, textured whispers against Oleg's primary, tortured vocal passage, the majority of the record is fit for a future in which we've all become slaves to machinery. Don't misunderstand, Stalwart uses its chugging to full effectiveness, even if they're pummeling along some familiar pattern there's a lot else happening to occupy the imagination, but it's like this record were bred for fighting, the music of some smog-covered landscape of smokestacks and oppression where the only escape is in death or succumbing oneself to the industrial gloom. Sure, one could accuse the album of some degree of soullessness, but you'll be slamming your fists and face so hard you won't have one of your own for long. Their best yet, and a high recommendation to fans of heavier modern groove/thrash or mechanical death metal with an open mind and atmospheric relish.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

http://www.stalwart.ru/

Chaos Inception - The Abrogation (2012)

It surprises me that I could like an album primarily for its lead guitar sequences, but Chaos Inception's sophomore is so strewn with these infectious, incendiary whirlwinds that I can't help but admit they've got it down to a science. But don't mistake my fondness for this particular element of their sound as a condemnation towards the rest of the album, for in full, The Abrogation is one of the best post-Morbid Angel styled death metal efforts I've heard from the US, directly in line with the Alabama quartet's 2009 debut Collision with Oblivion in terms of quality. Even the color schemes of the two albums' artwork give off a similar impression, and yet the hostile vortex and devastated cityscape give an ample warning of the musical content...

You are about to have your temples collapsed and your wet brains popped out your eye sockets, following their aqueous vanguards to the pile of accumulating viscera at your feet. When I say Morbid Angel 'style', I'm referring more to the archetypal, blast heavy aesthetic the band immortalized through their debut album Altars of Madness and, of course, the later Covenant. The riffs rocket off like an avalanche of acrobatic artillery, fast as fuck passages of tremolo picked guitars interspersed with choppier, clinical thrashing riffs that sound and then saturated in frightful arpeggio flurries. Guitar progression after progression collides into one another, almost like fast forwarded tectonic plates crushed together in a waltz of seismic mayhem. It often feels that the album is so fucking packed with intensity that they just couldn't cram any more into its 31 minute duration, lest the Earth around them explode from the shock. Tunes like "Phalanx (The Tip of the Spear)", "Black Blood Vortex" and "Ancient Ways Prevail" are among the top picks, but there's not one of these nine which lags behind.

The drums are beyond human comprehension, and likely to turn a lot of heads which might have been negligent of the first album; but I once again have to mention the solos, these violent fits of beauty, which while hardly novel for the genre feel like lasers that explode from your mind to stretch across the dark universe. Each time Matt Barnes erupts into one of these segments, the music takes on an added level of depth which provides the perfect counterpoint to the standard musculature of the rhythm guitars. Chris White's vocals are nothing out of the ordinary for the genre, but delivered with a percussive aerobics that places them far belong mere ripoffs of the usual suspects like David Vincent, Frank Mullen or Corpsegrinder, whose influence they build upon. The bass is nearly as complex and bewildering as the other instruments, though the thuds were often a little difficult to navigate against the louder bite of the guitars.

If I had any single complaint about the album, it would only be that the songs are so consistent and often similar in nature that they oft seem to blend together, one pummeling into the next, but then the lyrical variations and the brevity of The Abrogation ensures that it never really wears out its welcome. For sure, though, Chaos Inception is proving once more that they're a force to be feared, a healthy hybrid of 90s extremity with a flair for the modern execution and intensity that you often hear from technical West Coast acts. Fans of Morbid Angel, Diabolic, Nile and Hate Eternal really ought to check out this band, but there's enough of an appeal here for nearly any brutal, accelerated death advocate. Destroy destroy destroy.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10] (banished and besieged)

http://www.facebook.com/ChaosInception

King Diamond - Deadly Lullabyes Live (2004)

Deadly Lullabyes Live is a far different beast than the first King Diamond live album In Concert '87: Abigail, because let's face it: by the 21st century, the man's career was no longer one of rampant escalation, but an institution in the metal world. Naturally, there was far more content for him to draw upon when putting this together, and a lot more experience under his belt. Andy LaRocque himself did a lot of the studio mastering and mixing for this double album, which was recorded on The Puppet Master tour in late 2003 here in the US. The lineup on these gigs also featured long term collaborators Hal Patino on bass and Mike Wead on second guitar, with the seasoned American Matt Thompson holding down the drums.

The production here is a lot stronger than the previous live album, with a lot more pump to the rhythm guitars that helps balance off against LaRocque's noodling, which I needn't tell you is fantastic. The drums have a great mix, and Patino also sounds fantastic. I'm sure these selected pieces aren't the best King himself has delivered vocally through his career, and yet despite any flecks of age on the old bastard he does a damned good job in both ranges, consistent delivery that feels only a little tired or sluggish once in a great while. In general, though, you can tell that a great deal of care was placed in arranging the material so it would burst out of your stereo speakers, there is just no half assing of anything and thus it swiftly becomes the ultimate King Diamond live audio available.

So, really, the crux of Deadly Lullabyes quality rests on the track selection, which is drawn from all over his career sans the inclusion of reliable Mercyful Fate material. From the classic (1986-1990) era of the band we're treated to "No Presents for Christmas"; "Halloween" (Fatal Portrait)"; a huge chunk of Abigail that includes "Funeral", "A Mansion in Darkness", "The Family Ghost", and "Black Horsemen" (in which the clean guitars sound quite good before the metallic surge begins"); "Welcome Home" and "The Invisible Guests" from Them; and "Sleepless Night" from Conspiracy. I was particularly excited to hear material from The Eye, my personal favorite King Diamond record, and was very satisfied that at least "Eye of the Witch" and "Burn" showed up here. The Spider's Lullabye, Voodoo, The Graveyard and House of God  are entirely omitted from the selections, which is fine in the case of the latter, weak albums but I wouldn't have minded one from each of those first two.

Instead, much of the more 'current' material as of the live recording was drawn from Abigail II ("Spare This Life", "Mansion in Sorrow", "Spirits" and the "Sorry Dear" outro) and the album they were touring for ("Blood to Walk", "So Sad" and the titular "Puppet Master"). All of it sounds pretty flush with the classics, though I don't particularly enjoy The Puppet Masters as much as anything else here. There do seem to be a good number of the intro/outro tracks clotting up the set list. This is fine for an actual full set, but I think that all things considered, I'd rather have full songs if the track list is going to be drawn from numerous dates. Intro and vignettes are important to psych up a crowd, but not so much on a collection like this. In all, this wasn't supposed to be a 'career retrospective' but might have used a better balance from those forgotten earlier 90s records, otherwise it's a strong 100 minutes.

Deadly Lullabyes Live might not be a Live After Death or Live Without Sense to me, personally, and it doesn't function as a record I feel compelled to sit through as a substitute for any of his massively awesome early studio albums. Yet it's still a reasonably loaded value for the diehards with a more corpulent sound to it than its predecessor that was released in 1990. While you still have the chance, though, and while King is still touring, you really ought to get out and see him, because on CD the experience is just not the same.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] 

http://www.covenworldwide.org/