King Diamond – Dreams Of Horror.

It is almost 30 years since King Diamond left Mercyful Fate in 1985 to form his solo band and is miraculously still touring following a triple heart bypass operation 4 years ago and has just completed a 2 month tour of North America . His trademark banshee vocals are still as powerful as ever, proven when he last played here in the UK 2 years ago headlining the Bloodstock festival to a mesmerised crowd. Dreams Of Horror is a 23 track double CD with a running time of just less than 2 hours covering his 12 solo studio albums. Predominantly, 2 tracks have been chosen from each album and have been mastered and enhanced by  King Diamond  himself and his long standing lead guitarist Andy La Rocque. The first 5 albums were released via Roadrunner Records and the following 7 by Metal Blade Records and it is Metal Blade who will be releasing Dreams Of Horror on November 11th 2014. This release is an indispensable purchase for new fans to introduce themselves to the inimitable style of King Diamond’s gothic horror tinged metal.

The double CD Digipak kicks off with the Roadrunner releases with ‘The Candle’ from the 1986 debut album Fatal Portrait. The eerie church organ intro, pounding power metal grooves, 3 face melting guitar solos and the throat ripping yelps and shrieks from King Diamond set the standard high as ‘Dressed In White’ with it’s NWOBHM like riffs backed by a half whispered/sung vocal follows. Other choice cuts from the collection are ‘The Family Ghost’. This Sabbath like thumper features an overdose of guitar licks midway with the melodic howling vocals double tracked as an almost demented spoken word passage closes the song. The half electric/acoustic intro of ‘Black Horsemen’ moves into a main riff bringing to mind ‘Prodigal Son’ by Iron Maiden as the mournful vocals wail over a goth tinged hard rock backdrop.

‘Welcome Home’ to me is the definitive King Diamond song. It is built on crushing riffs that morph into power metal punctuated by raging guitar solos. ‘The Invisible Guests’ is a drum driven headbanger with the vocals going off the scale inbetween Dave Mustaine like snarls. ‘Sleepless Nights’ hurtles along on a ‘Bark At The Moon’ like main riff with a fretboard frenzied solo midway. The Metal Blade era CD opens with ‘Dreams’ from the 1995 The Spider’s Lullaby album. It takes a lot to upstage King Diamond’s voice but the guitar riffs and solos here are stunning. ‘Heads On The Wall’ is a grinding slow burner with an almost whispered vocal elevating into shattering screams as the song ends in proto thrash metal. ‘Voodoo’ features the most raging vocal on Dreams Of Horror as Alice Cooper like sneers precede more possessed howls over intense, grating riffing. ‘Help!!!’ has catchy, thick, downtuned riffs with an almost pummeling Rammstein vibe.

‘The Puppet Monster’ is a bit of an oddity with it’s heavy rhythms with vocal harmonies like the heavier side of Sweet. Dreams Of Horror ends strongly with the melodic thrash metal of ‘Never Ending Hill’ and the quirky ‘Shapes Of Black’, 2 tracks from Give Me Your Soul….Please, the last studio album released in 2007.

King Diamond band :-

King Diamond – Lead vocals.

Matt Thompson – Drums.

Andy LaRocque – Lead guitar.

Mike Wead – Guitar.

Hal Patino – Bass guitar.

Album track listing :-

CD1. :-

The Cradle.

Dressed In White.

The Family Ghost.

Black Horsemen.

Welcome Home.

The Invisible Guests.

At The Graves.

Sleepless Nights.

Let It Be Done.

Eye Of The Witch.

Insanity.

CD2 :-

Dreams.

The Spider’s Lullaby.

Waiting.

Heads On The Wall.

Voodoo.

Black Devil.

Help!!!

Spirits.

The Puppet Master.

Blue Eyes.

Never Ending Hill.

Shapes Of Black.