In a new interview with Full Metal Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio show, King Diamond discussed his namesake band’s upcoming horror trilogy, part one of which is titled “Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920”. Speaking about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the project, King said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “There’s so much, actually. There’s another song we played live, which has not been finished yet, but it’s extremely close. But it’s not like we are working on one song at a time; we are working on the entire album. And so there’s 10 titles right now that’s being worked on simultaneously, and was being worked on before the tour as well. And one is almost done. The lyric is not completely finished, but all the parts for the lyric is there — the way to sing it is there completely. It’s one of the songs that will probably have a guest sharing one of the characters with me, the different moods of that character. And this is a song called ‘Lobotomy’, which all the music is written except for the guitar solos that the guitarist will do themselves…. There’s an intro and a small outro on that one song, on ‘Lobotomy’. There’s another song called ‘The Nun’ that has old Hammond [organ] from start to finish, actually — super raw. Lots of stuff — very, very tricky parts, tempo changes. And it’s a very full power, double kick. But this one, ‘Lobotomy’, is heavy and very dark. I played it, just the music, for [Metal Blade Records founder and CEO] Brian Slagel one day at my house and he was, like, ‘That is so dark.’ And it’s turned out exactly like it should. It also has some Hammond parts in it that makes it really crazy, because we’re actually gonna perform it live. And we had an extra wheelchair, actually, on stage that was supposed to be for ‘Lobotomy’, but ‘Lobotomy’ never got finished completely. So, in Europe, we are hoping that — of course it will be done by [the time we start the European tour] — but we will be able to do ‘Lobotomy’ and show it on stage.”
This past December, KING DIAMOND released a new single, “Spider Lilly”. The official music video for the track, which was directed by My Good Eye Visuals, can be seen below.
A first-time mixing collaboration with Arthur Rizk, who also mastered “Spider Lilly”, the music and lyrics for the song were written by King Diamond.
The recording lineup for “Spider Lilly” was still the same, with King Diamond handling lead and backing vocals plus playing the Hammond organ, Andy La Rocque and Mike Wead on guitars, Pontus Egberg on bass, and Matt Thompson on drums. There is also a special guest appearance by Danish female vocalist Myrkur with some amazing additional backing vocals.
Part of the new “Spider Lilly” video was filmed at the very haunted Pennhurst Asylum outside of Philadelphia on a travel day during the band’s recent North American tour, two days before Halloween. It was only King himself and actress Jodi Cachia who could participate on that specific day, together with producer David Brodsky, Allie Woest and their killer crew.
KING DIAMOND performed “Spider Lilly” live for the first time at the kick-off concert of the band’s fall 2024 North American headlining tour, which launched on October 15 at Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas. The “Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920” trek ran through December 6 in Dallas, Texas. Support came from OVERKILL and NIGHT DEMON. Additional backing vocals for the KING DIAMOND set were provided by the special guest Myrkur.
In November, the KING DIAMOND shows in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (November 20 at Edmonton Convention Center),Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada (November 21 at TCU Place),Calgary, Alberta Canada (November 22 at Grey Eagle Event Centre),Portland, Oregon (November 24 at Keller Auditorium) and Seattle, Washington (November 25 at The Moore Theatre) were canceled due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
KING DIAMOND‘s setlist for the fall 2024 tour included two new songs, “Electro Therapy” and the aforementioned “Spider Lilly”.
In October 2023, KING DIAMOND released a music video for the 2019 single “Masquerade Of Madness”. The clip was directed by David Brodsky and Allison Woest of My Good Eye Visuals.
A month after KING DIAMOND released “Masquerade Of Madness” in November 2019, KING DIAMOND guitarist Andy La Rocque told The Metal Voice that he came up with the music for the track first before passing it off to King, who “needed to arrange a few things and change just a small few things for making it work with his vocals. And then, of course, he wrote the lyrics for it,” the guitarist revealed. “So we [went] a little back and forth until he felt like, ‘Okay, this is cool, man. This is the right key to sing in,’ and all that.”
KING DIAMOND received a Grammy nomination in the “Best Metal Performance” category for the track “Never Ending Hill” off the band’s last album, 2007’s “Give Me Your Soul … Please”.
“Give Me Your Soul … Please” sold 4,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 174 on The Billboard 200 chart.
KING DIAMOND released a DVD/Blu-ray, “Songs For The Dead Live”, in January 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The set captures 1987’s seminal “Abigail” album in its entirety, twice, and in very different locales: Belgium’s Graspop Metal Meeting in June 2016 and Philadelphia’s Fillmore in November 2015.
Photo by Jeremy Saffer