KING DIAMOND launched its spring/summer 2025 European tour Wednesday night (June 4) at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden.
The band’s lineup for the current tour consists of King Diamond on lead vocals, Andy La Rocque and Mike Wead on guitars, Pontus Egberg on the bass, and Matt Thompson on drums. Greek female vocalist Hel Pyre, who previously played bass for NERVOSA, is handling backing vocals on the trek.
KING DIAMOND‘s setlist for last night’s concert was as follows:
01. Arrival
02. A Mansion In Darkness
03. Halloween
04. Voodoo
05. Spider Lilly
06. Sleepless Nights
07. Welcome Home
08. The Invisible Guests
09. The Candle
10. Masquerade Of Madness
11. Electro Therapy
12. Eye Of The Witch
13. Burn
14. Abigail
Fan-filmed video of the entire performance can be seen below.
In a recent interview with Fistful Of Metal magazine, King stated about the status of the long-awaited new KING DIAMOND album: “Well, for starters, the original name that we had picked was ‘The Institute’. However, that has now changed to, ‘St Lucifer’s Hospital 1920’, since the start of the U.S. tour. There very well may be a track on the album called ‘The Institute’. We were supposed to release the album this year, and in fact the album was supposed to be completely finished prior to the live shows, but I just want to make sure that it’s the best material I’ve ever released. Right now, we are gearing up to film the next video for the single ‘Lobotomy’, which will definitely be released later this year. Other songs that are completed are an intro track called ‘Under The Surface’, ‘The Institute’, ‘The Nun’, ‘Faceless’ and, of course, ‘Spider Lilly’. There’s another track, which I’m not sure is going to be on the album yet, called ‘Deep In The Darkness 1920’. Andy has been working on at least five tracks, one of which has as monster chorus that we plan to record with a choir. The plan is that this album will be the first of a trilogy, and I already have all three album titles.”
In a separate interview with Guitar World, La Rocque spoke about KING DIAMOND‘s forthcoming horror trilogy, part one of which is titled “Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920”. Asked about his previous comment that the new KING DIAMOND songs would be, in some form, a return to the band’s earliest records, Andy said: “It’s mainly to get that organic sound back, where everything doesn’t have to be… placed perfectly in time, or even in pitch. There’s got to be some rock ‘n’ roll to it. [Laughs] If you listen to an album that’s totally perfect, it gets boring. We wanted to make an album where it’s a little bit more alive, like it was in the ’80s.
“We’re trying to avoid the stiffness of the albums of the ’90s and early 2000s,” he explained. “Really, we’re just trying to loosen it up a little bit. Then again, we also had a talk about going back to the roots with the songwriting. Some parts are going back to ‘Fatal Portrait’ and ‘Abigail’ when it comes to the riffing style, but it’s also going to be totally different from what you’ve ever heard from us before.”
As for a possible timeline for the next KING DIAMOND album, Andy said: “We’re going to do some festivals in Europe [this] summer, so everything has to be recorded and done before we do that, that’s for sure. We’re still working on some of the other stuff we have. It’s going to be eight or nine songs on the album, I believe.”
Last December, KING DIAMOND released a new single, “Spider Lilly”. It was a first-time mixing collaboration with Arthur Rizk, who also mastered the track. The music and lyrics were written by King Diamond.
The official music video for “Spider Lilly” was directed by My Good Eye Visuals. Part of the clip was filmed at the very haunted Pennhurst Asylum outside of Philadelphia on a travel day during the band’s 2024 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 crew.
KING DIAMOND performed “Spider Lilly” live for the first time at the kick-off concert of the band’s 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 2024, 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, 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 captured 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. The performances featured KING DIAMOND‘s current band, comprising of guitarists La Rocque and Mike Wead, bassist Pontus Egberg and Matt Thompson.
Content shared from blabbermouth.net.