New Mercyful Fate and King Diamond on the way

Mercyful Fate was supposed to do a bunch of festival shows last summer, which were torpedo'd by the Coronavirus, but apparently they've been using the down time to work on new material... and King's solo band has new stuff in the works as well. Groovy.

KING DIAMOND Offers Updates On New Albums From MERCYFUL FATE, KING DIAMOND

Danish heavy metal singer King Diamond — who fronts both KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE — was a guest on a recent episode of "The Electric Theater With Clown" Internet show hosted by SLIPKNOT's M. Shawn "Clown" Crahan. You can now listen to the entire chat below.

Speaking about new music that he is working on right now, King said: "I'm writing with Hank [Shermann, guitar] from MERCYFUL FATE and writing with Andy [LaRocque, guitar] for KING DIAMOND and writing on my own for KING DIAMOND. For KING DIAMOND, it's an album that's gonna be called 'The Institute', which is part one of two — there'll be two full albums that will be completing a full story. And as the title [suggests], there's gonna be some crazy weird stuff. And for MERCY, I also have the title, but I'm not giving it out to anybody at the moment. We have the front cover for the new MERCY too. It's very correct, very right for MERCYFUL FATE. It's very back to basics."

Regarding his songwriting approach for the new MERCYFUL FATE and KING DIAMOND material, King said: "For my part, with both MERCY and KING albums — even more KING DIAMOND, I would say — all vocals are gonna be lead vocals again, like they were in the old days. It didn't matter if there was a choir singing on the right side or the left side, or whatever, they would still go and pick up parts of the lyrics to progress the story and so on. So it's gonna be anything goes with the vocals, for sure — back to the old style. And for MERCY too, it's gonna be very old-fashioned — Hank is writing very much like the old days. And it's nice to feel that we can capture that again. So that's two albums that are being worked on that will be done by the time we can go out and tour again, I'm sure."

King also revealed that plans are afoot to creat a graphic novel for KING DIAMOND's classic second album, 1987's concept effort "Abigail". "[We are working with] a really good company," he said. "I have high, high hopes for how that's gonna turn out."

I’m a huge fan. Wild news. Hank. Andy.
I wish Denner could be called in to. At least for a guest presentation solo !
Even the book ! What a trip !
I don’t see concerts happening this year.
No way will politicians agree to that.

If anyone’s interested EBay has a puzzle - of Abigal artwork cover.

I'm sure the albums will be released one of these days, but other than the graphic novel, which is badass and I can't wait to get one, there's nothing much new there. Was a bit bummed they didn't release the first Institute album last year, because he was talking about that before COVID, and they released that song, and toured (which I saw lol). Thought for sure we were going to get an album, so starting to get aggravated that everything seems to be taking so long with him these days. WTF else do they have to do, why not release some shit? Still excited, but damn man get on with it!

I'll be interested in these releases

Meh, dude hasn't done shit for like a dozen years. Then to find out, no Denner? WTF? I know the guy had some health issues, but come on. Ozzy can release content, but King can't? I'll give it a chance when/if this stuff is released, but hopes are very low with this info.

I'd be curious to check those out.

I own the King Diamond Roadrunner 5 cd box set. Need to revisit it. As for Mercyful Fate, i never owned any album by them. Need to remedy to that.

I am interested in both projects, and I am huge fan of Mercyful Fate.

Any word yet on these projects ?

A new album on October 31 would be good.

Glower wrote:

Any word yet on these projects ?

I haven't seen anything. It would be nice to get some kind of update.

You would think he would have something out by now. I know he has his own studio in his house, figure with everyone locked down last year, he'd have had time to record several albums. Really sucks, I remember a time when he was putting albums out every other month it seemed, between KD and MF bands. Now he's taking after Tool.

Wrecked Neck wrote:

You would think he would have something out by now. I know he has his own studio in his house, figure with everyone locked down last year, he'd have had time to record several albums. Really sucks, I remember a time when he was putting albums out every other month it seemed, between KD and MF bands. Now he's taking after Tool.

I feel the same about Dark Angel. During lockdown, Gene Hoglan wasn’t touring with Testament. He had nothing but free time to write songs.

Troublezone wrote:

Wrecked Neck wrote:

You would think he would have something out by now. I know he has his own studio in his house, figure with everyone locked down last year, he'd have had time to record several albums. Really sucks, I remember a time when he was putting albums out every other month it seemed, between KD and MF bands. Now he's taking after Tool.

I feel the same about Dark Angel. During lockdown, Gene Hoglan wasn’t touring with Testament. He had nothing but free time to write songs.

Yeah I remember reading somewhere a couple years ago they were planning on a new album. Guess that's in the can now.

Wrecked Neck wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

Wrecked Neck wrote:

You would think he would have something out by now. I know he has his own studio in his house, figure with everyone locked down last year, he'd have had time to record several albums. Really sucks, I remember a time when he was putting albums out every other month it seemed, between KD and MF bands. Now he's taking after Tool.

I feel the same about Dark Angel. During lockdown, Gene Hoglan wasn’t touring with Testament. He had nothing but free time to write songs.

Yeah I remember reading somewhere a couple years ago they were planning on a new album. Guess that's in the can now.

Unfortunately, No!
They are still “working” on it. It’s been so long now… who knows if it’ll get finished. Same with the new Coroner album!

Better be one hell of an album if it's taking this long to make....that goes for all bands mentioned in this thread!

New Mercyful Fate song was recorded from their show the other day. I freaking love it, can’t wait to hear a better recording of it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KOR_EMlD8Uc

Powerful. He’s definitely showing his true colors.
But to see him moving stiffly. Older. Darker.
I know he’s friends with Alice Cooper…they have played golf together..
Alice is a Christian….but come on. King is a Satanist.

Dig "Melissa" & "Don't Break The Oath" and that is about it. (IMHDO) They had this vibe that those 90's Metal Blade releases lacked. Never got into King Diamond much, I suppose the talent was there in the guuitar department. Yet, the guitar tones didn't do much for me. Kinda/Sorta clashed with dude's voice. Again, goes back to that vibe.

https://metalheadzone.com/michael-denner-on-his-back-stabbing-exclusion-from-mercyful-fate-reunion/