King Diamond (born Kim Bendix Petersen, June 14, 1956, Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Grammy-Nominated heavy metal musician known for his striking face painted image. As a vocalist, he is known for his use of falsetto, mixed with mid-range vocals in most of his music. As the frontman for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond, his music has had an influence on many bands across a variety of metal sub-genres. King Diamond is the band that King Diamond formed after the split up of Mercyful Fate, following the departure of Hank Shermann. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A car from 1956 Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Heavy metal redirects here. ... This article is about the musical genre. ... For other uses, see Singer (disambiguation). ... “Instrumentalist” redirects here. ... A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition or melody to songs, or both. ... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... For other uses, see Singer (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Guitar (disambiguation). ... Piano, todays most common keyboard instrument A keyboard instrument is any musical instrument played using a musical keyboard. ... In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. ... Roadrunner Records is a major record label that concentrates on metal bands. ... Metal Blade redirects here. ... King Diamond is the band that King Diamond formed after the split up of Mercyful Fate, following the departure of Hank Shermann. ... Mercyful Fate is an influential Danish heavy metal group who are often cited among the influences in the black metal, thrash metal, power metal, and progressive metal genres. ... Black Rose was a Danish hard rock / heavy metal band with King Diamond on vocals. ... Brats was a danish (Copenhagen) band formed in 1977 as a punk-band, but later became a more Heavy Metal-styled band after having split up in 1979 and reformed with new members, which Hank Shermann was the only was the only remaining member of the original line-up. ... is the 165th day of the year (166th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A car from 1956 Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... Heavy metal redirects here. ... “Instrumentalist” redirects here. ... Falsetto (Italian diminutive of falso, false) is a singing technique that produces sounds that are pitched higher than the singers normal range, in the treble range. ... Mercyful Fate is an influential Danish heavy metal group who are often cited among the influences in the black metal, thrash metal, power metal, and progressive metal genres. ... King Diamond is the band that King Diamond formed after the split up of Mercyful Fate, following the departure of Hank Shermann. ...

Career

Mercyful Fate

Diamond's first band, with whom he played guitar, was reportedly called Brainstorm. Feeling creatively dissatisfied, Diamond left Brainstorm and began singing with local Danish hard rock band Black Rose. It was during this time in Black Rose that Diamond began experimenting with horror themed theatrics as well as shaping the malevolent quasi-Satanic stage persona that he would become known for in the future. In 1980, he left Black Rose and joined the punk-metal band Brats. It was in Brats that Diamond met the three musicians (Hank Shermann, Michael Denner, Timi Hansen) that would join with Diamond in 1980 and become Mercyful Fate. Because of the group's stage presence, make-up and occult lyrics, their musical style is somewhat reminiscent of heavy metal, power metal, progressive metal and rock opera. Following the 1984 release of Don't Break the Oath and the subsequent tour (which saw them play in the U.S. for the first time), Diamond split ways with Mercyful Fate, as a result of frustration over creative differences with Hank Shermann. With him, he took two of his bandmates (Hansen and Denner) to pursue a solo career under his own name. Black Rose was a Danish hard rock / heavy metal band with King Diamond on vocals. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Michael Denner (born 5 November) is a Danish heavy metal guitarist. ... Timi Grabber Hansen is a Danish bass player. ... Corpse paint (sometimes a single word, corpsepaint) is a style of black-and- white makeup used extensively by black metal bands during live concerts and photo shoots as part of their imagery of evil and decay. ... Heavy metal redirects here. ... Power metal is a style of heavy metal music typically with the aim of evoking an epic feel, combining characteristics of traditional metal with thrash metal or speed metal, often within symphonic context. ... Progressive metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music which blends the powerful, guitar-driven sound of metal with the complex compositional structures, odd time signatures, and intricate instrumental playing of progressive rock. ... The Whos Tommy, the first album explicitly billed as a rock opera A rock opera is a rock music album or stage production that resembles the form of an opera. ... Dont Break the Oath is Mercyful Fates second full-length album. ...

Mercyful Fate re-united in 1992 (while King Diamond simultaneously continued his solo career), but were disbanded by Diamond in 1999, as King decided to put Mercyful Fate in retirement and continue on with his solo career. In an interview with Metal Israel in 2005, King elaborated on the decision to retire Mercyful Fate, as he claimed that "it's impossible for me to live off Mercyful Fate... I can still live from King Diamond."

In 2005 King said that while Mercyful Fate still has a contract and could record another record, it would have to be done only as a hobby since Fate does not earn enough money to support itself.^[1]

King Diamond

With his solo act, King often uses the lyrics and music to create characters and tell stories in the form of concept albums. Albums meld together as one story (features present already in the Fatal Portrait album), but carry to more intricate levels (with the albums, Abigail, "Them" , and The Eye) to the dramatic story (Conspiracy). Typical of both the Abigail and Conspiracy tours was how King Diamond re-enacted much of the scenarios on stage, using special effects in the show much in the style of metal-musician Alice Cooper, of whom Diamond is a fan. King Diamond albums also often feature dueling guitar solos. On the CD inserts, the performer of each solo is credited, often using a symbol. In popular music, a concept album is an album which is unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical (Shuker 2002, p. ... Fatal Portrait is the debut album by King Diamond. ... Abigail is the second album of King Diamond and is the bands first album to be centred on a story told throughout each of the songs. ... Them is an album by King Diamond released in 1988 on Roadrunner Records. ... The Eye, was the debut album of the Icelandic gothic rock group KUKL. This album was released in October 1984, through Crass Records and was recorded at Southern Studios in January 1984. ... Conspiracy is a name of a concept album by King Diamond, as the second part of a story (the first being Them). ... Alice Cooper (born February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans four decades. ...

In 2001, King Diamond worked out a deal with the band Usurper to sing backup vocals on the song "Necronemesis" in exchange for them shifting their recording schedule around to accommodate the recording of Abigail II: The Revenge. In 2004, King Diamond contributed vocals to "Sweet Dreams", which was the final track on the album of Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project Probot. In late 2005, King Diamond appeared on the Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions album, contributing vocals to the song "In the Fire", which featured multiple Roadrunner Records musicians (past and present) working together to create individual songs. King Diamond also guested on the Cradle of Filth song "Devil Woman" in late 2005. Look up Usurper in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Probot (portmanteau: probe + robot) is a musical project masterminded by Dave Grohl. ... Roadrunner United was a project organized by the heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records to celebrate its 25th anniversary. ... Cradle of Filth are a heavy metal band formed in Suffolk, England in 1991. ...

In April 2006 King reunited with old friend Mikkey Dee (current Motörhead drummer) at a sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden.^[2] In 2001 King referred to Dee as "one of the best [drummers] of all time and that's something that has bothered us since he left."^[3] Michael Delaouglou, better known as Mikkey Dee (born October 31, 1963) is a half-Greek half-Swedish drummer/songwriter in the heavy metal band, Motörhead. ... This article is about the band. ... Gothenburg (Swedish: Göteborg [jøːtəbɔrj]) is a city and a municipality on the western coast of Sweden, in the County of Västra Götaland. ...

King Diamond released his new album, Give Me Your Soul...Please, on June 26, 2007. Following the release in December the band received a Grammy nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category for the track "Never Ending Hill".^[4] He was forced to cancel an upcoming United States tour due to a herniated disk, causing severe back pain, which puts him in intense pain almost all of the time.".^[5] He attributes the problem to the long stressful hours spent working on the album. Give Me Your Soul. ... is the 177th day of the year (178th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music...

Stage Presence

On stage, Diamond uses a trademark microphone handle consisting of two femur bones in the shape of a cross. A live trademark was also Melissa, a full human skeleton which Diamond would sing to. In the mid-1980s Melissa's skull was stolen after a performance in the Netherlands. It was claimed to have been finally returned in 2006.^[6]; however, this was denied by King Diamond himself.^[7] Kiss bassist Gene Simmons claims to have sent Diamond a cease-and-desist letter over Diamond's makeup design, which Diamond complied with.^[8] Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. ... Chaim Witz (חיים וויץ), (born August 25, 1949 in Haifa, Israel), better known by his stage name Gene Simmons, is an Israeli-American hard rock bass guitarist and vocalist. ... Cease-and-desist is a legal term meaning essentially stop: It is used in demands for a person or organization to stop doing something (to cease and desist from doing it). ...

Diamond has changed the design of his make-up often over the years. With Conspiracy, he wore a mesh of black and white line war paint, with some red "blood" made to look like a wound coming out of his forehead. With his album The Puppet Master, he used very little white and mainly had black inverted crosses going up and down his face.

Satanism

Despite numerous claims otherwise, Peter H. Gilmore, The High Priest in The Church Of Satan, has confirmed in an interview on the news show "The Hour" that King Diamond is in fact a member of the Church (LaVeyan Satanism is an atheistic cult influenced by Nietzsche and other individualist philosophers, and should not be confused with Theistic Satanism and/or Devil Worship). Peter H Gilmore. ... Church of Satan logo The Church of Satan is an organization for those who practice self-preservation as articulated in The Satanic Bible, written in 1969 by Anton Szandor LaVey. ... LaVeyan Satanism Associated organizations The Church of Satan First Satanic Church Prominent figures Anton LaVey | Blanche Barton | Peter H. Gilmore | Peggy Nadramia | Karla LaVey Associated concepts Left-Hand Path | Pentagonal Revisionism | Suitheism | Might is Right | Lex talionis Books and publications The Satanic Bible | The Satanic Rituals | The Satanic Witch | The... Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... For judgements of value about collectivism and individualism, see individualism and collectivism. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Satanism is a religious or philosophical movement centered around Satan or another entity identified with Satan, or centered around the forces of nature, particularly human nature, represented by Satan as an archetype. ...

During a spring 1984 interview with British heavy metal magazine Kerrang! correspondent Dave Dickson, who, after some introductory remarks and questions about the then-current Mercyful Fate album Don't Break The Oath, took Diamond to task regarding his Satanic beliefs.^{[citation needed]} Dickson made frequent references to infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, by whom Diamond denied being influenced. Diamond expressed his admiration of Anton Szandor LaVey (founder of The Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966) in the interview, which has been cited by some as influential in the demise of Mercyful Fate (although Diamond has always denied this). In the same interview he claimed to have cursed Manowar, as Fate had briefly toured as a support act to Manowar in the UK, and there were personality conflicts between the two bands.^[9] The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. ... Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced // i. ... Anton Szandor LaVey (11 April 1930 - 29 October 1997), born Howard Stanton Levey, was the founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan, author of The Satanic Bible, and creator of the religion known as as LaVeyan Satanism. ... This article is about the band. ...

He adorns himself with inverted crosses, the sigil of Baphomet (from the LaVeyan perspective) and has written lyrics openly hostile to Christianity (as evidenced in "The Oath" with lyrics including "I deny Jesus Christ, The Deceiver, and I abjure the Christian faith holding in contempt the whole of its works"). However, with the albums released under his own name, he has downplayed the overt Satanism in favour of a "horror movie" approach, though he still wears inverted crosses as jewelery and makeup. For other uses, see Baphomet (disambiguation). ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      Christianity is...

In an interview from 2006, King Diamond reveals that he does not follow any specific religion, and expresses concern that religion has led so many people to kill and destroy each other. According to himself, he has problems comprehending why religion has caused so much death and destruction, when it is logically impossible to prove the presence or absence of any god. He reveals that he has reached a point in his life where he has completely given up believing in anything religious and that he simply does not know what to answer when asked whether he is a Satanist or not.^[10] Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Discography

• King Diamond discography
• Mercyful Fate discography

The discography for the Danish heavy metal band King Diamond. ... The discography for the Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate. ...

Awards

• Grammys 2008 Best Metal Performance Nomination - "Never Ending Hill"^[11]

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (originally called the Gramophone Awards), presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music...

References

Blabbermouth. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Blabbermouth. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... KNAC is an internet based heavy metal music radio station that pays tribute to a former United States, Los Angeles, California area FM radio station. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Blabbermouth. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Blabbermouth. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Blabbermouth. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 217th day of the year (218th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Blabbermouth. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Coven Worldwide – Official website