King Diamond

King Diamond has been a busy devil lately.

He recently appeared on Guitar Hero: Metallica with the rerecorded Mercyful Fate song "Evil" as well being an animated character in the game, has had two songs on the Brütal Legend game soundtrack, and has remastered and re-released King Diamond CDs "The Graveyard" and "The Spider's Lullaby," with "Voodoo" and "House of God" on the way. But the most laborious project King has been involved with is the making of a three-disc DVD, due out this winter or early next year.

Speaking from his home in Dallas, Texas, King spoke with me about his latest endeavors, religion and his severe back pain.

Metal Mayhem: With your new DVD in the works, what can fans expect?
King Diamond: The DVDs are King Diamond retro footage. It has old Mercyful Fate clips and private footage. It's bootleg footage, but it's ours. It's our original files and it's better quality than an Internet bootleg. It has computer-enhanced King Diamond shows from '86, '90 and '97. It has behind-the-scenes footage of our U.S. and European "Conspiracy" tour. There's an old Mercyful Fate concert from '82 before Michael Denner was in the band. It has taken longer than expected, but there's lots of stuff that will be on it that no one's ever seen before. Fans have got to see this!

MM: What made you and guitarist Andy LaRocque decide to remaster "The Spider's Lullabye" and "The Graveyard," as well as redo the cover artwork?
King: It was a combination of things. Licenses had run out and we wanted to continue the license, but those albums had a shitty sound. They were butchered, and we decided we must make them sound better. So Andy gave it a shot and I can hear things that I couldn't hear on the original releases. I can hear more power and balance, and more details in the vocals. Andy did a killer job on "House of God" as well. The old artwork was on a computer that got destroyed and the artwork was gone. Nobody had the originals, so we tried to do something with the same feel, but we had to start from scratch. Only a few things changed on the "Voodoo" and "House of God" covers because we found the original artwork, and those will be out soon as well.

MM: Did re-recording "Evil" and "Curse of the Pharaohs" prompt talk of a new Mercyful Fate album soon?
King: I would like to do it, but we would need a decent offer from the label. There have been no talks or negotiations with them. Record labels have been getting hurt because of Internet downloading, and they can't give the budget like they used to. There's no money to make on that budget. Hank and I are ready to do it, if the labels are ready, but the King Diamond band is my first priority.

MM: Halloween just ended. Did you ever think the song of the same name from "Fatal Portrait" would be synonymous with worldwide metalheads and Halloween?
King: No! (laughs) I never had that in mind whatsoever. It was nothing like that all (when writing the song). It's the same thing with "No Presents for Christmas." But it's cool to play that song live, especially in the middle of summer at a big festival in front of thousands of people on a hot day, singing "Halloween"!

MM: What's wrong with your back?
King: I have a herniated disc. It's been over two years now. It was real bad. I couldn't sit down for the first year; I had to eat my dinner standing up. It's a pain you can't describe. It hurt like hell, but it's getting stronger all the time, and I'm seeing improvement. It's been a long process, but I've had plenty of projects in between, like the DVD and the remasters, the video games and the Ozzfest show. I'm not worried about the actual performance, it's the traveling. I don't feel the back is ready yet. It's all the traveling and bus rides and bumpy roads and airplanes and sleeping in different beds every night while on tour. That's the hard part.