King Diamond
Biography
Widely regarded as the finest vocalist in all of death metal (who possesses a multi-octave range), theatrical rocker King Diamond first rose to prominence as a member of Mercyful Fate, before launching a solo career on his own. Born Kim Bendix Petersen in Denmark on June 14, 1956, the future King Diamond was originally drawn to theatrically based hard rock due to such trailblazers as Alice Cooper, and soon began fronting local bands in the '70s, including a punk metal outfit called the Brats. Shortly thereafter, the group mutated into Mercyful Fate, consisting of members Hank Shermann (guitar), Michael Denner (guitar), Timi Hansen (bass), and Kim Ruzz (drums), in addition to Diamond. Diamond, by this time, had developed an interest in the occult, which reflected in the new group's subject matter, as the frontman began wearing makeup (which resembled a cross between his hero Cooper and Kiss' Gene Simmons).
After several demos made their way across Europe (and even reaching America via an underground tape-trading network among metalheads), Mercyful Fate issued a self-titled four-track EP before inking a recording contract with Roadrunner Records. The quintet issued a pair of thrash metal classics, 1983's Melissa and 1984's Don't Break the Oath, as Diamond's satanic lyrics created quite a stir at the time with outsiders.
Selected Discography
so to thoose who try and bash the king the man is a true artist he takes his time and perfects his art and it shows
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is art it draws u in a vocal horror show that chills the weak and empowers those who drink the cup of darkness. comparing king diamond to kiss is like comapring nsync to slayer you can not do it kiss is pop they became pop when they started having little kids at their shows and making tv specials and a bad movie they have been driven on by gene simmons and its time that people realize that its a sad cry for look at me i use to be at the top of my game
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gene simmons is phobic about keeping his fading fame together if a man has to sue over the likeness of a image then it proves that he's trying to hold his crumbling tower up i mean the last kiss album was sad i mean if i had been old enough to see kiss from the start i could see the appeal but when you hold it up to the light of king diamond this is a man who is the real demon his voice speaks for itself with out having to sell coffins lunchboxes or anything he remains the king because his art
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PS- brybythebay, I must remind you its a sin to down on 'THE KING' so punch yourself in the face repeadetely and beg for forgiveness immediatley, lol TOOLBELT.
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(this is a continuation from the post below) A cashgrabber, You see that is what Gene is and that will be his legacy and his family should feel proud of those accomplishme n t s but He has tarnished any artistic respect. He ran his band into the ground through greed and turned them into one of your 'brands' and never stayed true to the art itself its always about figuring out another way to make a buck. You can keep your brands and trademarks and I will stick with my Bands whom actually make music.
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brybythebay, Don't you see the true disconnect is our veiws of art. When you and guys like Gene speak of ART you use words like Brand,tradem a r k and money. People like me will always look straight through all of the hype and gimmicks and actually listen to your music and let your art speak for itself. Yes the douchebag has made a fortune off of all the small minded 70's children who fell for the gimmick but I wonder what every true kiss fan thought about the band putting out a disco record.
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OK NOW I SEE WHY YOUR SO BITTER, IT'S BECAUSE KING DIAMOND WAS SUED BY GENE SIMMONS. LIKE I SAID, GENE WAS A GENIUS. THE WHOLE KISS CONCEPT WAS NOTHING SHORT OF GENIUS. OBVIOUSLY BEFORE YOUR TIME SON. THE KISS TRADEMARK IS LEGALY HIS. ANYTHING THAT SOUNDS, LOOKS , SMELLS LIKE KISS IS GENES. JUST TRY IT.. GO AHEAD TRY IT.. AND YOU WILL GET SUED, JUST AS YOUR SO CALLED "KING" FOUND OUT.
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KING DIAMOND IS BY FAR MORE METAL THAN KISS. IN FACT, KISS IS NOT METAL AT ALL. WHO EVER SAID THEY WERE IS CRAZY. BUT TO BASH GENE LIKE YOU ARE IS ALSO CRAZY. GENE MUST BE SHORT FOR GENIUS. BECAUSE THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT GENE SIMMONS IS. HIS TRADEMARK KISS IDEA WAS A STROKE OF GENIUS! HE'S MADE,IN FACT STILL MAKING BIG TIME MONEY. MORE MONEY THAN KING DIAMOND WILL EVER HAVE. TO SAY GENE WILL NEVER BE AS "CREATIVE" IS A JOKE. HE CREATED A MULTI MILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY THATS STILL GOING STRONG.
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Gene can sue the King all he wants, he will never be as cool and creative as the king. King Diamond is still the face of metal and his music is timeless, Gene simmons is a washed up sellout jewish joke who gets absolutley NO respect and deserves none from the metal community. Screw Kiss and every song they ever created, they suck. I will put any King or Mercyful album up against any Kiss album and their is no comparison, Kiss is god awful. Gene's show and family suck even worse than he does.
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Can you believe that Gene 'the jew' Simmons sued King for the makeup? Infringement of copyright, and he won. What a dick. King is a legend. Abigail is pretty good, but again it followed the Mercyful Fate lineup. That is a HUGE shoe to fill. Good stuff but not Mercyful Fate. Again, Melissa & Dont Break the Oath, must haves for any metal head, my age or 12 years old. Get it. No. Shut up and go get it...now... dammit.
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I personally hope this guy can fully recover from that back issue and tour the states again. The King is still in great form musically in my opinion 'Give me your soul' is a killer album. This guy can continue to write awesome horror story concept records full of stunning riffs and memorable verses with ease the only question is will he be able to perform consistently on tour with that bad back?
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lol the Eye features King's by now ragged, past-prime vocals...... . . . . .
and, dude, I'm a fan, I thought that he was great!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! m a n y j's burned, with his music, as a background- but the Eye, not bad, but he was past his prime...... |
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I'm Father Picard, I'm taking over
Things will be different here You are the four God has chosen to be his angels in white Drink my sweet holy wine Oh yeah, come on it's not a crime From now on every Sunday this time you will attend this communion of mine! The Eye is an incredible album. It should never be an after thought. |
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I agree with Robb! Pandora, you need to expand your KD/MF discography! Do you hear us?!
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F**k gene Simmons for making him change his makeup, King Diamond Rules
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Never have i considered King Diamond or Merciful Fate to be "Death Metal". "Black Metal" perhaps (nothing to do with skin color-F.Y.I. to Pandora) or Even "Power Metal". Listening to his newer stuff is a little dissapointin g . . . T h e r e needs to be more of a focus on the Melodic guitar work like back in the old days. They still have it- just not as much of it.
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Been listening to KING since the beginning with Mercyful Fate. After all this time that past, i'm still a big fan. A big influence in my playing and sonwriting in my band, Demons Within.
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King's voice is so hauntingly beautiful it gives me chills still to this day. I've been listening to his music since the mid eighties and I never tire of it. Andy has the most peculiar style. I love it.
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Where is the Album "Them", it's one of the best stories I've ever listened to!!!! Too bad Pandora left that one out.
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