For Decades, King Diamond has never failed at bringing pure darkness both sonically and visually. At his performance at The Kings Theater 11/7/2019 with the baroque architecture of the venue combined with the dark attire of Idle Hans, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats and King Diamond, it is a dark experience that you cannot experience again, for this was lightning, but instead of a bottle, it was caught in The Kings Theater. 

Opening, we get Idle Hands. Another band from the Cascadian region of the US. With Yob, Uada, Witch Mountain and Agalloch being veterans of darkness of the North West, Idle Hands is another band on the roster that you are going to want to keep an eye on. Their new album Mana already delivers emotion, imagery and atmosphere upon listening to it.

When they kicked into Cosmic Overdrive, the lights moved around as much as the band, making a static stage practically animated. They were completely polished and tight with their sound, but their energy and emotion was as raw as it gets. 

Next we get Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats. They turned the Kings Theater into a wasteland of doom and fog. With crunchy and distorted riffs combined with the groove and attitude in Uncle Acids voice, they brought a fun and groovy vibe to Kings Theater. This is also our first taste of some production on stage as well. The projector in the back would sometimes be as simple as having their band logo while other times, they turned the whole place into an intense trip with their use of patterns and lights.

At moments it would become horrifying with some eerie imagery as well. With the movement of their projection and the movement of the band, they made everything around us move as well! Simply put, with their sound and visuals, they practically turned The Kings Theater into an optical illusion.

They have the ability to have a laid back vibe while also delivering suspense and eeriness, basically making you find comfort at the edge of your seat. Once they ended with 13 Candles, everything in that staged moved. The lights had the ability to pull the audience in and make them part of the show. You were either head banging with the riffs or transfixed by the lightning or both! 

After Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats finished their set, the blood-red curtain covered the stage as we eagerly awaited for the king to take the stage. As many concert-goers went to use the bathroom, grab a drink, or chat with friends outside the main room, we get the lights slowly dimming as if there was a power outage, but we knew that this was a signal that all hell was about to break lose. At 9pm, the lights dimmed pitch black and the curtains rose. We first heard the Uriah Heep track The Wizard play on the recording followed by St. Lucifers Hospital.

Instantly we see the king come from the doorway in a gurney and we kicked right into The Candle followed by Behind these Walls. Brutality was not held back in these two tracks.

We get the choreography of The Funeral which led right into Arrival and A Mansion in Darkness. After Voodoo and Halloween, we get the first taste of new music that is in the works, Masquerade of Madness, which was to be everywhere after midnight of this night. We got a taste of how the new material still has all the darkness and rage we all know and love from King Diamond.

After the interlude of Out from the Asylum, we get the classic, Welcome Home. No King Diamond show is complete without “Grandma” in the wheelchair and everyone singing along, as if the audience was just as much of a contributor as the band. We were the ghosts brining harmonies along with King Diamond. When Kind Diamond kicked into Sleepless Nights, we saw the darkness take hold as everything turned blue and the rawest emotion was delivered.

Ending with classics such as Burn and Black Horseman which was dedicated to Mercyful Fate’s Time Hansen who passed away just a few days ago, this concluded a night of pure heavy metal and stellar performance art that left many impressions on us metalheads.

What made this performance so amazing was not just the execution of excellence bringing these songs to life, but it was also how every song that was performed that night had its own choreography which made every song stand out and be intriguing. If you got up to use the restroom or smoke a cigarette, you missed something. It is not just a metal show, it is the darkest and heaviest musical you can imagine.

King Diamond with his signature high-pitched vocal style instantly shivered everyone in that venue to the core. Whether you are at the last seat in the back, or at the barrier in the front, the sound one way or another was hitting you. You were seeing a metal show, combined with a dark Broadway musical. As if his voice wasn’t hard hitting enough, you had the intense riffs of Mike Wead and Andy Larocque decimating everything in sight. Add the rhythmic elements of Matt and Pontus and you have yourself one hell of an experience. Surrounding us was beautiful baroque architecture that signifies beauty, but just at the stage was a giant void of darkness and chaos.

New Single Masquerade of Madness out NOW \m/ \m/