After King Diamond left Mercyful Fate, he set out in a different musical direction, abandoning the all-out Satan tunes for more generalized horror stories in the style of H.P. Lovecraft. Sometimes the tale behind the music is more interesting than the songs themselves!

Oh yes...officially, "King Diamond" is the band name, so his stuff gets ordered under "K", not "D" (which I mistakenly did for many, many years.)

"Fatal Portrait"

1. "The Candle" (6:38)
2. "The Jonah" (5:15)
3. "The Portrait" (5:06)
4. "Dressed in White" (3:09)
5. "Charon" (4:14)
6. "Lurking in the Dark" (3:33)
7. "Halloween" (4:12)
8. "Voices from the Past"--instrumental (1:29)
9. "Haunted" (3:54)
10. "The Lake" (4:11)

This album is actually 3/5ths of Mercyful Fate, since it still includes guitarist Michael Denner (who co-wrote 3 of the songs) and bassist Timi Hansen. The drummer here is Mikkey Dee, who left after Conspiracy to join Motorhead. The second guitarist, of course, is Andy La Rocque, who is basically the #2 man in King Diamond and the only member to perform on all of King's albums.

The music here...well, sounds a lot like Mercyful Fate! Real devilish, though not so much "O Praise Ye Satan" like early Fate was. Also it is the only King Diamond album which isn't story-oriented, although the first three songs do kinda go together. "The Lake" is a CD bonus track.

"Abigail"

1. "Funeral" (1:29)
2. "Arrival" (5:26)
3. "A Mansion in the Darkness" (4:33)
4. "The Family Ghost" (4:05)
5. "The 7th Day of July 1777" (4:51)
6. "Omens" (3:56)
7. "The Possession" (3:25)
8. "Abigail" (4:52)
9. "Black Horsemen" (7:39)

The first of King's horror-story albums. (By the way, don't take the "King" as any sort of comparison to Stephen King...King Diamond is a MUCH better writer!!!) The tale here, as far as I can tell, is about the evil spirit of a stillborn baby (Abigail) who possesses the soul of her great-great-great-granddaughter 200 years later, or something like that. This album came out in 1987, the same year MTv's Headbanger's Ball debuted, and "The Family Ghost" got substantial airplay...something I never thought I'd see, a King Diamond video! As a matter of fact, King himself was guest host on one show, and I still have a tape of that program lying around here somewhere...

"In Concert 1987--Abigail"

1. "Funeral" (1:55)
2. "Arrival" (5:47)
3. "Come to the Sabbath" (5:43)
4. "The Family Ghost" (4:25)
5. "The 7th Day of July 1777" (4:25)
6. "The Portrait" (4:47)
7. "Guitar Solo Andy" (3:36)
8. "The Possession" (3:50)
9. "Abigail" (4:29)
10. "Drum Solo" (3:24)
11. "The Candle" (6:01)
12. "No Presents for Christmas" (4:23)

Talk about an unimaginative album title! Well at least it's easy to tell when it was recorded and on what tour. :) Actually I delayed buying this CD for a long time, and finally bought it brand-new simply to fill up my King collection. I had seen used copies before, but not in a long time...of course, now I see it EVERY time I go shopping...as for the music, well it really isn't that great, the liner notes brag about it being "totally live", with no overdubs or remixing, and boy does it show. I also wish it contained more Mercyful Fate songs. Overall, it's worth owning, but not for what I paid for it...

"Them"

1. "Out from the Asylum" (1:44)
2. "Welcome Home" (4:35)
3. "The Invisible Guests" (5:03)
4. "Tea" (5:13)
5. "Mother's Getting Weaker" (4:01)
6. "Bye, Bye Missy" (5:07)
7. "A Broken Spell" (4:07)
8. "The Accusation Chair" (4:20)
9. "'Them'"--instrumental (1:55)
10. "Twilight Symphony" (4:08)
11. "Coming Home" (1:12)
12. "Phone Call" (1:39)

The best of all King's albums, both story-wise and music-wise. The story is told as first-person narrative, with King as a nine year old boy...funny, I never knew King had an evil grandmother who burned his sister Missy alive in the fireplace!

"The Dark Sides"

1. "Halloween" (4:12)
2. "Them"--instrumental (1:55)
3. "No Presents for Christmas" (4:21)
4. "Shrine" (4:23)
5. "The Lake" (4:11)
6. "Phone Call" (1:39)

Though technically a collection of B-sides and rare songs, the only real gems here are "No Presents for Christmas", King's first solo single, and "Shrine", the B-side to "The Family Ghost" single. I don't know why "The Lake" is touted in the liner notes as "ultra rare", since it's been available on the Fatal Portrait CD for over a decade...

"Conspiracy"

1. "At the Graves" (8:57)
2. "Sleepless Nights" (5:05)
3. "Lies" (4:22)
4. "A Visit from the Dead" (6:12)
5. "The Wedding Dream" (6:02)
6. "'Amon' Belongs to 'Them'" (3:50)
7. "Something Weird"--instrumental (2:07)
8. "Victimized" (5:21)
9. "Let it Be Done" (1:12)
10. "Cremation" (4:13)

For all intensive purposes, this is "Them Part II" -- King gets released from the mental hospital, only to find out that "THEY" are still after him...

"The Eye"

1. "Eye of the Witch" (3:46)
2. "The Trial (Chambre Ardente)" (5:12)
3. "Burn" (3:42)
4. "Two Little Girls" (2:41)
5. "Into the Convent" (4:47)
6. "Father Picard" (3:19)
7. "Behind These Walls" (3:44)
8. "The Meetings" (4:31)
9. "Insanity"--instrumental (2:59)
10. "1642 Imprisonment" (3:30)
11. "The Curse" (5:44)

This album was really a letdown, since I was hoping for "Them Part III"; instead, this is just some dumb story about a priest who likes to rape nuns, or something like that. Not fond of it at all.

"The Spider's Lullabye"

1. "From the Other Side" (3:47)
2. "Killer" (4:14)
3. "The Poltergeist" (4:27)
4. "Dreams" (4:37)
5. "Moonlight" (4:30)
6. "Six Feet Under" (4:02)
7. "The Spider's Lullabye" (3:40)
8. "Eastmann's Cure" (4:30)
9. "Room 17" (8:17)
10. "To the Morgue" (5:00)

I was really impressed with this album, especially after The Eye and two lackluster Mercyful Fate CDs. Surprisingly, it's some of the best music King has ever done, almost as good if not better than "Them"! I'm not sure if the songs tell a story or not, since there isn't anything specified in the liner notes, and I haven't read the lyrics fully.

"The Graveyard"

1. "The Graveyard" (1:22)
2. "Black Hill Sanitarium" (4:28)
3. "Waiting" (4:26)
4. "Heads on the Wall" (6:20)
5. "Whispers" (0:31)
6. "I'm Not a Stranger" (4:03)
7. "Digging Graves" (6:55)
8. "Meet Me at Midnight" (4:46)
9. "Sleep Tight Little Baby" (5:38)
10. "Daddy" (3:22)
11. "Trick or Treat" (5:09)
12. "Up from the Grave" (3:18)
13. "I Am" (5:50)
14. "Lucy Forever" (4:56)

Another story theme here, this time about a guy who goes on some murderous rampage after being falsely accused of child molestation (or something like that.) Musically, however, it doesn't stand out too well...sort of in the same vein as The Eye, actually.

"Voodoo"

1. "Louisiana Darkness" (1:43)
2. "'LOA' House" (5:33)
3. "Life After Death" (5:40)
4. "Voodoo" (4:34)
5. "A Secret" (4:04)
6. "Salem" (5:18)
7. "One Down Two to Go" (3:45)
8. "Sending of Dead" (5:40)
9. "Sarah's Night" (3:22)
10. "The Exorcist" (4:52)
11. "Unclean Spirits" (1:49)
12. "Cross of Baron Samedi" (4:29)
13. "If They Only Knew" (0:32)
14. "Aftermath" (1:39)

I heard a lot of people raving about how awesome this album was, how it was King's best work since Them, etc. Well, after a couple of listens I can agree that it IS better than King's lesser CD's, but to compare it to Them is ridiculous. Still a nice CD, though.

"House of God"

1. "Upon the Cross" (1:44)
2. "The Trees Have Eyes" (4:46)
3. "Follow the Wolf" (4:27)
4. "House of God" (5:36)
5. "Black Devil" (4:28)
6. "The Pact" (4:10)
7. "Goodbye" (1:59)
8. "Just a Shadow" (4:36)
9. "Help!!!" (4:21)
10. "Passage to Hell" (1:59)
11. "Catacomb" (5:01)
12. "This Place is Terrible" (5:34)
13. "Peace of Mind"--instrumental (2:31)

At last, here's a story I can sink my teeth into...apparently, Jesus Christ survived his ordeal on the cross, and is living with Mary Magdelene in a small church in France. A stranded traveler comes to visit, and then the nightmare begins...or at least that's the idea. Unfortunately, an inspired plot alone does not make great music. This disc isn't good or bad, it's just...well, "unmemorable" would be the most apt description, as I've listened to it five or six times and can't remember a damn bit of it.

"Abigail II: The Revenge"

1. "Spare This Life" (1:44)
2. "The Storm" (4:22)
3. "Mansion in Sorrow" (3:36)
4. "Miriam" (5:10)
5. "Little One" (4:31)
6. "Slippery Stairs" (5:10)
7. "The Crypt" (4:11)
8. "Broken Glass" (4:13)
9. "More Than Pain" (2:31)
10. "The Wheelchair" (5:19)
11. "Spirits" (4:57)
12. "Mommy" (6:26)
13. "Sorry Dear" (0:53)

OH COME ON!!!!! I mean, JEEZ!! Everyone knows that King's music these days is akin to one bad slasher flick after another, but...fucking hell!! Why throw it in our FACES like this??

Seriously, the music & story are no less generic than his last three albums; indeed if played side by side, you could not tell them apart. But digging up old dead baby Abigail...ok, at least it's not as bad as Stephen King's Black House, that sorry ass sequel to The Talisman, my favorite of all SK novels. I waded 200 pages deep into that tripe, at which point I decided to go to the kitchen and stab forks into my eyes instead, which felt much less painful and tedious. I certainly won't go THAT far to describe this album, but clearly, like Meat Loaf's awful Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell, this is a pure marketing gimmick thinly disguised as a "return to the old school", and King Diamond ought to be ashamed of himself. Yeah, I know the guy's gettin' old and doesn't sell like he used to, and we all need extra money, but only a true Satanist could justify this breach of morals and ethics. Oh....wait a minute, I guess that makes it all okay, then. :)

But really, if King decides to follow this up with Them Part III: They're Back!, he at least better put some real *effort* into it, otherwise I'll truly be pissed...

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