King Diamond: Conspiracy

(1989, Roadrunner)


    Tracklist:
  1. At the graves
  2. Sleepless nights
  3. Lies
  4. A visit from the dead
  5. The wedding dream
  6. "Amon" belongs to "Them"
  7. Something weird
  8. Victimized
  9. Let it be done
  10. Cremation
  11. At the graves - alt. mix (bonus)
  12. Cremation - live show mix (bonus)
Band members:
King Diamond - Vocals
Andy La Rocque - Guitars
Pete Blakk - Guitars
Hal Patino - Bass guitar
Mikkey Dee - Drums

    Rating:
    The sequel to "Them" is possibly the best King Diamond record I've heard, since I like it better than "Them". What I like most about King's vocal style, is that he uses tons of different voices to fit with all the characters in his stories, sometimes he has that unbelievable high pitched falsette singing, and other times he goes way lower to sound rather "evil" etc.
    Lyrically this is a real sequel to "Them" actually, it begins with King returning to the old house and watching his grandma disappear. 2 weeks later he manages to summon his dead sister's spirit from her grave with the help from "Them", although they want the house back in return. And then he goes to therapy at Dr. Landau (the doctor who examined him after he'd killed his grandma), who thinks King's insanity is gone and wants him to meet his mother again (yeah I thought she was dead too?!), anyways some time later King gets a visit from his sister Missy, and she sends him a dream - a dream where Dr. Landau is about to marry King's mother, but King grabs the big axe and.. kills his mother! (yeah I know, this guy is evil) However, it was just a dream so no real harm done. Then one day, the mother comes to visit him for real but.. she's taken Dr. Landau with her, the evil man King hates with all his being. And for some reason, the mother sticks a needle, filled with some poison or something, into King's arm - and he falls down. His mother and the doctor head off to the church to get reverend Sammael, who believes King is possessed by Satan or some evil demon, and in the end the 3 put King's body in a coffin and set in on fire (hence "Cremation"), although I guess his spirit survives or something cause the last lines of lyrics on the album is King saying: "whenever the dark is near, I will return from the grave to haunt you.. godforsaken whore."
    Now you might wonder, why the hell did I go through the trouble of explaining the lyrical story on two albums? Well I dunno actually - probably cause I didn't have anything else to write :) (and cause I was really fascinated by that story)
    Musically, we get lots of heavy riffs and brilliant leads, not to mention solos, from Andy & Pete (especially Andy).





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