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KING DIAMOND is working on 10 new songs for upcoming album

Photo by Jeremy Saffer

05-02-2025

In a new interview with Full Metal Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio show, King Diamond discussed his namesake band’s upcoming horror trilogy, part one of which is titled “Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920”. Speaking about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the project, King said: “There’s so much, actually. There’s another song we played live, which has not been finished yet, but it’s extremely close. But it’s not like we are working on one song at a time; we are working on the entire album. And so there’s 10 titles right now that’s being worked on simultaneously, and was being worked on before the tour as well. And one is almost done. The lyric is not completely finished, but all the parts for the lyric is there — the way to sing it is there completely. It’s one of the songs that will probably have a guest sharing one of the characters with me, the different moods of that character. And this is a song called ‘Lobotomy’, which all the music is written except for the guitar solos that the guitarist will do themselves…. There’s an intro and a small outro on that one song, on ‘Lobotomy’. There’s another song called ‘The Nun’ that has old Hammond (organ) from start to finish, actually — super raw. Lots of stuff — very, very tricky parts, tempo changes. And it’s a very full power, double kick. But this one, ‘Lobotomy’, is heavy and very dark. I played it, just the music, for (Metal Blade Records founder and CEO) Brian Slagel one day at my house and he was, like, ‘That is so dark.’ And it’s turned out exactly like it should. It also has some Hammond parts in it that makes it really crazy, because we’re actually gonna perform it live. And we had an extra wheelchair, actually, on stage that was supposed to be for ‘Lobotomy’, but ‘Lobotomy’ never got finished completely. So, in Europe, we are hoping that — of course it will be done by (the time we start the European tour) — but we will be able to do ‘Lobotomy’ and show it on stage.”

This past December, KING DIAMOND released a new single, “Spider Lilly”. The official music video for the track, which was directed by My Good Eye Visuals, can be seen below.

Watch “Spider Lilly” below.

A first-time mixing collaboration with Arthur Rizk, who also mastered “Spider Lilly”, has produced an incredibly powerful sound picture, as clear and dynamic as a full moon on a star-filled black night. The music and lyrics are written by King Diamond.

The recording lineup for “Spider Lilly” is still the same, with King Diamond handling lead and backing vocals plus playing the Hammond Organ, Andy La Rocque and Mike Wead on guitars, Pontus Egberg on the bass, and Matt Thompson on drums. There is also a special guest appearance by Danish female vocalist Myrkur with some amazing additional backing vocals.

Part of the new “Spider Lilly” video was filmed at the very haunted Pennhurst Asylum outside of Philadelphia on a travel day during the band’s recent North American tour, two days before Halloween. It was only King himself and actress Jodi Cachia who could participate on that specific day, together with producer David BrodskyAllie Woest and their killer crew.

“What a dark but great experience,” King says, “Hopefully that was not the last video we will be able to film there.”

There are already several tales waiting to be told about all that has happened before, during, and after the birth of the song “Spider Lilly”

KING DIAMOND performed “Spider Lilly” live for the first time at the kick-off concert of the band’s long-awaited North American headlining tour, which launched on October 15 at Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas. The “Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920” trek ran through December 6 in Dallas, Texas. Support came from OVERKILL and NIGHT DEMON. Additional backing vocals for the KING DIAMOND set were provided by the special guest Myrkur.

Watch the previously shot live footage of “Spider Lilly” below.

In October 2023, KING DIAMOND released a music video for the 2019 single “Masquerade Of Madness”. The clip was directed by David Brodsky and Allison Woest of My Good Eye Visuals.

At the time of the video’s release, King commented: “‘Masquerade Of Madness’ was released digitally in 2019 before our North American tour. During rehearsals, we took one full day to film ‘Masquerade Of Madness’ with David Brodsky and Allison Woest. We spent all day and all night recording while performing the song with our full tour stage show choreography. After the tour, Covid happened. “The video was all but forgotten as the world came to a standstill — we never saw a single frame from all the footage. Years later, as things began to pick up and writing began for both new MERCYFUL FATE and KING DIAMOND records, we wondered, what happened to that video from four years ago? So we decided to check in with David Brodsky and a couple of weeks later, we had the first cut of the video. “I was speechless! I had nothing to criticize and after just a few notes from Andy La Rocque, the video for ‘Masquerade Of Madness’ was finished! There’s so much mood and black and white is used in a perfect way with Jodi‘s performances. The visuals fit the music flawlessly and this is now among my favorite KING DIAMOND videos along with ‘Sleepless Nights’ and ‘Welcome Home’ — and not to forget of course, our double live DVD.” A month after KING DIAMOND released “Masquerade Of Madness” in November 2019, KING DIAMOND guitarist Andy La Rocque told The Metal Voice that he came up with the music for the track first before passing it off to King, who “needed to arrange a few things and change just a small few things for making it work with his vocals. And then, of course, he wrote the lyrics for it,” the guitarist revealed. “So we [went] a little back and forth until he felt like, ‘Okay, this is cool, man. This is the right key to sing in,’ and all that.” KING DIAMOND received a Grammy nomination in the “Best Metal Performance” category for the track “Never Ending Hill” off the band’s last album, 2007’s “Give Me Your Soul … Please”. “Give Me Your Soul … Please” sold 4,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 174 on The Billboard 200 chart. KING DIAMOND released a DVD/Blu-ray, “Songs For The Dead Live”, in January 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The set captures 1987’s seminal “Abigail” album in its entirety, twice, and in very different locales: Belgium’s Graspop Metal Meeting in June 2016 and Philadelphia’s Fillmore in November 2015. The performances feature KING DIAMOND‘s current band, comprising of guitarists La Rocque and Mike Wead, bassist Pontus Egberg and Matt Thompson. KING DIAMOND 2024 touring lineup: Andy La Rocque – guitar Mike Wead – guitar Pontus Egberg – bass Matt Thompson – drums Myrkur – additional backing vocals, keyboards
Photo by Jeremy Saffer

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