King Diamond guest on upcoming episode of That Metal Show!
King Diamond fans, rejoice! Metal Blade Records has teamed up with the infamous master of metal himself, KING DIAMOND, to unleash a brand new official website and line of official merchandise. KingDiamondCoven.com is the new go-to spot for all things KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE; there you will find all the latest news, videos, photos, tour dates, discography, and more! In the brand new official web store, items ranging from t-shirts, hoodies, gym shorts, and bootie shorts, to items like beanies, sweat cuffs, and backpacks are currently available for preorder with more items set to be added each month! Designs will cover KING DIAMOND’s entire catalog, not just the Metal Blade releases, so be sure to head over to KingDiamondStore.com (European fans go HERE) to check out current designs available for preorder and be sure to check back every few weeks for new designs and exclusive items including limited items that once sold out, will not be made again.
Metal Blade Records’ team has been working tirelessly around the clock with the King himself to bring his devoted fans high quality and highly demanded merchandise; gone are the days of having to pay too much money for low quality bootlegged merch! All items are being made with the upmost care to design and quality, worthy of even the most devout fans celebrated collection.
In other KING DIAMOND news; King recently took a trip out to Southern California to be a guest on the 11 season of VH1 Classic’s “That Metal Show” with hosts Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine, and Don Jamieson. Tune into VH1 Classic on Saturday, September 8 @ 11pm EST. Go HERE for all the latest news on “That Metal Show.”
In this press conference, King says the show at Sweden Rock will be their biggest production ever. Also discussed is the possibility of new material from the King Diamond band ("Not quite YET"….). Guitarist Andy LaRocque says it’s good to be back doing what he loves.
Some other comments from the video:
King: "It’s difficult to talk about reunions of Mercyful Fate as there’s been so many line-ups."
King: "You will be surprised [with the show] tomorrow."
King: "It’s sad when people kill for their religion…people try and force it down people’s throats. People can believe what they want, but keep it to yourself."
"Plans to write a book about your life"?
King: "Maybe someday, there’s a lot of interesting stories…maybe a tape recorder, many bottles of wine and get it all on tape. There’s so many stories, not just music…"
SNOWY SHAW is Alive! …is the title of the brand new live album with Snowy Shaw.
After more than 20 years professionally in the music business with countless bands and projects Snowy Shaw has earned a reputation as a multi talented artist and instrumentalist. As well as composer, lyricist, designer and visionarie madman in general.
It was bound to happen sooner or later, and many are the fans and followers who have waited for this one-of-a-kind character to go solo, and finally, here he is !
Starting off by delivering a kick ass show the world has never witnessed before with an unmatched repertoir of classics and hits when Snowy together his band play ”All his favorite songs – By All his former bands”: King Diamond, Notre Dame, Mercyful Fate, illwill, Dream Evil, Therion, Dimmu Borgir, XXX, Memento Mori etc…
The Snowy Shaw line up:
Kristian Niemann – Lead Guitar ( ex Therion )
Mannequin De Sade III – drums ( ex Notre Dame )
And female bassist/vocalissa Hellinor
( now replaced by Vicky Valkyria )
Snowy himself – lead vocals, drums, guitars, bass and keyboards.
This live album was captured on the world premiere showcase gig of his solo show that took place in the hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden on May 27th 2011.
For this special occasion Snowy invited some good old friends for guest appearances :
Andy La Rocque – King Diamond, Illwill, Death
Mike Wead – Mercyful Fate, Memento Mori, King Diamond,
Hal Patino – King Diamond, Maryann Cotton
Mats Levén – Therion, Krux, Yngwie Malmsteen
Kee Marcello – Europe, Easy Action, K2
Thomas Vikström – Therion, Candlemass
Snowy just recently decided due to the astonishing response and many offers from festivals promotors and booking agencies to postpone the much anticipated live DVD release with the intention of having even more material filmed and included from the upcoming shows.
Good news! This means that with a little bit of luck you might have a chance to attend one of the shows and experiencing this spectacular, incredible show of Snowy Shaw first hand., in real life.
Vinyl? Yes, there are current plans of releasing Snowy Shaw is Alive! as an exclusive super deluxe limited edition vinyl double live album in the beginning of 2012.
A very merry heavy X-Mas!
Available on Itunes worldwide just a few days before X-Mas!
Artwork by Snowy Shaw. Illustration by Andrej Bartulovic.
The brand new Snowy Shaw website & webshop will be launched before the end of 2011 : www.snowyshaw.net
Thanks to Tom Hack at Massacre Records for setting up this interview
Thanks to Massacre Records for the promo pictures of the band.
Demonica is the name of a new American/Danish thrash metal act that includes the famous Hank Shermann known from Mercyful Fate amongst others. The band also includes members from Forbidden but I had the pleasure of talking with Artillery member Klaus Hyr. I was supposed to speak with Mr Sherman but when he couldn’t find the time did Mr Hyr did the interview instead. Some of the issues that came up were the past present and the future of Demonica and how it was to record the brand new album DEMONSTROUS.
Vocalist Kacper Rozanski, Guitarist Mike Wead and Simon Johansson
Interviewed by: Anders Sandvall
Thanks to The Boss of Vic Records Roel van Reijemersdal for all the help
Thanks to Vic Records for the promo pictures of the band taken by: P. Hellström and K. Alutoine/Seance
THE BLACK SWAN EPILOGUE is the name of the excellent debut album that comes from the Swedish progressive doom metal act BibleBlack. The band consists of some very well known Swedish musicians like Mike Wead (King Diamond, Mercyful Fate) and his partner in crime Simon Johansson (Memory Garden, ex- Steel Attack). They have joined forces together with Tobhias Ljung on drums, Jonaz Bulund on bass and Kacper Rozanski on lead vocals and this is what they came up with. A brilliant debut album. I had the pleasure to have a talk with Kacper, Simon and Mike about the band, the future as well as some personal matters with Mike.
In most cases, no one likes to run down another’s hard work. Whether or not someone “likes” what a musician has laid down is entirely subjective and varies from person to person, but a critic’s job is to defragment and spout with some intelligence just why an artist’s bread and butter is, well, dried up and moldy.
Which brings us to the topic du jour: “Giving Up The Ghost.” Once a band has passed its’ “best before” date, like a carton of rancid milk or that take-out food that got pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten, it should be disposed of to avoid exposing innocents to its foul appearance and acrid reek. Sadly, most musicians’ devote their lives to their art and once the commercial well has dried up, they are left with no means of supporting themselves once the days of being mobbed by fans and dating strippers has passed. Others fail to realize—or admit—their own popularity decline and carry on as if the glory days still exist.
Such is the subject of the resurrected “From Hell’s Heart” column here at Metal-Rules.com.
All live photos by Arto Lehtinen Transcribed by HannTu
Interviewing King Diamond was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done for Metal-Rules.com. It will certainly be one of the more memorable moments for me as I’ve been a fan of King’s for close on 20 years. Getting the opportunity to speak with this metal legend was nothing short of amazing. King came across as being very enthusiastic and passionate. The only regret is that we only had 30mins. With King giving very detailed and long answers, there was so much more I would of loved to hear about. For me, the best part of the interview was the end where he talks about the storyline for the new album GIVE ME YOUR SOUL…PLEASE. It was like having a personal reading….just wow! So without further ado, gals and ghouls……..KING DIAMOND!
Many things have happened in the King Diamond camp since their last visit to Finland. The band has released two studio albums ABIGAIL II and THE PUPPET MASTER and and also a live album called "Deadly Lullabies" which came out in 2004. Although it’s already been three years since the release of "Puppet Master" King Diamond hasn’t been able to do any touring outside U.S for a while and actually this tour was his first in Europe in five years. So it was about time to get an update on what’s going on in the world of King Diamond. I managed to reach bands guitarists Andy LaRocque and Mike Wead before the band’s first sold out night in Helsinki and they were nice enough to have this brief conversation.. Hope you like it!
One of the great things about this job is getting to speak with the legends of heavy metal. Despite being online for ten years, Metal Rules has never spoken to King Diamond himself (a conversation with guitarists Mike Wead and Andy LaRocque was done in 2001 and may be read here), so when the opportunity came up, I was on it like flies on stink.
Calling from his home in Texas, King is a dream interview subject as he loves to talk and is also one of the nicest guys in metal today. I could have spent hours and hours talking to him but during the course of our 50-minute conversation, King discusses his latest offering, DEADLY LULLABYES LIVE, new stuff from Mercyful Fate in 2005, the possibility of turning to movies, and loads of other things, so sit back and enjoy this interview with the one, the only?KING DIAMOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interview With Sharlee D’Angelo Interviewed in Jan. 2000 by EvilG
Bassist Sharlee D’Angelo is a name you cannot escape. This guy has contributed bass skills to several bands including technical melodic death metal gods Arch Enemy, super-group Sinergy, and the ill-fated Ill Will. Sharlee is currently an active and full-time member of both Witchery and Mercyful Fate. I spoke with Sharlee in early January on the eve of the European Witchery tour.
Interviewed by EvilG
