November 5, 2014 - 8:40pm by Adam Dravian
King Diamond is kind of like the dark cartoonish jester of ‘80s metal icons. He’s known for his silly face paint, his even sillier high falsetto singing, and for being way into Satan.
He originally became famous in the early ‘80s as the singer for Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate. But after releasing two albums of satanic heavy metal, Mercyful Fate broke up and King instantly formed King Diamond, which was basically the same band with a slightly different lineup.
The first release by King Diamond (the band) was, of all things, a Christmas novelty song called “No Presents for Christmas,” which was released on Christmas day in 1985.
You can’t say the guy lacks a sense of humor.
Anyway, in ‘87, they released the second full length King Diamond album, Abigail. It’s a concept album, telling a story concocted by King about a super spooky fetus demon that haunts some old mansion. Dude really loves his concept albums, as just about every album he’s released since has been one.
The first King Diamond music video was made for one of the tracks of this album, “The Family Ghost.” The song is about a ghost that comes to warn the new resident of the haunted mansion about the stillborn baby fetus, Abigail, whose spirit will soon be growing in his wife's womb. The music video, on the other hand, seems to be about King Diamond making stupid faces and sitting on a throne.
Although I’ve been familiar with King Diamond for a long time, I dismissed his stuff due to that ridiculous singing style of his. Jessica, on the other hand, got way into King Diamond, and he's grown on me a bit over the years. I at least appreciate the camp value.
Finally, I leave you with Jessica’s 2014 Halloween costume: King Diamond with tits (complete with a glued on mustache made of her own blue hair).
You can click the image to see a larger version if, uh, you're into that sort of thing.