Denmark's King Diamond continues his horror story from the previous LP, "Them". Good conceptual heavy metal, with a slight Ted Nugent type riff influence here and there. It's dawned on me that every new King Diamond LP sort of promises to be fantastic, but is only slightly better than the last. Ever since the "Abigail" LP, it all sounds the same. The spooky keyboards gel beautifully with the music, but the overall sound is like "heavy metal muzak"...no standouts at all. A quality LP...and King's vocals are still as high as ever, but there's more variation now.

PS: I hear the new stage show rivals Alice Cooper and Kiss...K.D. even dies in it!

© 1999 mlotek
[originally published in "Doomhauled"../"Scrolls of Doom" fanzine 87-90]