King Diamond
Fatal Portrait

THE REVIEW

The storyteller of the dead, this album is Diamond's first after leaving Mercyful Fate and is characterized by being an album sung constantly in falsetto and without a story that unites all the tracks within it.

However, there is a story, and it unfolds behind the first three tracks: "The Candle," in which it is told when the protagonist finds Jonah's book and recites the spell to free Molly, a girl, every time a candle is lit, a song with a strong initial climax, followed by "The Jonah," my favorite song of the album, dark and oppressive, desperate and in constant climax, with an initial guitar riff that gives me a bit of Slayer vibes, but that's just my thought, so don't complain. The girl begins to tell about the mother's perfidy, Miss Jane, who wants to steal her youth by painting a self-portrait with Molly's blood to become immortal. This weakens the girl, who one night manages to make the picture speak, which predicts Miss Jane's death. Furious, she burns the picture on a candle of destiny that imprisons Molly. The story ends with "Haunted," excellent initial riff and Diamond's excellent interpretation, in which the initial character warns anyone who wants to enter the house that Molly still lives there; the song ends with Molly's desperate cries saying: "Mom... Mom... I will destroy you!" A much less complex story than Diamond's subsequent ones.

The songs that are not part of the album are "Dressed in White," a song that possesses a beautiful guitar solo and a Diamond in top form, with great work by LaRocque who has complete control of the tremolo bar of his guitar and a stunning final laugh by Diamond. "Charon" opens with a scream (in falsetto) by Diamond, a cute song, not particularly excellent and eventually boring, but listenable. With "Lurking in the Dark," we return to excellent levels, a song that opens with a guitar riff that really gives me "Dehumanizer," Black Sabbath vibes (even if this came out in 1986, so before), with a chorus that sticks in your brain, excellent LaRocque here too. "Halloween," cute, but filler. Here we are at "Voices From the Past," a boring song that I find unbearable, boring even to review.

An inferior album compared to the later ones, but a milestone from a faithful disciple of people like Alice Cooper, great Diamond.