King Diamond
The Puppet Master

While browsing DeBaser, I noticed (to my great pleasure) that a review of "The Puppet Master" by King Diamond was missing, so I took the liberty of adding to the reviews of this multifaceted and very unique Danish artist.

For those who are unfamiliar with the aforementioned singer, here's a very brief biographical summary: he was born in 1956 in Copenhagen and is known for being the lead singer of Mercyful Fate (a very technical band with distinctly satanic lyrics), with whom he released the famous "Melissa" in 1983. The first album of his solo career is "Fatal Portrait" from 1986, but he is always remembered for the two-part saga of "Abigail" (the second episode was released more than ten years after the first, and the current drummer of Motorhead, namely Mikkey Dee, also collaborated in the latter).

Mr. Diamond's peculiarity is certainly that of inventing horror stories and translating them into music, in short, he always creates concept albums (except in "Fatal Portrait" where only the first three songs are connected by a single thread), and the album I want to propose certainly does not escape this beautiful tradition. First of all, I'll quickly outline the story (without revealing the ending obviously, you'll have to discover that by listening eheheh): we are in Budapest in the 18th century, and a charming puppet theater actually hides a terrible and macabre secret... The dark atmosphere of the record is well rendered by the band accompanying a King Diamond in excellent form and tending to put aside his well-known falsetto in favor of a more standard singing style, but certainly not banal or predictable. The songs are generally an example of excellent classic Heavy Metal of European imprint, enhanced by a very evocative baroque style, with a strong drum presence and excellent guitar solos by the award-winning Andy La Rocque/Mike Wead duo. Compared to the "Abigail" saga, the album is more immediate and catchy, with the splendid "Magic" and "The Eyes" being noteworthy.

In conclusion, a stunning album and even though King Diamond has given us greater gems in his career, I give a solid five because this work holds enormous sentimental value for me.