KING DIAMOND Says New Album Blows 'The Puppet Master' Away

EvilG of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with King Diamond. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal-Rules.com: Let me just start out by saying that the new album ["Give Me Your Soul ... Please"], I only got the promo from Metal Blade on Friday, and I've been spinning it all weekend and I love it...

King: "All right, cool!"

Metal-Rules.com: ...and I think it ranks up there as one of your best actually. Not that I didn't like your other albums but I think there's something special about it, it grabs you on the first listen. I was wondering if you could tell me a little about the writing process you went through for the album, was it anything different this time or have you pretty much nailed down a routine for when you're writing songs and recording?

King: "Well, it is kind of a routine in some way you know, but still this time it was very unique I can tell you. We in the band feel that, even Andy [LaRocque; guitar] and I, taking everything we've done into consideration, that this is by far our absolute best ever. I know that it takes a lot in a fan's mind to get up to the level of 'Abigail', but I think this blows 'Abigail' away, in my opinion, but that's my own taste, people have different tastes you know. 'The Puppet Master', last time, a lot of fans had that opinion that it was up there with 'Abigail', that was a really good feeling. This one blows 'The Puppet Master' totally away, I think, in all aspects. I mean, that's the way it was this time around, it's the same procedure of writing and recording and mixing and all this stuff, but still did something different, and several things actually turned out to be different, and it was like a strange feeling in the band of all the little pieces of the puzzle falling into the right places this time. The best way to describe it is that it feels, for the band, as if we tried for 20-plus years to get a driver's license, never passed the test. This time, we see the license in our hand. That's how we feel. The sound that is on this album should've been on all the other albums, it is so clear that you can hear every little nuance in the vocal, every emotion in the vocal. The bass guitar, you can hear every note Hal is playing. Normally these days, maybe because there is so much compression normally on albums, it's very hard to pick out what note the bass guitar is actually playing. And with this kind of music that we do, there is sometimes eight backing vocals going, that all need their little space in the soundpage, plus maybe a harpsichord or a church organ or whatever you know. So it becomes essential. We wanted to do it but never really dared to do it, and we did it this time, was say 'hey you know what, forget the industry standard of compressing so hard everything, we'll compress less this time and we'll get a much bigger clarity of how you hear everything, and it'll fit our music better.' There's a lot of other bands where that hard compression does fit them very well, but for our kind of music it works against us. So this time I think we really achieved something. And then the writing itself, I think the songs have better riffs right from the beginning to the end with each song, they really flow well together all the riffs, and that has inspired vocal melody lines that I think work much better with the riffs here. I mean, when I listen to all these songs, it seems like they all fit perfect with the vocal melody lines. When I go back to 'Abigail' and listen, I was like 'Why did I use that vocal melody line there, I could've done something much better.' Looking at it now, at that time you always do your best, but that's what it feels like here. And the performances, this lineup has been together for quite a while now too. Andy said to me that, 'I haven't played solos like this since 'The Eye'..."

Metal-Rules.com: Are you going to do packaging like "The Puppet Master", with an extended booklet and a DVD or anything at all?

King: "Er no no, no DVD planned in it. The album itself is I think 54, 56 minutes long, something like that, but the very nice packaging and the booklet, I don't know if they're going to do a digipak over here, but I know they're going to do a digipak in Europe but no bonus material. And they're also going to do standard vinyl and picture disc vinyl in Europe. Ohhh…I just had that thing you asked before and then I lost it again now, I can't believe it! Yes I know, the story, it's the story! One thing that is really fresh that's very important this time around is it's written in the present time. The story happens as you listen to the album, almost like the TV series 24. I never tried before to actually put it right there, and it gets much closer to the listener when it's 'I see a black shape coming from the corner of the room' than saying 'And then I saw a black shape coming from.' It becomes much more powerful and closer to the listener. So that's the whole story is like that, I don't know if it would work but it seemed that in the end here that it worked out really well."

Read the entire interview at Metal-Rules.com.