Hey! King Diamond’s wife Livia Zita here. Loved watching your reaction! 🥰 It’s super interesting to hear how a new listener takes in the album. Hope to see your reactions to the other stories too, especially The Puppet Master 😊 Oh, there is a graphic novel that just came out with the story of Abigail :) The first part so far, anyway 😏
Wow. Miss Magical ◇ I'm not even sure what to do now. *BOWS* Thank you for gracing us mortals with your presence my Queen. I've loved his magical artistry for over half of my life basically, since aged 13 and it still holds true after all these years regardless. I hope you are doing well along with the King of ◇ and may y'all Reign Forever Together. My Love to y'all for all the great times had whilst jamming out and enjoying life. Take care ma'am.
Good on you brother. Abigail is a beautiful name and one of my friends actually did the same thing with her daughter too. I got em into the King of course.
Them/Conspiracy is my favorite work by King Diamond. The Mercyful Fate albums are good too. He sings a little bit differently in Mercyful Fate. Not quite as much falsetto and more mid range vocals. Plus Mercyful Fate albums are not concept while most King Diamond records are.
I love the album "Them" You can't go wrong with any of them though. Andy LaRoque is a monster on guitar, who also played on Death's album Individual Thought Patterns.
Definitely, that's exactly what happened to me. His singing takes a lot of getting used to, but it's also simply brilliant and unique. Nobody sounds like Kings Diamond!
The music its so good that you will get used to his voice!!!! Jonathan LaFey (Age was 27) 2+7=9 Miriam Natias (Age was 18) 1+8=9 Track List Time Funeral -1:29 Arrival - 5:26 A Mansion in Darkness - 4:33 The Family Ghost - 4:05 The 7Th Day of July 1777 - 4:51 Omens - 3:56 The Possession - 3:25 Abigail - 4:52 Black Horsemen - 7:39 ( if you add all the tracks time its 3816 and look at this 3+8+1+6=18 and 1+8= 9 (Eighteen its nine) like the album said !!!
Abigail is his second album and most consider it his best Fatal Portrait and The Spider’s Lullabye are only partial concepts Every other album labeled King Diamond is a full concept and I personally love them all but my favorite is House of God He’s inspired many bands and artists. Cradle of Filth mentions him on their concept Cruelty and the Beast. Before Mercyful Fate broke up giving rise to King Diamond they loaned equipment to Metallica so they could record their album Ride the Lightning He was pivotal in helping Dave Mustaine get noticed in Megadeth’s early years He has inspired pretty much everyone and even Dave Grohl included him in the Probot album (Sweet Dreams) His music is in Clerks 1 and 2 And he frequently guested on Metalocalypse Andy (the guitarist) owns probably the biggest studio in Sweden, having recorded acts like Hammerfall, In Flames, Arch Enemy and many many others. If it’s Scandinavian and metal it was most likely recorded in Andy’s studio
'Them' is a fantastic album. Also a concept album, and it ties in with the next album 'Conspiracy' which is a continuation of the story. Two of my favourite King albums. 'The Eye' is also a great album, often overlooked.
Kudos you you for taking this one on. King Diamond is definitely an acquired taste. Many people can't get past his vocals. I started listening to him with his other band, Mercyful Fate. My Dad referred to them as "that band that sounds like someone pulling the cat's tail" 🤣🤣The musicianship grabbed me and his vocals grew on me pretty quickly. Both bands were pretty unique compared to most metal bands at that time. Technical playing with constant tempo changes and really slick dual lead guitar work and batshit insane vocals! There's really nothing else like it. The dude is really creative. Love him or hate him you can't deny his talent.
My mate is crazy fan and the only thing i heard of MF is the cover song metallica made. I tried to listen to MF year ago but couldn't pass a lot of songs cuz the singing. But this year MF were touring and gave it another try so i know the songs. And man on man what a masterpiece. So far i only listen to first two album which were the only songs they played. Best experience and flawlessly sang all songs. And my mate didnt go cuz he thought it'll rain but it was hot as hell.
King Diamond is one of those guys/groups that people laugh really hard when they first hear him. But, every single time, people are hooked and listen more and more. Eventually they’re won over and they become huge fans. The musicianship of the band is absolutely astonishing! Heavily influenced by the Scandinavian neo-classical metal sound of the time, a lot of these bands (king diamond, malmsteen, etc) were massively inspired by classical composers like Paganini, etc. I’ve heard that King is one of the nicest people anyone could ever meet. I do recall he had rules while out on tour like absolutely no women/groupies after shows, etc. A true gentleman from my understanding
He really is I just saw mercyful fate last October and at the end of the show he was shaking everybody in the fronts hands and saying thank you and when he got to me I asked if I could get the setlist. He tried to grab it for me but couldn’t get it off cause of the tape so he walked over to one of the crew and asked him to grab it for me. The guy gave it to me and king made sure it went to me then thanked me again blessed me I told him thank you so much and then he continued on with the rest of the crowd
Once you get used to the voice it becomes infectious. I saw the Abigail tour live in 1987. I was 4 feet away from King Diamond the entire time. One of if not the best show of my life.
I've seen him in concert a couple of times. Both King Diamond and Mercyful fate. Then I stumbled upon him in Copenhagen many years ago. So we took a cup of coffee together and spoked about all and nothing🙂. He's very nice and down to earth. 👍🤘
Hells Yes! Back when I was in Dallas Texas my buddy actually met him in a local club once one night, of course I wasn't there but he said that he was a cool ass dude. I was kinda bummed, apparently he lives in Texas somewhere now. Lol Texas!
@@johanzander5919I know that place bro. Good looking out. Yea I've in Big D for 30+years and worked all around the metroplex area. Hells yea..his wife is a Texas girl right? DFW area is my stomping grounds from the 90's on man. The King is my ultimate favorite dude and artist from about 13 years old 1987-86-ish way back in the day. Fatal Portrait hooked my ass and I've never been released. I can't say I'm a huge fan of anything after Conspiracy though but I am too old school to even wanna now but, I'll take every Merciful Fate. Same with almost everything Metallica only= Cliff except garage days /Slayer=South of Heaven I reckon? Ect. Yadda Yadda Yadda.
Mikkey Dee is the drummer on this album who would join Motorhead and after their ending joined The Scorpions. He is a great drummer, along with Michael Denner and Andy La Roque on guitars this is probably my favourite line up.
I was astounded that she did not comment on the brilliant drumming on this album. He really drives this album that resisting any air drumming yourself is impossible.
Yes... not sure why no one mentions it in their 'lists'. It was the first KD album I ever heard back in late 90's, co-worker played it at work crankin' on a giant stereo throughout the factory. lol This one guy cut off the tip of his finger in a milling machine and blamed it on the King. smh Ahh... the good 'ol days, we played that album almost daily at work for a long time. It's been my favorite ever since, tied w/ Abigail. I also really like House of God and Voodoo.
@@xSOILBORNx LMAO my dad carved The Trees Have Eyes into his forklift at the warehouse once and he and multiple co-workers swear to god that a bunch of bad shit happened for a month. Thing one broke an arm due to a heavy pallet, lights were breaking, weird shit. Haha
Bingo Bro me too 1987 i played it on repeat non stop Abigail. Niceness on your Profile picture too. Melissa! Ohh she needs to do Melissa and Satan's Fall.....classics. Nothing is left outside at the stake, they took her love away from me.
King Diamond's voice is unlike any other. I saw them on their tour a few years back where they played this album in it's entirety. And he could still sing notes that high perfectly. But you have to want to hear more of his songs to truly appreciate him. \,,/
At 66 years old, King can still smash thouse High notes! He's just an incredible person (A gentleman) and such an incredible voice! Master of Darkness 🤘🏻
Arguably the greatest concept album ever! 🤘I truly get the impression that this is the first time you're hearing King Diamond's vocals... your facial expressions are cracking me up! However, the best thing about this reaction for me is the recognition of the songwriting and especially, Andy LaRocque... to me, one of the most underrated guitarists ever (along with Alex Lifeson and Piggy from Voivod) .... not to mention the mighty Mikkey Dee! Cheers 🤘🤘
I love this record, heard it many times, seen King Diamond perform it live, and got the graphic novel. And seeing your reaction to it, Kaiya, just makes me smile. I saw SHOCK and HORROR in reaction, and I'm like "YES!"
King Diamond is a genius. He writes almost all the songs too! And then you have msaterful Andy Laroque with his insane taste. Add Micky D on drums from Motorhead and you have an insane recipe.
This album is very special to me as it got me through a tough time in my life. I’ve always been a writer, even as a kid I wrote stories and literally every single job I had was very heavily writing based - developing tech manuals, computer lab projects, whatever. Anyway, in 2005, I had major brain surgery and since no one knew if I was gonna return to “normal” or not… but I wanted to make sure that at least 1 thing would be - my writing. So I took something that I knew and wanted to see if I can do a full story based on a song, concept album, short story but make it full novel -- anything. So I took this album, listened to it about 50 times in a row and wrote a 110 page movie script based on the album while recovering from surgery. After I was satisfied with the result, I submitted the script to 3 script & film festivals where it won 5 total awards. While the script is not Hollywood blockbuster worthy, and it can probably still use some tweaking, but just the fact it won something solitified, at least with writing, my mind was ‘back to normal’…. well, for the most part 😂
cerebellum, medulla oblogota , cerebral , or just the other rather common example of the seratonin sending incorrect messages between the nerve cells of the diencephalon or simply a muted message between the epithalamus and the hypothalamus ? Any visitors from realms between Apotheosis and mundane mortality, or was the sedation just a verbosity of articulated hullabaloo and senseless feverish stupor? My brainwave test was like a visitation by Ancient astronauts. I saw colors that don't exist in the confined sphere of Planet Earth. I know that neurological journeys can be interesting. A lot of people believe that the running to the light concept might just be the brain shutting down, not the other worldliness that it's rumored to be
Beautiful story!. Ive dabbled a lot with writing. Although i am a musician and am always writing music. But KD inspired me to start writing a horror movie script around 2012.. Then i got too busy in the Navy.. never got to finish it 😢 lol i wish i had the full attention span to write a masterpiece of a clever horror movie. I looooove creativity
Abigail and Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime are 2 of the best story/concept albums I have heard. I love your breakdown of every song on the album. Also, I enjoyed your reactions of Iron Maiden and Epica. Thank you for your unique reaction process, definitely entertaining.
Shout out to Tipper Gore and the PMRC for putting together the 'Filthy Fifteen'. This is where I discovered Mercyful Fate and the vocalist King Diamond. Abigail is his best solo work bar none! Check out his live performances from 2019 on RUclips...he still hits those notes and the band is very dialed in. Enjoy!
99.9% of people absolutely love King Diamond's Voice. I have yet to meet anyone that doesn't consider him the absolute best Vocalist in the history of music
@@karlsmith2570 not everyone enjoys monotone baritone yarling Vocals. Only people that like Grunge have any issues with King Diamond's Vocals. He just sounds like a million other typical Metal Vocalists. King Diamond is not an acquired taste. It's not like he imitates Sesame St characters like Death Metal Voice providers do
@@karlsmith2570 men attracted to morbidly obese women is unique and an acquired Taste. KING Diamond's Vocals most certainly are not. He is a singer everyone can enjoy
@@godetonter4764 you are wrong, he is most definitely an acquired taste. all of my friends who like metal dont fuck with king diamonds vocals. hes very talented but its not for everyone
Yeeeees, do Them - story continues. They were so ahead of others Production wise In 1987. Love Abigail and Black Horsemen. Keep In mind the voices reflect diff characters. Kings other band Mercyful Fate are great inspiration for Metallica - King D and MFate are very much about riff city. Love your reaction. You Will get use to his voice. Greetings from Denmark🇩🇰🇩🇰🚀
King's other band Mercyful Fate inspired a lot of Black Metal bands in the past 40 years. He has influenced Metallica, Slayer and Cradle of Filth among many others.
Awesome video, just found your channel and I am already a fan! I think this is the only full reaction to this awesome album and I loved it that you went above and beyond and actually read the lyrics and took in the whole story, a lot of reactors sleep on that and it was really cool to see. King's voice is one of a kind and most of us were thrown off at first, but it definitely grows on you. His whole body of work (from Mercyful Fate till nowadays) is amazing. As a singer, composer, lyricist and story-teller, his skills are unmatched. And yeah, his voice still sounds as good as ever, just see his live stuff and you will be blown away. An absolute legend.
He has a Blu-ray called Songs for the Dead: Live at the Fillmore in Philadelphia from 2019 where the last 9 songs of the concert is from this album, he has a enormous vocalrange and it sounds just like the album live. It is also released on cd.
@@DELETETHISFUCKNCHANNELHANDLE whoa bro. Hold up a second.....The Mf'n King had triple bypass action by some damn butchers? Ohh hells bells man, this shit ain't proper but at the very least I know he's still doin his thang so...but I seriously didn't know all that mess.
Really happy to see that you react to King Diamond. If people are beginners into King Diamond I will mean that this and his first album "Fatal Portrait" from 86 still are the best. Before he song in Mercylful Fate and these 2 albums are killers - 83 "Mellisa" and 84 "Dont break the oath". KD still plays in both band so please tjek those older albums out first ! I named my daughter Mellisa :)
Kings vocals at first are grating like nails on a chalkboard, then become comforting, then you need and long for them. I love King been listening to him for MANY MANY years...
He's voicing different characters and spirits. Some are supposed to sound childish. If you read the lyrics as you're listening, you'll see most of the lyrics are actually conversations.
Abigail is one of my absolute favorite concept albums of all time though King Diamond's 2 follow up releases, "Them" and Conspiracy (one story spread out over 2 records), are my top ranked in that category. Great reaction to a masterpiece of macabre metal. I strongly suggest that you check out King's Songs For The Dead Live concert that was released just several years ago. It's their first high quality pro-shot official live dvd ever, something fans like myself had been waiting decades for. It includes Abigail performed in its' entirety and is amazingly mindblowing; King, who was in his early 60's at the time, sounds better than ever and almost studio perfect. It's definitely an event every King Diamond fan should experience. King's lovely wife, Livia, provides backing vocals as King dislikes using pre-recorded backing tracks on stage. Songs For The Dead Live is true metal theater that's not to be missed. Keep rockin' and stay heavy! Wishing everyone peace, love, and good happiness stuff from the mountains of northeastern Alabama. Long live the King 🤘
In keeping with the theme of Abigail, I feel like I need to send you child support for letting us experience King with you. Thank you for sharing the best King Diamond reaction video on the internet. That was quite an experience to relive the discovery of this album through younger eyes. I had just started high school when I discovered King Diamond "Them" in '88. We had skipped school and my friends older brother drove us to the mall, I remember buying Dio "Holy Diver" based on the cd cover, and so I found the house on the cover of "Them". Imagine my delight when I found out all of his albums under his second metal band King Diamond were concepts. Later to discover his earlier 1983 band Mercyful Fate, a more satanic themed non concept band. He never got airplay on the radios, think D&D satanic panic and the religious background of the late 80's. Many metal bands pay tribute to him, as well as Metallica being fans and covering their work. Abigail was a perfect reaction and you did the WHOLE album! Thank you again for letting us into this moment. My favorite is my first one "Them", I then got "Fatal Portrait", "Conspiracy (a sequel to Them)" and later "The Eye" I fell away after The Eye because some of the magic was gone. Mickey Dee killed it on Abigail and Them as their drummer. It was never the same after he left. My favorite King Diamond song "Shrine" is from a single release between Abigail and Them, called "The Family Ghost", which had two Abigail songs, one that was cut from the album since it did not fit into the theme or the number of songs I suppose. Mercyful fate "Don't break the Oath" and "Melissa" are masterpieces on their own right, their third album also slays. The oath cover art is masterful. The title track Melissa is my favorite Fate song. Kim Peterson lives in Texas now and singlehandedly provided me with countless masterworks. If I could save one artist's work from Earth when we colonize Mars or beyond, it would be King.
Saw them perform this album in its entirety back in 2015 in San Antonio and it was the best show I’ve ever been to in my entire life. Second best show I’ve ever been to was Mercyful Fate (KD’s first band) on October 25th of last year in Dallas. Safe to say my favorite artist of all time.
This is my childhood music. Still great. It's good to listen to your reaction to something you listened to 30 years ago. The best so far concept album for me is Cruelty and the Beast Cradle of Filth. I recommend the concept of Elizabeth Bathory - bloody countess.
Thank you so much for this, you should really check out one of this songs live, he sounds even better. Both his works with his solo band and Mercyful Fate are amazing and Don't Break The Oath is probably the most influential of the later.
I'm not sure about anyone else here.. I was 15 when this album came out and at the time this album was special.. and it still is! One of the greatest concept albums of all time.
King has one of the most unique voices in metal, and has done for over 4 decades. A lot of people saying he's an acquired taste, but I loved him from the first moment I heard him. There's something "witchy" about his falsetto that fits perfectly with his occult/Satanic/horror lyrics. And I can't think of a single other metal band or artist that has been around for over 4 decades that has been as consistently good in terms of musical output. So happy to have seen him live with Mercyful Fate last year, and I hope to see him many more times. Can't wait for new material from both his bands, which is something I can't really say about any of his contemporaries.
Been listening to KD since Fatal Portrait debut-1986- Mikkey Dee, drums, later Motorhead and now scorpions, brilliant, Andy Larocque, guitar, is amazingly innovative and inventive in his playing- never a dull solo or riff, also brilliant. Of course the rest of the band and production is great too. Interesting to hear a breakdown from a new listener. Have a listen to his original band who have re-formed and played gigs recently and are still the best : )
Check out King Diamond The Eye. It's a complete concept album. It takes place in 1600's Salem Massachusetts. It's based on true events of the witch trials. And how evil and barbaric the church was.
you've got to do Abigail II: The Revenge too :) The Puppet Master is a wonderful Christmas story :) I really like House of God. It was my first King Diamond album, so it's kind of special, but I can't say that there's a King Diamond or Mercyful Fate album (or song) that I don't love. Fatal Portrait (the first King Diamond album) has a few songs that tell a story, but not all of them. Other than that, all of them are horror story concept albums. Them/Conspiracy are connected, as well as Abigail 1 and 2 (obviously) the rest are stand-alone stories.
I've never seen ANYONE react to the ENTIRE ALBUM! AWESOME!! And THANKS to Livia! It would be even MORE incredible if you reacted to MORE of his work, including the Mercyful Fate stuff (even better if you ask me)...
What sets KD music apart from literally everyone is the level of INSANE talent and originality displayed. Andy La Roque is one of the most incredible guitarists i have ever heard. What makes a great guitarist? Doing things that no one else does. KD is the most incredible vocalist in metal music. his range is insane. His voice is literally a guitar, it has a distortion effect and a high pitch sound. only a guitar can reach. Then comes the writing. it is incredibly difficult to write a concept album, it is like an opera, this is why few bands can do it. All this aside KD really helped us of the 90s generation to deal with our issues, by helping us find solace and escape in music, at a time when there was no mass media or phones. Our Walkman kept us alive who lived apart from society and who were too original to be considered popular in school. We found kinship and friendship in the music of our idols such as KD. This music literally saved our souls. Few people born in the smartphone generation can understand that, but i hope more young people can re-discover this music and these reaction videos are very good in bringing attention of our music to the new generations
This is King Diamond on developing his falsetto,along with his other voices and about the Abigail album... KD: “It goes all the way to before Mercyful Fate. I played in a band all the way back in ’76 with some friends from school. I played guitar and I didn’t sing at all. That band broke up in ’78. And then I saw an ad at a supermarket. The ad was a band looking for a vocalist, and not a guitarist. I had never sung in my life so I thought I’d try to sneak in as a vocalist and guitarist, and then just end up playing guitar. But when I contacted them they said they didn’t need another guitarist. They said they were very much like Deep Purple and Rainbow: they were a band with organ and one guitar, but they didn’t want a second guitar player. And I had nothing else going on music-wise at that point, so I figured I’d go and meet the band and I’d pretend I was a singer. So I went to meet the band and they were covering Deep Purple and of course I was just screaming because I had no idea how to sing. I was just screaming and I had no voice when I went home. And it was like that for a while. I didn’t know how to sing, so could you imagine this band? They wanted to play Deep Purple so we were doing ‘Child In Time’ and ‘Space Truckin’’ and it was just… (laughs). But they didn’t have anyone who was better at the time. But as we were playing and started writing more and more, we were still playing Purple covers and we were doing a couple of Rainbow covers. And I think we were doing a couple of Kansas songs. But at some point I started to learn how to breathe properly while singing. I had never done anything like that, but I started to learn how to use the stomach muscles and how to use them to really control the breathing. And because of that I began to hold longer notes and I started to do some vibrato. I guess it was from listening to my own favourites like David Byron from Uriah Heep. He’s my all-time favourite vocalist. And I tried to mimic some of what they were doing. So I started to learn by myself. I started to sing and I learned how to hold notes. And then I discovered I had a higher range. You can hear this stuff on CD; the band was called Black Rose. There was this one night where we recorded our rehearsal and that was released. On that CD, you can hear the difference in my voice at the time and you can also hear how little falsetto there was. But it was right where I started falsetto. I had no idea what I was really doing until someone came and told me after we played one of our local shows. The guy was like, ‘Hey, you need to use your falsetto some more. It really sounds good.’ I had no clue what that word meant, so he explained it and told me that it meant to sing the higher notes so I was like, ‘Cool, man’. Because of that I started working extra hard on that register and it started developing into what you then heard with the beginning of Mercyful Fate. All the other voices came from figuring out I could twist and turn my voice in any direction. That really came out when we started doing the concept stories, especially with Abigail. We had all these different characters and you really try to really put all your emotions into expressing what they’re feeling in these stories. So it developed into all these different kinds of voices. We have names for some of them. When I’m the studio singing them, we always use the same engineer, a guy called J.T. Longoria, and I do all the vocals at this studio in Dallas called Nomad Recording. And between him and me, we started trying to figure out which voices to use and we call them by their names. Developing all these voices started from the challenge of doing a full concept album, and I really think the first one we did was Abigail. And I think it was the first time ever that someone had done a concept horror story record. I don’t think it had been done at that point. That was also something that made Abigail very hard-hitting in its day, because it was very unique. Today some of our albums, in my opinion anyway, might certainly live up to Abigail and might even be better, especially the last one. But because they came 10 or 15 years later, they don’t have the same impact. Had these new ones been first, they would have had at least the same impact in my opinion. So it becomes hard to live up to the first one because it was so unique and it was the first.
If you want to hear a cover of the song "Abigail" that is equal or better than the original version then you need to check out Tim "Ripper" Owens singing it live!
@@DELETETHISFUCKNCHANNELHANDLE lol Only just convenient or abso-fucking-luteley Fukin Fate ! You know which way I am talking bout. Obviously Ole King has had this shit planned out since his youngerdays or "The Beginning" I never doubt what happens because it's very apparent as you take some time to look back upon your life...everything that happens in this strange life is for a reason, whether it is known to us or not. It's because it had to be this exact way for everything to line up as they are now to bring us to this very moment and beyond. It's almost obvious when you reflect on it and can then connect all the dots to make it make sense.
@@DELETETHISFUCKNCHANNELHANDLE hells yea bro! You said it perfectly my friend, the King has molded metal to his will by simply being himself. They've influenced so many artists and fans the world 🌎 over abso-fucking-luteley true. I've heard many different artists mention Merciful Fate and King in interviews saying that same shit. He just has a special one of a kind style that can't be copied and the music itself is masterful. Most ppl say if he wasn't singing they'd be into it but "them" types don't understand the brilliance of it all as it is..in my book. I jus call "them" haters that are too closed minded and foolish. I absolutely love it myself since the first time I was blessed enough to hear it. I'm old school and kinda haven't got into the new stuff, basically after Conspiracy on...but I just haven't had the chance to hear enough of it all since the old days. ALL HAIL THE KING!
Now that I've listened to this whole album from track 1 to track 9, it's a lot easier to understand My introduction to King Diamond was "The Family Ghost" so I had no freaking clue what he was talking about and listening to this thinking "WTF is this??"
i love king diamond his albums are storytelling in metal form you could just read the lyrics and it's a good book I wish him and Rob zombie would make a them movie 🎥 then the sequel conspiracy 🎥
most creative out of the box unique vocalist in the entire metal genre. 51 now started listening to him about 14 or 15 years old. King is called the King for a reason. Def. my most influential singer on my vocals for sure. interesting hearing someones view and opinions for the first time. enjoyed your insight.
Abigail and Conspiracy are probably two of my all-time favorite metal albums, truly amazing storytelling, atmosphere and musicianship. Now, we all love and respect King, but dare I say the unsung heroes are the band themselves. Andy LaRocque is one of the guitar masters who dare I say, is on the level of Eddie Van Halen and Dave Mustaine... his solos and riffs are just so eerie, goosebump inducing, majestic and heavy at the same time. I don't know music theory at all but goddamnit there is something special about this man. Furthermore, Andy also contributed by providing the keyboards! Legendary, and he also played lead guitars on Death's Individual Thought Patterns album... Mikkey Dee will go down as one of the greatest drummers of all-time whether it be as a member of the Scorpions or a founding member of King Diamond. You don't realize how phenomenal his drumming was until it's gone in those latter years. Timi Hansen's bass was always just right for the song adding a level of heaviness and depth! Rhythm Guitarists changed throughout, but Michael Denner did amazing work on the first two albums (Fatal Portrait and Abigail) while Pete Blakk was godly on the next three (Them, Conspiracy, and The Eye). I'd say, while late to this, that if you didn't love King's falsetto vocals too much here, the Them and what is in my opinion, his magnum opus, Conspiracy... his vocals become much better with age, more grit, more power. I absolutely LOVE 7/8 of the first King Diamond albums, Spider's Lullaby being the only one I do not like, because it gives me an unnerved feeling haha. P.S., baby Abigail (reborn) was eating the corpse of the previous (stillborn) version of herself, not Miriam, which makes it all the more disturbing to me. Had to subscribe now, cheers mate!
To appreciate King’s voice you have to consider everything he’s trying to do. First, he’s trying to scare the shit out ppl. Imagine hearing that voice in a big house way back in the woods. Then the stories he tells, the scary make up and clothes. His evil stage appearance.
Hey! King Diamond’s wife Livia Zita here. Loved watching your reaction! 🥰 It’s super interesting to hear how a new listener takes in the album. Hope to see your reactions to the other stories too, especially The Puppet Master 😊
Oh, there is a graphic novel that just came out with the story of Abigail :) The first part so far, anyway 😏
You and the crew do wonderful work! Don't listen to the critics.
King diamond is great
No way. The one and only Miss D?
Wow. Miss Magical ◇ I'm not even sure what to do now. *BOWS*
Thank you for gracing us mortals with your presence my Queen. I've loved his magical artistry for over half of my life basically, since aged 13 and it still holds true after all these years regardless. I hope you are doing well along with the King of ◇ and may y'all Reign Forever Together. My Love to y'all for all the great times had whilst jamming out and enjoying life. Take care ma'am.
Awesome! Ask the King if he remembers the Halloween night show in Chicago on the Dont Break the Oath tour with MF! I was there. Great memories!
you either love Diamond's voice or hate it. Once you get used to its changes you realize he is one hell of a frontman.
And if you hate him ,you always come back for more anyways
King diamond is the master of concept music. Them,conspiracy and the eye are masterful
Those are my favorite 3 albums from King.
Couldn't agree more, also with the graveyard being another masterpiece by king ❤
One of the best albums ever recorded.
If you listen to Mercyful Fate you can see how his work evolved to this masterpiece. The early MFate albums are true gems.
#Facts
This album is fucking incredible. That voice and the musicality along with an amazing story. Opera metal all the way. And I named my daughter Abigail.
Good on you brother. Abigail is a beautiful name and one of my friends actually did the same thing with her daughter too. I got em into the King of course.
If I ever had a daughter her name would have been Melissa Abigail Christensen. 😁😁
"Fucking incredible " is an understatement. 😉
HAPPY MOSHTOBER!!! 👻 What do you think of Abigail by King Diamond?
King Diamond is a class of its own in so many regards, Abigail is a great album.
Fatal portrait is probably the greatest KD album
Them/Conspiracy is my favorite work by King Diamond. The Mercyful Fate albums are good too. He sings a little bit differently in Mercyful Fate. Not quite as much falsetto and more mid range vocals. Plus Mercyful Fate albums are not concept while most King Diamond records are.
I love the album "Them" You can't go wrong with any of them though. Andy LaRoque is a monster on guitar, who also played on Death's album Individual Thought Patterns.
Masterpiece. Believe me you'll grow to enjoy King's highs as much as his growls.
I didnt like his voice at first listen, now i love it.
Definitely, that's exactly what happened to me. His singing takes a lot of getting used to, but it's also simply brilliant and unique. Nobody sounds like Kings Diamond!
@@Sebastian-vt6rg if you haven't heard, look up the band Attic
Yup moat ppl are the same way. If you're open minded and actually understand greatness you will fall in love deeply with it.
Thank you for that suggestion.
@@Sebastian-vt6rg did you look them up
The music its so good that you will get used to his voice!!!!
Jonathan LaFey (Age was 27) 2+7=9
Miriam Natias (Age was 18) 1+8=9
Track List Time
Funeral -1:29
Arrival - 5:26
A Mansion in Darkness - 4:33
The Family Ghost - 4:05
The 7Th Day of July 1777 - 4:51
Omens - 3:56
The Possession - 3:25
Abigail - 4:52
Black Horsemen - 7:39
( if you add all the tracks time its 3816 and look at this 3+8+1+6=18 and 1+8= 9
(Eighteen its nine) like the album said !!!
Interesting. I always saw it primarily as Miriam (18 years) and Abigail (9 months).
Abigail is in my top 10 favorite metal albums of all time. Flawless. Definitely King Diamond's best album.
Top 5
A true masterpiece of an album 👌🤘
Abigail is his second album and most consider it his best
Fatal Portrait and The Spider’s Lullabye are only partial concepts
Every other album labeled King Diamond is a full concept and I personally love them all but my favorite is House of God
He’s inspired many bands and artists. Cradle of Filth mentions him on their concept Cruelty and the Beast. Before Mercyful Fate broke up giving rise to King Diamond they loaned equipment to Metallica so they could record their album Ride the Lightning
He was pivotal in helping Dave Mustaine get noticed in Megadeth’s early years
He has inspired pretty much everyone and even Dave Grohl included him in the Probot album (Sweet Dreams)
His music is in Clerks 1 and 2
And he frequently guested on Metalocalypse
Andy (the guitarist) owns probably the biggest studio in Sweden, having recorded acts like Hammerfall, In Flames, Arch Enemy and many many others. If it’s Scandinavian and metal it was most likely recorded in Andy’s studio
'Them' is a fantastic album. Also a concept album, and it ties in with the next album 'Conspiracy' which is a continuation of the story. Two of my favourite King albums. 'The Eye' is also a great album, often overlooked.
for those who desire to touch and feel grandma , as long as she let's him that is
Not as good as abigail..None of them..is as good..!!!
them was next not conspiracy sir
@@spikenelson6669 Exactly, just like I wrote in my original post ;)
Kudos you you for taking this one on. King Diamond is definitely an acquired taste. Many people can't get past his vocals. I started listening to him with his other band, Mercyful Fate. My Dad referred to them as "that band that sounds like someone pulling the cat's tail" 🤣🤣The musicianship grabbed me and his vocals grew on me pretty quickly. Both bands were pretty unique compared to most metal bands at that time. Technical playing with constant tempo changes and really slick dual lead guitar work and batshit insane vocals! There's really nothing else like it. The dude is really creative. Love him or hate him you can't deny his talent.
My mate is crazy fan and the only thing i heard of MF is the cover song metallica made. I tried to listen to MF year ago but couldn't pass a lot of songs cuz the singing. But this year MF were touring and gave it another try so i know the songs. And man on man what a masterpiece. So far i only listen to first two album which were the only songs they played. Best experience and flawlessly sang all songs. And my mate didnt go cuz he thought it'll rain but it was hot as hell.
King Diamond is one of those guys/groups that people laugh really hard when they first hear him. But, every single time, people are hooked and listen more and more. Eventually they’re won over and they become huge fans. The musicianship of the band is absolutely astonishing! Heavily influenced by the Scandinavian neo-classical metal sound of the time, a lot of these bands (king diamond, malmsteen, etc) were massively inspired by classical composers like Paganini, etc. I’ve heard that King is one of the nicest people anyone could ever meet. I do recall he had rules while out on tour like absolutely no women/groupies after shows, etc. A true gentleman from my understanding
He really is I just saw mercyful fate last October and at the end of the show he was shaking everybody in the fronts hands and saying thank you and when he got to me I asked if I could get the setlist. He tried to grab it for me but couldn’t get it off cause of the tape so he walked over to one of the crew and asked him to grab it for me. The guy gave it to me and king made sure it went to me then thanked me again blessed me I told him thank you so much and then he continued on with the rest of the crowd
Once you get used to the voice it becomes infectious. I saw the Abigail tour live in 1987. I was 4 feet away from King Diamond the entire time. One of if not the best show of my life.
Me too. I was front row betting crushed into the stage lol got a pick from Andy.
I've seen him in concert a couple of times. Both King Diamond and Mercyful fate. Then I stumbled upon him in Copenhagen many years ago. So we took a cup of coffee together and spoked about all and nothing🙂. He's very nice and down to earth. 👍🤘
Hells Yes! Back when I was in Dallas Texas my buddy actually met him in a local club once one night, of course I wasn't there but he said that he was a cool ass dude. I was kinda bummed, apparently he lives in Texas somewhere now. Lol Texas!
@@yduronerom6380 He lives in Frisco. A suburb to Dallas👍
@@johanzander5919I know that place bro. Good looking out. Yea I've in Big D for 30+years and worked all around the metroplex area. Hells yea..his wife is a Texas girl right?
DFW area is my stomping grounds from the 90's on man. The King is my ultimate favorite dude and artist from about 13 years old 1987-86-ish way back in the day. Fatal Portrait hooked my ass and I've never been released. I can't say I'm a huge fan of anything after Conspiracy though but I am too old school to even wanna now but, I'll take every Merciful Fate. Same with almost everything Metallica only= Cliff except garage days /Slayer=South of Heaven I reckon? Ect. Yadda Yadda Yadda.
Mikkey Dee is the drummer on this album who would join Motorhead and after their ending joined The Scorpions. He is a great drummer, along with Michael Denner and Andy La Roque on guitars this is probably my favourite line up.
Uh huh they're so good together and always will be a super group in my book.
This album is an all star super group
I was astounded that she did not comment on the brilliant drumming on this album. He really drives this album that resisting any air drumming yourself is impossible.
The reason you feel Death vibes is because Mr. Andy LaRocque played guitar in Death's "Individual Thought Pattern" album :)
he only recorded like 3 or four leads, didn’t write any of the music.
Another great horror story is Graveyard! Amazing arrangements, and more King Diamond mature voices, very underrated album.
Yes... not sure why no one mentions it in their 'lists'. It was the first KD album I ever heard back in late 90's, co-worker played it at work crankin' on a giant stereo throughout the factory. lol This one guy cut off the tip of his finger in a milling machine and blamed it on the King. smh Ahh... the good 'ol days, we played that album almost daily at work for a long time. It's been my favorite ever since, tied w/ Abigail. I also really like House of God and Voodoo.
I love "The Graveyard", especially when he keeps saying the word "DIE!" at the end of "I Am". I don't know why critics hate on that album so much.
@@xSOILBORNx LMAO my dad carved The Trees Have Eyes into his forklift at the warehouse once and he and multiple co-workers swear to god that a bunch of bad shit happened for a month. Thing one broke an arm due to a heavy pallet, lights were breaking, weird shit. Haha
You get a subscribe. I have been listening to this album for 35 years, and you did an excellent job analyzing for your first time. Very impressive.
By far my favourite King Diamond album. I bought when it was released (I was 17) and I likely have listened to it at least once a week since then!
Bingo Bro me too 1987 i played it on repeat non stop Abigail. Niceness on your Profile picture too. Melissa! Ohh she needs to do Melissa and Satan's Fall.....classics.
Nothing is left outside at the stake, they took her love away from me.
I love all of Kings album and projects. I especially love Fatal Portrait. I feel like it doesn’t get as much love
I love watching people have that first time hearing the King moment.
One of my favorite albums of all time seen him live puts on a great show
This is too AWESOME 👌 THANK U SO MUCH FOR THIS REACTION
Abigail is a perfect place to start a journey into the worlds of King Diamond and Mercyful fate .
HAIL THE KING, THANKS FOR THE METAL REACTIONS! MORE KING DIAMOND!
More More More More More!!!
Excellent Album! A masterpiece!
King Diamond's voice is unlike any other. I saw them on their tour a few years back where they played this album in it's entirety. And he could still sing notes that high perfectly. But you have to want to hear more of his songs to truly appreciate him. \,,/
At 66 years old, King can still smash thouse High notes! He's just an incredible person (A gentleman) and such an incredible voice! Master of Darkness 🤘🏻
Arguably the greatest concept album ever! 🤘I truly get the impression that this is the first time you're hearing King Diamond's vocals... your facial expressions are cracking me up! However, the best thing about this reaction for me is the recognition of the songwriting and especially, Andy LaRocque... to me, one of the most underrated guitarists ever (along with Alex Lifeson and Piggy from Voivod) .... not to mention the mighty Mikkey Dee! Cheers 🤘🤘
Hank Sherman rips top.
not
I love this record, heard it many times, seen King Diamond perform it live, and got the graphic novel.
And seeing your reaction to it, Kaiya, just makes me smile. I saw SHOCK and HORROR in reaction, and I'm like
"YES!"
The vocals will grow on you if you give it time. :)
King Diamond is a genius. He writes almost all the songs too! And then you have msaterful Andy Laroque with his insane taste. Add Micky D on drums from Motorhead and you have an insane recipe.
This album is very special to me as it got me through a tough time in my life.
I’ve always been a writer, even as a kid I wrote stories and literally every single job I had was very heavily writing based - developing tech manuals, computer lab projects, whatever. Anyway, in 2005, I had major brain surgery and since no one knew if I was gonna return to “normal” or not… but I wanted to make sure that at least 1 thing would be - my writing.
So I took something that I knew and wanted to see if I can do a full story based on a song, concept album, short story but make it full novel -- anything. So I took this album, listened to it about 50 times in a row and wrote a 110 page movie script based on the album while recovering from surgery.
After I was satisfied with the result, I submitted the script to 3 script & film festivals where it won 5 total awards.
While the script is not Hollywood blockbuster worthy, and it can probably still use some tweaking, but just the fact it won something solitified, at least with writing, my mind was ‘back to normal’…. well, for the most part 😂
cerebellum, medulla oblogota , cerebral , or just the other rather common example of the seratonin sending incorrect messages between the nerve cells of the diencephalon or simply a muted message between the epithalamus and the hypothalamus ? Any visitors from realms between Apotheosis and mundane mortality, or was the sedation just a verbosity of articulated hullabaloo and senseless feverish stupor? My brainwave test was like a visitation by Ancient astronauts. I saw colors that don't exist in the confined sphere of Planet Earth. I know that neurological journeys can be interesting. A lot of people believe that the running to the light concept might just be the brain shutting down, not the other worldliness that it's rumored to be
Beautiful story!. Ive dabbled a lot with writing. Although i am a musician and am always writing music. But KD inspired me to start writing a horror movie script around 2012.. Then i got too busy in the Navy.. never got to finish it 😢 lol i wish i had the full attention span to write a masterpiece of a clever horror movie. I looooove creativity
This album is the one biggest master piece of heavy metal of all times! King diamond rules!
Abigail and Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime are 2 of the best story/concept albums I have heard. I love your breakdown of every song on the album. Also, I enjoyed your reactions of Iron Maiden and Epica. Thank you for your unique reaction process, definitely entertaining.
You're not lying👍
Add Crimson Idol by WASP
Completely agree!
Actually that was a bass guitar harmonic on the break on "Abigail".
One of the greatest albums of all time
Shout out to Tipper Gore and the PMRC for putting together the 'Filthy Fifteen'. This is where I discovered Mercyful Fate and the vocalist King Diamond. Abigail is his best solo work bar none! Check out his live performances from 2019 on RUclips...he still hits those notes and the band is very dialed in. Enjoy!
This album is a 10/10. Bought this when it was released and I still listen to it all these years later.
King Diamonds vocal work has always been "unique" and an aquired taste 😉
99.9% of people absolutely love King Diamond's Voice. I have yet to meet anyone that doesn't consider him the absolute best Vocalist in the history of music
Especially when your first introduction to King Diamond was listening to "The Family Ghost"
@@karlsmith2570 not everyone enjoys monotone baritone yarling Vocals. Only people that like Grunge have any issues with King Diamond's Vocals. He just sounds like a million other typical Metal Vocalists. King Diamond is not an acquired taste. It's not like he imitates Sesame St characters like Death Metal Voice providers do
@@karlsmith2570 men attracted to morbidly obese women is unique and an acquired Taste. KING Diamond's Vocals most certainly are not. He is a singer everyone can enjoy
@@godetonter4764 you are wrong, he is most definitely an acquired taste. all of my friends who like metal dont fuck with king diamonds vocals. hes very talented but its not for everyone
Yeeeees, do Them - story continues. They were so ahead of others Production wise In 1987. Love Abigail and Black Horsemen.
Keep In mind the voices reflect diff characters.
Kings other band Mercyful Fate are great inspiration for Metallica - King D and MFate are very much about riff city.
Love your reaction. You Will get use to his voice.
Greetings from Denmark🇩🇰🇩🇰🚀
Definitely need to check out "them"! It's the best king diamond album! And BTW, king diamond is the name of the singer and also the name of the band
King's other band Mercyful Fate inspired a lot of Black Metal bands in the past 40 years. He has influenced Metallica, Slayer and Cradle of Filth among many others.
ANd 99 percent of the satanists I talk to say they got into satanism thanks to king!
Amen to that shit brother! You know what's up
Awesome video, just found your channel and I am already a fan! I think this is the only full reaction to this awesome album and I loved it that you went above and beyond and actually read the lyrics and took in the whole story, a lot of reactors sleep on that and it was really cool to see. King's voice is one of a kind and most of us were thrown off at first, but it definitely grows on you. His whole body of work (from Mercyful Fate till nowadays) is amazing. As a singer, composer, lyricist and story-teller, his skills are unmatched. And yeah, his voice still sounds as good as ever, just see his live stuff and you will be blown away. An absolute legend.
Black horsemen is definitely one of my favorite pieces of music. So beautiful!
He still hits those notes check out the live at the fillmore concert. He was 59 at that show.
He was totally killing it with Mercyful Fate this summer!😍
His albums are, essentially masterfully produced by genious from every aspect. King is so great because everyone who contributes.
Oops, i had a brainfart. I meant to day Devil's interval. I blame on that devil weed. Lol. May explain my unfettered babbling. 😊
He has a Blu-ray called Songs for the Dead: Live at the Fillmore in Philadelphia from 2019 where the last 9 songs of the concert is from this album, he has a enormous vocalrange and it sounds just like the album live. It is also released on cd.
Yup that show is on video and I'd agree with you it's great shit
@@DELETETHISFUCKNCHANNELHANDLE whoa bro. Hold up a second.....The Mf'n King had triple bypass action by some damn butchers? Ohh hells bells man, this shit ain't proper but at the very least I know he's still doin his thang so...but I seriously didn't know all that mess.
A true masterpiece.
When you get used to his voice, you'll love The Puppet Master and The Eye.
Really happy to see that you react to King Diamond. If people are beginners into King Diamond I will mean that this and his first album "Fatal Portrait" from 86 still are the best. Before he song in Mercylful Fate and these 2 albums are killers - 83 "Mellisa" and 84 "Dont break the oath". KD still plays in both band so please tjek those older albums out first ! I named my daughter Mellisa :)
Does she like King Diamond?
Even if you can't ever get past his voice... read the concept story for the album "The Eye" it will amazingly blow your mind.
Agreed 🤘 The Eye is also a masterpiece for me as well.
Kings vocals at first are grating like nails on a chalkboard, then become comforting, then you need and long for them. I love King been listening to him for MANY MANY years...
Funeral takes place in the 7th of July 1777, it’s the first time Abigail was encountered
King Diamond's masterpiece. Doesn't get any better than this.
You should look at a live track, like King Diamond - Sleepless Nights - Live at The Fillmore (OFFICIAL)
He's voicing different characters and spirits. Some are supposed to sound childish. If you read the lyrics as you're listening, you'll see most of the lyrics are actually conversations.
Abigail is one of my absolute favorite concept albums of all time though King Diamond's 2 follow up releases, "Them" and Conspiracy (one story spread out over 2 records), are my top ranked in that category. Great reaction to a masterpiece of macabre metal. I strongly suggest that you check out King's Songs For The Dead Live concert that was released just several years ago. It's their first high quality pro-shot official live dvd ever, something fans like myself had been waiting decades for. It includes Abigail performed in its' entirety and is amazingly mindblowing; King, who was in his early 60's at the time, sounds better than ever and almost studio perfect. It's definitely an event every King Diamond fan should experience. King's lovely wife, Livia, provides backing vocals as King dislikes using pre-recorded backing tracks on stage. Songs For The Dead Live is true metal theater that's not to be missed. Keep rockin' and stay heavy! Wishing everyone peace, love, and good happiness stuff from the mountains of northeastern Alabama. Long live the King 🤘
Songs for the dead live is a masterpiece. Love the DVD.
In keeping with the theme of Abigail, I feel like I need to send you child support for letting us experience King with you. Thank you for sharing the best King Diamond reaction video on the internet. That was quite an experience to relive the discovery of this album through younger eyes. I had just started high school when I discovered King Diamond "Them" in '88. We had skipped school and my friends older brother drove us to the mall, I remember buying Dio "Holy Diver" based on the cd cover, and so I found the house on the cover of "Them". Imagine my delight when I found out all of his albums under his second metal band King Diamond were concepts. Later to discover his earlier 1983 band Mercyful Fate, a more satanic themed non concept band. He never got airplay on the radios, think D&D satanic panic and the religious background of the late 80's. Many metal bands pay tribute to him, as well as Metallica being fans and covering their work. Abigail was a perfect reaction and you did the WHOLE album! Thank you again for letting us into this moment.
My favorite is my first one "Them", I then got "Fatal Portrait", "Conspiracy (a sequel to Them)" and later "The Eye" I fell away after The Eye because some of the magic was gone. Mickey Dee killed it on Abigail and Them as their drummer. It was never the same after he left.
My favorite King Diamond song "Shrine" is from a single release between Abigail and Them, called "The Family Ghost", which had two Abigail songs, one that was cut from the album since it did not fit into the theme or the number of songs I suppose.
Mercyful fate "Don't break the Oath" and "Melissa" are masterpieces on their own right, their third album also slays. The oath cover art is masterful. The title track Melissa is my favorite Fate song.
Kim Peterson lives in Texas now and singlehandedly provided me with countless masterworks. If I could save one artist's work from Earth when we colonize Mars or beyond, it would be King.
Saw them perform this album in its entirety back in 2015 in San Antonio and it was the best show I’ve ever been to in my entire life. Second best show I’ve ever been to was Mercyful Fate (KD’s first band) on October 25th of last year in Dallas. Safe to say my favorite artist of all time.
Both Abigail's are epic...glad to see you checking this out plus many more bands.
By every song you are more into it 😊
This is my childhood music. Still great. It's good to listen to your reaction to something you listened to 30 years ago. The best so far
concept album for me is Cruelty and the Beast Cradle of Filth. I recommend the concept of Elizabeth Bathory - bloody countess.
Yeah, she totally has to react to "Cruelty And The Beast".
Totally agree!
It was great to listen to Abigail again with great company this time ,thanks
King diamond is a true legend. Nearly my whole back is covered in King diamond tattoos. His voice is so unreal it's amazing. Love King diamond
Thank you so much for this, you should really check out one of this songs live, he sounds even better.
Both his works with his solo band and Mercyful Fate are amazing and Don't Break The Oath is probably the most influential of the later.
Very nice to see the whole album done, it deserves a full pull!
I'm not sure about anyone else here.. I was 15 when this album came out and at the time this album was special.. and it still is! One of the greatest concept albums of all time.
All Hail The Mighty, Mighty King! And Oh Shit! Livia In The House...
King has one of the most unique voices in metal, and has done for over 4 decades. A lot of people saying he's an acquired taste, but I loved him from the first moment I heard him. There's something "witchy" about his falsetto that fits perfectly with his occult/Satanic/horror lyrics. And I can't think of a single other metal band or artist that has been around for over 4 decades that has been as consistently good in terms of musical output. So happy to have seen him live with Mercyful Fate last year, and I hope to see him many more times. Can't wait for new material from both his bands, which is something I can't really say about any of his contemporaries.
Been listening to KD since Fatal Portrait debut-1986- Mikkey Dee, drums, later Motorhead and now scorpions, brilliant, Andy Larocque, guitar, is amazingly innovative and inventive in his playing- never a dull solo or riff, also brilliant. Of course the rest of the band and production is great too. Interesting to hear a breakdown from a new listener. Have a listen to his original band who have re-formed and played gigs recently and are still the best : )
Check out King Diamond The Eye. It's a complete concept album. It takes place in 1600's Salem Massachusetts. It's based on true events of the witch trials. And how evil and barbaric the church was.
King diamond's work is Timeless, for real...
you've got to do Abigail II: The Revenge too :)
The Puppet Master is a wonderful Christmas story :)
I really like House of God. It was my first King Diamond album, so it's kind of special, but I can't say that there's a King Diamond or Mercyful Fate album (or song) that I don't love.
Fatal Portrait (the first King Diamond album) has a few songs that tell a story, but not all of them. Other than that, all of them are horror story concept albums. Them/Conspiracy are connected, as well as Abigail 1 and 2 (obviously) the rest are stand-alone stories.
Mirror words can not describe King Diamond. King Diamond must be experienced.
I've never seen ANYONE react to the ENTIRE ALBUM! AWESOME!! And THANKS to Livia! It would be even MORE incredible if you reacted to MORE of his work, including the Mercyful Fate stuff (even better if you ask me)...
The more you listen to KD ,the more everything grows on you. So happy to see this full album reaction .
What sets KD music apart from literally everyone is the level of INSANE talent and originality displayed. Andy La Roque is one of the most incredible guitarists i have ever heard. What makes a great guitarist? Doing things that no one else does. KD is the most incredible vocalist in metal music. his range is insane. His voice is literally a guitar, it has a distortion effect and a high pitch sound. only a guitar can reach. Then comes the writing. it is incredibly difficult to write a concept album, it is like an opera, this is why few bands can do it.
All this aside KD really helped us of the 90s generation to deal with our issues, by helping us find solace and escape in music, at a time when there was no mass media or phones. Our Walkman kept us alive who lived apart from society and who were too original to be considered popular in school. We found kinship and friendship in the music of our idols such as KD. This music literally saved our souls. Few people born in the smartphone generation can understand that, but i hope more young people can re-discover this music and these reaction videos are very good in bringing attention of our music to the new generations
Oh you like storyline concept albums? May I suggest Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime for your listening pleasure
This is King Diamond on developing his falsetto,along with his other voices and about the Abigail album...
KD: “It goes all the way to before Mercyful Fate. I played in a band all the way back in ’76 with some friends from school. I played guitar and I didn’t sing at all. That band broke up in ’78. And then I saw an ad at a supermarket. The ad was a band looking for a vocalist, and not a guitarist. I had never sung in my life so I thought I’d try to sneak in as a vocalist and guitarist, and then just end up playing guitar. But when I contacted them they said they didn’t need another guitarist. They said they were very much like Deep Purple and Rainbow: they were a band with organ and one guitar, but they didn’t want a second guitar player. And I had nothing else going on music-wise at that point, so I figured I’d go and meet the band and I’d pretend I was a singer. So I went to meet the band and they were covering Deep Purple and of course I was just screaming because I had no idea how to sing. I was just screaming and I had no voice when I went home. And it was like that for a while. I didn’t know how to sing, so could you imagine this band? They wanted to play Deep Purple so we were doing ‘Child In Time’ and ‘Space Truckin’’ and it was just… (laughs). But they didn’t have anyone who was better at the time. But as we were playing and started writing more and more, we were still playing Purple covers and we were doing a couple of Rainbow covers. And I think we were doing a couple of Kansas songs. But at some point I started to learn how to breathe properly while singing. I had never done anything like that, but I started to learn how to use the stomach muscles and how to use them to really control the breathing. And because of that I began to hold longer notes and I started to do some vibrato. I guess it was from listening to my own favourites like David Byron from Uriah Heep. He’s my all-time favourite vocalist. And I tried to mimic some of what they were doing. So I started to learn by myself. I started to sing and I learned how to hold notes. And then I discovered I had a higher range. You can hear this stuff on CD; the band was called Black Rose. There was this one night where we recorded our rehearsal and that was released. On that CD, you can hear the difference in my voice at the time and you can also hear how little falsetto there was. But it was right where I started falsetto. I had no idea what I was really doing until someone came and told me after we played one of our local shows. The guy was like, ‘Hey, you need to use your falsetto some more. It really sounds good.’ I had no clue what that word meant, so he explained it and told me that it meant to sing the higher notes so I was like, ‘Cool, man’. Because of that I started working extra hard on that register and it started developing into what you then heard with the beginning of Mercyful Fate. All the other voices came from figuring out I could twist and turn my voice in any direction. That really came out when we started doing the concept stories, especially with Abigail. We had all these different characters and you really try to really put all your emotions into expressing what they’re feeling in these stories. So it developed into all these different kinds of voices. We have names for some of them. When I’m the studio singing them, we always use the same engineer, a guy called J.T. Longoria, and I do all the vocals at this studio in Dallas called Nomad Recording. And between him and me, we started trying to figure out which voices to use and we call them by their names. Developing all these voices started from the challenge of doing a full concept album, and I really think the first one we did was Abigail. And I think it was the first time ever that someone had done a concept horror story record. I don’t think it had been done at that point. That was also something that made Abigail very hard-hitting in its day, because it was very unique. Today some of our albums, in my opinion anyway, might certainly live up to Abigail and might even be better, especially the last one. But because they came 10 or 15 years later, they don’t have the same impact. Had these new ones been first, they would have had at least the same impact in my opinion. So it becomes hard to live up to the first one because it was so unique and it was the first.
“Oh no, they found her in the sarcophagus, Baby Abigail was eating, oh I cannot tell you!” sick stuff, love it 👍👍
Great reaction!!!!
Absolute killer album.
If you want to hear a cover of the song "Abigail" that is equal or better than the original version then you need to check out Tim "Ripper" Owens singing it live!
Imagine hearing this in the 80’s when you were a teen! Thank you for your choice!
I did!
@@DELETETHISFUCKNCHANNELHANDLE lol Only just convenient or abso-fucking-luteley Fukin Fate ! You know which way I am talking bout. Obviously Ole King has had this shit planned out since his youngerdays or "The Beginning"
I never doubt what happens because it's very apparent as you take some time to look back upon your life...everything that happens in this strange life is for a reason, whether it is known to us or not. It's because it had to be this exact way for everything to line up as they are now to bring us to this very moment and beyond. It's almost obvious when you reflect on it and can then connect all the dots to make it make sense.
@@DELETETHISFUCKNCHANNELHANDLE hells yea bro! You said it perfectly my friend, the King has molded metal to his will by simply being himself. They've influenced so many artists and fans the world 🌎 over abso-fucking-luteley true. I've heard many different artists mention Merciful Fate and King in interviews saying that same shit. He just has a special one of a kind style that can't be copied and the music itself is masterful. Most ppl say if he wasn't singing they'd be into it but "them" types don't understand the brilliance of it all as it is..in my book. I jus call "them" haters that are too closed minded and foolish. I absolutely love it myself since the first time I was blessed enough to hear it. I'm old school and kinda haven't got into the new stuff, basically after Conspiracy on...but I just haven't had the chance to hear enough of it all since the old days.
ALL HAIL THE KING!
Great reaction, for me the best king diamond album is the fatal portrait.
Now that I've listened to this whole album from track 1 to track 9, it's a lot easier to understand
My introduction to King Diamond was "The Family Ghost" so I had no freaking clue what he was talking about and listening to this thinking "WTF is this??"
i love king diamond his albums are storytelling in metal form you could just read the lyrics and it's a good book I wish him and Rob zombie would make a them movie 🎥 then the sequel conspiracy 🎥
Awesome, Old Skool Metal Rules 🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼
Agree, blackhorsemen is still one of the best metal song ever. Now review Fatal Portrait, you wont be disappointed. I love King
Andy LaRoque is on m top 5 guitar players list.
Her face when she hears King's high-tone voice 😆
Lol yup I was nearly the same but I was more looking confused and then into it.
most creative out of the box unique vocalist in the entire metal genre. 51 now started listening to him about 14 or 15 years old. King is called the King for a reason. Def. my most influential singer on my vocals for sure. interesting hearing someones view and opinions for the first time. enjoyed your insight.
You killed me 😭😂 with the rubber chicken 🐔 reference and impersonation lol.
Each of the albums tell a story! You should check out more of his albums.
King and Master of the Mix!!
I think that's how almost everyone perceives his voice the first time. Pass that I think I'm in Love🙂
Abigail and Conspiracy are probably two of my all-time favorite metal albums, truly amazing storytelling, atmosphere and musicianship. Now, we all love and respect King, but dare I say the unsung heroes are the band themselves.
Andy LaRocque is one of the guitar masters who dare I say, is on the level of Eddie Van Halen and Dave Mustaine... his solos and riffs are just so eerie, goosebump inducing, majestic and heavy at the same time. I don't know music theory at all but goddamnit there is something special about this man.
Furthermore, Andy also contributed by providing the keyboards! Legendary, and he also played lead guitars on Death's Individual Thought Patterns album...
Mikkey Dee will go down as one of the greatest drummers of all-time whether it be as a member of the Scorpions or a founding member of King Diamond. You don't realize how phenomenal his drumming was until it's gone in those latter years.
Timi Hansen's bass was always just right for the song adding a level of heaviness and depth!
Rhythm Guitarists changed throughout, but Michael Denner did amazing work on the first two albums (Fatal Portrait and Abigail) while Pete Blakk was godly on the next three (Them, Conspiracy, and The Eye).
I'd say, while late to this, that if you didn't love King's falsetto vocals too much here, the Them and what is in my opinion, his magnum opus, Conspiracy... his vocals become much better with age, more grit, more power. I absolutely LOVE 7/8 of the first King Diamond albums, Spider's Lullaby being the only one I do not like, because it gives me an unnerved feeling haha.
P.S., baby Abigail (reborn) was eating the corpse of the previous (stillborn) version of herself, not Miriam, which makes it all the more disturbing to me.
Had to subscribe now, cheers mate!
Super reaction ! Thanks !
To appreciate King’s voice you have to consider everything he’s trying to do. First, he’s trying to scare the shit out ppl. Imagine hearing that voice in a big house way back in the woods. Then the stories he tells, the scary make up and clothes. His evil stage appearance.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.