During an appearance on the June 21 edition of SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, Danish heavy metal singer King Diamond offered an update on upcoming albums from both his namesake band and the legendary act MERCYFUL FATE. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Writing-wise, we are far with both [KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE] albums. Andy [La Rocque, KING DIAMOND guitarist] is doing a second run-through with his songs, the way he has been correcting a lot of things. Hank [Shermann, MERCYFUL FATE guitarist] has done the same thing, and I’m waiting for those songs to come back. The story is written, even for both KING DIAMOND albums, ’cause [the new KING DIAMOND album] ‘The Institute’ will be a two-album story. And that story is finished completely. I have a lot of vocal ideas for what they have sent me. I am writing my own [songs musically] too.”
He continued: “60 percent of the KING DIAMOND [material], at least, will be mine — my songs — and all lyrics, naturally. MERCYFUL FATE also, I will be writing more in the direction of ‘Don’t Break The Oath’. Hank will be writing more music than me, but I will certainly write my share too. Back then, on ‘Don’t Break The Oath’, I wrote ‘Gypsy’ and ‘The Oath’ and ‘Come To The Sabbath’ and then this little piece together with Michael Denner, ‘To One Far Away’. So, it’ll be more like that — maybe Hank will have six songs and me four — but we’ll see how it turns out in the end. We’ll probably have too many songs.”
As for when fans can expect to see the new KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE albums released, King said: “The KING DIAMOND is next year for sure. MERCYFUL FATE will be ready to be released next year — a hundred percent sure too — but it will have to wait until KING DIAMOND is done, if you know what I mean. In the meantime, we’ll be getting the writing done.”
In November 2019, KING DIAMOND released a brand new song called “Masquerade Of Madness”. The track was mixed by guitarist Andy La Rocque and King Diamond at Sonic Train Studios.
KING DIAMOND received a Grammy nomination in the “Best Metal Performance” category for the track “Never Ending Hill” off the band’s last album, 2007’s “Give Me Your Soul … Please”.
KING DIAMOND‘s latest release was a DVD/Blu-ray, “Songs For The Dead Live”, which came out in January 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The set captures 1987’s seminal “Abigail” album in its entirety, twice, and in very different locales: Belgium’s Graspop Metal Meeting in June 2016 and Philadelphia’s Fillmore in November 2015. The performances feature KING DIAMOND‘s current band, comprising of guitarists La Rocque and Mike Wead, bassist Pontus Egberg and drummer Matt Thompson.
MERCYFUL FATE‘s most recent studio album, “9”, arrived in 1999.
The band’s current lineup includes King Diamond, Hank Shermann, Bjarne T. Holm on drums, Mike Wead on guitar, and Joey Vera (ARMORED SAINT, FATES WARNING) on bass.
