Iconic Danish musician KING DIAMOND will release his first studio LP in 18 years in 2025 via Metal Blade. The European King of horror (the American King of horror is Alice Cooper, period) is currently touring as well after many years.
To celebrate, Metal Blade Records is reissuing a large part of the King Diamond creation on vinyl and CD, many of these long time out of print. You like it or not, but you can’t deny KING DIAMOND leave a mark in Heavy Metal history with Mercyful Fate and later solo with his very good ’80s albums.
This 2024 reissue campaign is focused on King Diamond solo works since the mid-Nineties. And that period is where Diamond’s music started to fade out in quality. However… there’s a hidden gem in King Diamond’s discography; 2003’s ”The Puppet Master”.
After some experimentation in the Nineties and uninspired songwriting, King Diamond returned in full form with “The Puppet Master”, not a only with a fantastic, creepy story but musically a comeback to the classic, timeless metal sound & style.
After four straight sub-par albums, KING DIAMOND brought back the vintage magic and inspiration with 2003’s ”The Puppet Master”. While the album doesn’t quite live up to the band’s earlier ’80s masterpieces, it is no doubt a great example of King investing a lot of sincere enthusiasm into the work.
The album is atmospheric, masterfully played, and has a riveting story-line that is both romantic and disturbing. There are moments when the story and the music are used so well together that I get goosebumps (a trait that always separated KING DIAMOND’s best albums).
Sorry for the nasty words, but ”The Puppet Master” is a deeply fucked up record. If you’ve ever had nightmares about waking up inside a wooden puppet, you might want to avoid this one, but you would have to miss out on immaculate KD classics like the title track ‘The Puppet Master’, ‘Magic’, ‘Blood to Walk’, and ‘Darkness’. Don’t be a chicken…
This 2024 CD reissue comes with the original artwork (there was a previous reissue with modified art) a new barcode, and housed into a jewel case (the original was digipak), as well as on vinyl LP for the first time.
Highly Recommended
01 – Midnight
02 – The Puppet Master
03 – Magic
04 – Emerencia
05 – Blue Eyes
06 – The Ritual
07 – No More Me
08 – Blood to Walk
09 – Darkness
10 – So Sad
11 – Christmas
12 – Living Dead
King Diamond – vocals, keyboards
Andy LaRocque – guitars, keyboards
Mike Wead – guitars
Hal Patino – bass
Matt Thompson – drums
Livia Zita – additional vocals
KING DIAMOND – The Puppet Master [2024 reissue] , MP3+FLAC
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