Couldn't pass up the chance to discuss the appearence of my favorite metal entity on Vh1 Classic . I haven't covered the show on here before because while I find it entertaining it is hardly metal as the name suggests the hardest band to get mentioned is Slayer so a huge expanse of what makes up the genre is neglected. I understand giving the classics the deserved air time but why waste the time of a metal show with the likes of Journey , Sammy Hagar and Poison?
The King showed up sans make up which is nothing new for him in the past decade , when his solo career was in its peak around the "conspiracy" years he stayed in character, now well...
Regardless it was good to see him get the notice due him as in recent years his influence of metal has gained more visibility. His health and surgery was discussed and the host baited him into discussion about his beliefs, which he sidestepped. Another change over the years where he was out in the open about his membership to the church of Satan, and while I can understand his desire to not be the poster boy for the church of Satan, I would prefer him to take a little more of a stance rather than coming across as almost apologetic and on one hand pandering by saying he is ok with whatever anyone believes , then letting statements come out side ways like how religion has been the cause of wars of the years, it seems like his pr people have him straddling the fence a little.
To make matters worse Mark the guitarist from Creed was on the show and being apologetic and down playing his beliefs and trying to make out like he was a huge King Diamond and Slayer fan. An odd paring but back in the day magazines would run Stryper vs Slayer stories, which gave metal a little more mystique, though I will admit in my late teen years getting rid of my slayer cassetttes after finding out Slayer were not real satanists.
So King did take some veiled shots at religion in general he kept it vanilla . Though he was stuck to his beliefs over the years despite being less vocal about them evenin his lyrical content , though the stage layout for his two European festival performances played up this imagery and why not considering how huge black metal is .
King said he foresees putting out three more albums,and touring next summer, all of which are good news, though I doubt we will see him on a production scale he had at Hellfest, but you take what you can get, the bright side is the moron from Volbeat wont's jump on stage.
Interesting enough as I was looking for a picture of the king on the show, i found this quote from the shows host Eddie Trunk pm regards to how he really feels about the King " There are certainly artists that I’ve had on that I wasn’t the biggest fan of, but I will have them on or play their music because that’s what the audience wants. I’ll say that on the air. A great example is Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. I was never a fan of the band. I can’t get past the vocals. I appreciate the musicianship, but I could never get into the vocals and the whole thing that he’s about. But I play King Diamond or Mercyful Fate on a regular basis because a larger portion of my audience wants to hear it than doesn't."
So he can't get past great dynamic metal singing ? He likes Rob Halford granted Rob has a more commercial rock vibe to his vocals and is less theatrical than King. So what is the whole thing he is about ? Satan? Horror? the Make up? He goes onto talk about how he likes Marilyn Manson, who is a Satanist as well and in fact has a lot of other elements in common with King, so this x-factor eludes me.
What it does do is confirms to me Trunk had horrible taste and any one who doesn't have an appreciation for King Diamond and considers themselves a metal head, is a fool whose words are empty on my ears. I wonder why he didn't bring this up to King when he was on the show? He certainly uses him to retain listeners and get ratings, not that King is an Ozzy for ratings by any means, and hovers on the outside of the mainstream and hold the respect of the metal community due to his immense influence on modern metal today.
how many times will I get the chance of posting pictures of myself in King Diamond make ? take what you can get.
No comments:
Post a Comment