Black Metal History Month -Diamond in the Rough, King Diamond's "House of God"

His 9th album is an oddball lineup. It features Glen Drover who went on to play guitar for both Megadeth and Testament. Then Paul Harbour who played in Chastain with the drummer, joined the band. The trend here is that the band was more King Diamond and Andy with other guys stepping in as side men. The chemistry clicks more on the previous album though this album is dark and heavy and King's vocal style is the centerpiece of what sets these guys apart. In truth the vocals to "The Trees Have Eyes" feel like it's from a Mercyful Fate album which is a compliment. 

Storywise it's about the legend of an old church in France the Rennes-le-Chateau. It's hard to complain about what goes on here as the riffing is aggressive and songwriting darkly dynamic in its sense of theatrics. "Follow the Wolf" even has a Mercyful Fate-like edge. It bears discussion the contingent of metal heads who like Mercyful Fate but not King Diamond, which is due to the fact things took a more progressive turn where Merycful Fate was more like the precursor to both thrash and black metal, being moreover in the sonic aggression with less gothic trappings. The title track of this album makes more of a distinction as there are more keyboards than we ever heard in Fate. It does not feel as focused as the first two songs.  

The riff to "Black Devil" reminds me of Judas Priest, which has always been an underlying influence. They give it more of a groove which makes this song work. "The Pact" also carries more of the thrash feel to its riff, which if pushed further forward in the mix would make this heavier, but all the vocal layers are more dominant since well this is King's record. The gallop of "Just a Shadow' also has more of a Mercyful Fate feel, which is becoming a theme of this record, so if you are typically more of a Fate fan then you should not sleep on this album if you have yet to give it a solid listen. "Help!" has the kind of crunch you would expect a metal act from 2000 to have that preceded the nu-metal movement, which these guys maneuvered around and stayed true to who King Diamond is. No one can ever accuse him of capitulating to the trends.

Where "Passage to Hell" is a theatrical interlude the riff to "Catacomb" reminds me of "Black Album" era Metallica.  Granted his vocals help distance the song from it. However, I do not think it could be argued that this is the album's most memorable song. "The Place is Terrible" is the last actual song, as the last track is an instrumental outro. This is a strong song with a great groove for the vocal to fall over. I'll round this one up to a 10 due to the heavy Mercyful Fates vibes this album carries. 

pst80