Black Metal History Month- Diamond in the Rough, King Diamond's "The Puppet Master"

Since we have already reviewed "Give Me Your Soul Please" this is the last installment of this series as we have now covered every King Diamond solo album. This is his 11th album. Lyrically it falls into creepy territory not unlike "The Graveyard", but much like "The Graveyard" I never gave this album much of a chance, but the title track certainly stands the test of time as a solid song. The same lineup as the previous album, and it feels like they have found their stride to recreate his classic sound. In some ways, this is his X-Mas album, as it is set in Budapest during X-Mas time. The riffing is more aggressive on this album and they have reignited the thrash fire a little. 

If you are coming into this with no clue what is happening here, it's about a man and his wife who get turned into undead puppets. Kings' baritone mid-range sounds more powerful on this album. Things go more theatrically with "Emerencia", as the vocals focus more on storytelling.  The riffing is punchy but not the album's best. The guitar solos on this song point out how well-constructed they are on this album. Not a fan of shredding for the sake of it, but they follow the melodic themes of the song. "Blue Eyes" has a deliberate riff that showcases the more direct approach to songwriting this album has. 2003 was a weird year for metal, the dig releases ranged from Dimmu to Type O to Dream Theater and Opeth, so more progressive metal was on the rise, yet these guys took a more classic approach.  

There is a cool galloping riff driving "The Ritual" but the vocals sit oddly on this to tell this story. "No More Me" feels like circus music from Budapest, though the vocals are more of a spoken narrative. Making this feel more like a theatrical interlude than an actual song. "Blood to Walk" works better than "Darkness" which does not feel like it flows as well and is somewhat recycled in terms of tropes he commonly has used over the years, though a few strong riffs keep it pumping. Might be my favorite guitar solo on the album. It also bears to mention that this is the first album his wife Livia Zita began singing backup vocals on. "So Sad" is a power ballad of sorts, not the album's strongest song, and oddly the guitar solos actually rescue it dynamically. Despite using parts of "the Little Drummer Boy" and his previous declaration that there were no presents for it,  he insisted on writing it, and it's a decent song if you seperate it from these facts. The last song does hammer forward with locomotive strength. I will round this up to a 9.5, which does not place it next to his most classic material but is once again better than the bulk of metal that came out in 2003.