Black Metal History Month- Diamond in the Rough, King Diamond's "Conspiracy"

One element we have not yet discussed which is more relevant in 2025, and taken for granted during the release of King Diamond's early solo career, is that the albums were produced by the band. Roberto Falcao who is credited as the producer for the album's following "Abigail" which he engineered, was also the band's keyboardist at the time. Granted as engineered my guess here is he set up the mic placement in the studio and handled the technical elements more often associated with a producer, though producers also have some creative input in the recording process, this was clearly King's show, so he was dictating the sounds he wants as Falcao was at the soundboard. Why does any of this matter go into "Conspiracy"? you ask. 

In some ways, the stakes were higher due to the success of  "Them". This explains why they brought in Chris Tsangarides, who was the big metal producer at the time having worked with Thin Lizzy, Ozzy, and Judas Preist. Chris's job aside from mixing the album was to produce the guitar solos. You can hear how he homogenized "Sleepless Nights" into something that had more in common with Ozzy's middle-of-the-road work at the time. From King Diamond's perspective, he worked on the sessions for Priest's "Sad Wings of Destiny album so that meant something. "Sleepless Nights" which was the most focused song of this album, certainly stands the test of time better than the opening track. 

When this came out I was a teenager and King Diamond was my favorite artist so I was just happy to get a new album, so while I loved it and appreciated it was continuing the "Them" story, it hit differently than that album. "Lies" does not crunch or punch like the thrash adjacent to previous work, it is more like arena metal. But lyrically this song was relatable when it came to just telling authority figures what they wanted to hear to not get locked up. Also, something to consider is the time of this album's release things were changing Soundgarden released "Louder Than Love"  and Faith No More changed the game with "The Real Thing" so King Diamond was one of the last defenders of the faith, even Judas Priest dropped "Painkiller" the following year to prove there was no middle ground in metal anymore it was getting heavier or go home to survive the changing tides of music. Meanwhile King Diamond is making creepy power ballads like "Visit From the Dead' in his own vacuum. 

"The Wedding Dream" pushes the story's narrative forward, but in some ways at the cost of the songwriting. "Amon Belongs to Them" might be the album's most underrated song. It packs more of a punch than the bulk of the album. It holds more groove than every song but "Sleepless Nights". I think where some of this album's strengths do lie is the guitar playing is more melodic, but the flipside is that it's also not as heavy. There are some interesting sounds on the instrumental "Something Weird". "Victimized" is a song I had forgotten about until listening back to this album. It's also a little more aggressive than the direction this album was heading, and not unlike what we heard back on "Give Me Your Soul Please".  While he sings the word conspiracy I am not sure why this was not just the title track, but here we are. Weirdly, this album ends with an instrumental. While it still sounds like something in his wheelhouse, feel it's an odd way to end it. I'll give this a 10 as it's an ambitious task and King Diamond did it and kept his momentum, while making an album that bridged him over to mainstream metal audiences that were not already onboard for "Them"

pst69