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All Music Guide:
Widely regarded as the finest vocalist in all of metal (who possesses a multi-octave range), theatrical rocker King Diamond first rose to prominence as a member of Mercyful Fate before launching a solo career on his own. Born Kim Bendix Petersen in Denmark on June 14, 1956, the future King Diamond was originally drawn to theatrically based hard rock due to such trailblazers as Alice Cooper, and soon began fronting local bands in the '70s, including a punk metal outfit called the Brats. Shortly thereafter, the group mutated into Mercyful Fate, consisting of members Hank Shermann (guitar), Michael Denner (guitar), Timi Hansen (bass), and Kim Ruzz (drums), in addition to Diamond. Diamond, by this time, had developed an interest in the occult, which reflected in the new group's subject matter, as the frontman began wearing makeup (which resembled a cross between his hero Cooper and Kiss' Gene Simmons).
After several demos made their way across Europe (and even reaching America via an underground tape-trading network among metalheads), Mercyful Fate issued a self-titled four-track EP before inking a recording contract with Roadrunner Records. The quintet issued a pair of thrash metal classics, 1983's Melissa and 1984's Don't Break the Oath, as Diamond's satanic lyrics created quite a stir at the time with outsiders. Despite a promising future, Mercyful Fate broke up when a common musical style couldn't be agreed on (Diamond wanted to continue with thrash metal, while a few of the others wanted to explore more mainstream-oriented hard rock).
Undeterred, Diamond launched a solo project, which was almost identical in approach, both musically and visually, as his former band. The group's original lineup included such former Mercyful Fate bandmates as Hansen and Denner, but over time, bandmembers would come and go (the only constant member besides their leader has been guitarist Andy LaRocque). King Diamond's first three solo releases, 1986's Fatal Portrait, 1987's Abigail, and 1988's Them, are widely considered to be Diamond's finest, as the singer continued to issue further releases until the early '90s (1989's Conspiracy, 1990's The Eye). It was also around this time that Diamond found his name embroiled in controversy -- due to a Geraldo Rivera TV special on music with supposed "hidden messages," and when Kiss' Simmons served a lawsuit against the singer, claiming that the makeup design Diamond had been using too closely resembled the one that Simmons used in the '70s and early '80s, which resulted in an out of court settlement and with Diamond being forced to modify his makeup design.
Come the early '90s, Mercyful Fate was constantly being name-checked as a prime influence by just about every new thrash and death metal band, which led to a re-formation of the original group (save for drummer Ruzz), and such further releases as 1993's In the Shadows (which included a remake of their early track, "Return of the Vampire," with Metallica's Lars Ulrich sitting in on drums), 1994's Time, 1996's Into the Unknown, 1998's Dead Again, and 1999's 9. By the middle of the '90s, Diamond began issuing solo albums again (simultaneously with his Fate output), as such titles as 1995's The Spider's Lullabye, 1996's The Graveyard, 1998's Voodoo, 2000's House of God, and 2002's Abigail II: The Revenge were issued.
Wikipedia:
Kim Bendix Petersen (born June 14, 1956 in Copenhagen), better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Grammy Award nominated Danish heavy metal musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his extensive vocal range, in particular his usage of falsetto. He is the lead vocalist for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond.
Career
Early days
King Diamond's first heavy rock band was called Brainstorm (1974–76), with Jeanette Blum (Jean Blue) vocal and bass, Michael Frohn (Mike West) guitar and Jes Jacobsen (Jesse James) drums. King Diamond left Brainstorm and began singing with a local Danish hard rock band Black Rose. It was during this time in Black Rose that King Diamond began experimenting with horror themed theatrics as well as shaping a malevolent quasi-Satanic stage persona. In 1980, he left Black Rose and joined the punk-metal band Brats where he met Hank Shermann. Soon after, the two of them were asked to help Michael Denner (also formerly a member of Brats) with his own project Danger Zone. This band included Timi Hansen and the mentioned musicians would join with King Diamond in 1980 to become Mercyful Fate.
Mercyful Fate
Following Mercyful Fate's 1984 release of Don't Break the Oath and the subsequent tour (which saw them play in the U.S. for the first time), King Diamond split ways with Mercyful Fate. With him, he took two of his bandmates (Hansen and Denner) to pursue a solo career under his own name.
Mercyful Fate reunited in 1992 (while King Diamond simultaneously continued his solo career) and recorded five more studio albums. In 2000, King decided to put Mercyful Fate on hold and continue on with his solo career. Though Mercyful Fate continues to remain dormant, the band is still under contract with Metal Blade Records. Also in 1999, King Diamond and Hank Shermann performed the song Mercyful Fate with Metallica live. This performance also has King Diamond without his famous makeup. In recent interviews, King Diamond has stated that Mercyful Fate will record and tour again when the timing is right, saying "It's definitely not finished."
King Diamond
In 2001, King Diamond worked out a deal with the band Usurper to sing backup vocals on the song "Necronemesis" in exchange for them shifting their recording schedule around to accommodate the recording of Abigail II: The Revenge. In 2004, King Diamond contributed vocals to "Sweet Dreams", which was the final track on the album of Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project Probot. In late 2005, King Diamond appeared on the Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions album, contributing vocals for his song "In the Fire", which featured multiple Roadrunner Records musicians (past and present) working together to create individual songs. King Diamond also guested on the Cradle of Filth song "Devil Woman" in late 2005.
In April 2006, King reunited with Mikkey Dee (Motörhead drummer) at a sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2001 King referred to Dee as "one of the best drummers of all time and that's something that has bothered us since he left."
King Diamond released his album Give Me Your Soul... Please, on June 26, 2007. Following the release the band received a Grammy nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category for the track "Never Ending Hill". He was forced to cancel a United States tour due to a herniated disk, causing severe back pain, which puts him in intense pain almost all of the time. He attributes the problem to the long stressful hours spent working on the album.
King Diamond made an appearance at Ozzfest on August 9, 2008 at Frisco, TX alongside Metallica, performing a medley of Mercyful Fate songs previously released on Metallica's Garage Inc. album. Earlier in the day, he also performed a cover of the Pantera song "A New Level" with Vinnie Paul, Scott Ian, Max Cavalera, and Nick Bowcott.
In 2009, King Diamond was revealed to be a playable character for the rhythm game Guitar Hero: Metallica, appearing with Mercyful Fate's song "Evil". Complete the song on any instrument and any difficulty to unlock him.
On November 29, 2010, King Diamond was taken to the hospital, where they discovered several blockages in his arteries due to his heavy smoking habit. They determined that he had several heart attacks and that he needed triple-bypass surgery. The surgery was performed successfully. On December 11, 2010 it was announced that he was at home recovering. All his musical projects will be on hold for the time being.
On December 7, 2011, King Diamond appeared on stage with Metallica at The Fillmore in San Francisco to celebrate Metallica's 30th anniversary.
Stage presence
On stage, King Diamond uses a microphone handle consisting of a femur bone and a tibia bone in the shape of a cross. King Diamond had previously used a human skull, called Melissa, on stage. In the mid-1980s Melissa was stolen after a performance in the Netherlands.
King Diamond has changed the design of his make-up often over the years. With Conspiracy, he wore a mesh of black and white line war paint, with some red "blood" made to look like a wound coming out of his forehead. With his album The Puppet Master, he used very little white and mainly had black inverted crosses going up and down his face.
Influences
King Diamond cites Arthur Brown, David Byron, Alice Cooper, Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan, Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne and Robert Plant as his primary influences.
According to King Diamond's bio in his official website, the first two albums bought by himself were Deep Purple's Fireball and Black Sabbath's Master of Reality.
Religion
King Diamond follows LaVeyan Satanism, which he does not see as a religion, but a philosophy according to which he lived even before reading Anton LaVey's The Satanic Bible. Michael Moynihan calls him "one of the only performers of the '80s Satanic Metal who was more than just a poseur using a devilish image for shock value". Diamond has expressed concern that religion has led so many people to kill and destroy each other. He stated that he cannot comprehend why religion has caused so much death and destruction when it is logically impossible to prove the presence or absence of any god. He states that he has reached a point in his life where he has completely given up believing in anything religious.
Marital status
King Diamond is married to Livia Zita, a Hungarian-born singer who has made appearances as a backup vocalist on the albums The Puppet Master and Give Me Your Soul...Please, as well as during live performances. She is also his business partner, and is currently working with him to compile old footage for two planned DVD releases of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate live performances. She also helped him make remastered editions of the King Diamond albums The Spider's Lullabye, The Graveyard, Voodoo and House of God.
Legacy
Diamond has been on the covers of many rock and metal magazines and influenced many artists including Metallica's Lars Ulrich, Cradle of Filth, and The Cage.
