King Diamond: Conspiracy
(1989, Roadrunner)
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Band members: King Diamond - Vocals Andy La Rocque - Guitars Pete Blakk - Guitars Hal Patino - Bass guitar Mikkey Dee - Drums |
Rating: 



The sequel to "Them" is possibly the best King Diamond record I've heard, since I like
it better than "Them". What I like most about King's vocal style, is that he uses tons
of different voices to fit with all the characters in his stories, sometimes he has that
unbelievable high pitched falsette singing, and other times he goes way lower to sound
rather "evil" etc.
Lyrically this is a real sequel to "Them" actually, it begins with King returning to the
old house and watching his grandma disappear. 2 weeks later he manages to summon his dead
sister's spirit from her grave with the help from "Them", although they want the house back
in return. And then he goes to therapy at Dr. Landau (the doctor who examined him after he'd
killed his grandma), who thinks King's insanity is gone and wants him to meet his mother again
(yeah I thought she was dead too?!), anyways some time later King gets a visit from his sister
Missy, and she sends him a dream - a dream where Dr. Landau is about to marry King's mother,
but King grabs the big axe and.. kills his mother! (yeah I know, this guy is evil) However,
it was just a dream so no real harm done. Then one day, the mother comes to visit him for
real but.. she's taken Dr. Landau with her, the evil man King hates with all his being.
And for some reason, the mother sticks a needle, filled with some poison or something, into
King's arm - and he falls down. His mother and the doctor head off to the church to get
reverend Sammael, who believes King is possessed by Satan or some evil demon, and in the end
the 3 put King's body in a coffin and set in on fire (hence "Cremation"), although I guess
his spirit survives or something cause the last lines of lyrics on the album is King saying:
"whenever the dark is near, I will return from the grave to haunt you.. godforsaken whore."
Now you might wonder, why the hell did I go through the trouble of explaining the lyrical
story on two albums? Well I dunno actually - probably cause I didn't have anything else
to write :) (and cause I was really fascinated by that story)
Musically, we get lots of heavy riffs and brilliant leads, not to mention solos, from Andy
& Pete (especially Andy).