King Diamond-Fatal Portrait, 1986

Background-
Following Mercyful Fate's 1984 album "Don't break the oath", there were disagreements in the band over lyrics and musical direction. The band split and King formed his own band. His first solo release was the single "No presents for Christmas" in 1985. Then in 1986 he was ready to release his first full length album.

Review

The candle- There are some weird voices as the introduction and then we are underway. This song is fairly medium paced, but is very busy with swirling guitars, numerous pace changes and King's range all over the place. Yet it never feels out of control and always come back to the main focus of the song.

The Jonah-Okay, more odd sound effects at the beginning and then it comes on slowly. It takes about a minute and a half for this to really get underway, but once it does it's fairly interesting. Different form the opening track, but it works.

The portrait- This one comes on like a storm with a big riff and a heavy drum beat. They sound very much in control and everything is very sharp. By this point the songs are different from each other in pace, but the band has already established the style of their sound. Some great work on the solo here, it's brief yet solid.

Dressed in white- Track four comes on with no build up and the King wastes no time in using his range to the fullest.This songs is just over three minutes long, but it is chock full of everything that is good about this band. No wasted notes on this song, that's for sure. Best song so far.

Charon-King screams to start this off and then it goes into a simple medium paced approach. Lots of vocals and very little music changes during the first say two minutes, but then it picks up a little. Seems a bit more confined than the previous tracks which makes it a little less interesting to me.

Lurking in the dark- A little routine at first, but the solo is very strong. Overall good, but took some time to really get going.

Halloween- This track is fairly straight forward with a simple rhythm, but very precise. This song does a good job of proving that the band know how to deliver some solid hooks.

Voices from the past- A bit odd sounding instrumental with different tones and pace changes. It certainly works as this point though because it's so different.

Haunted- Nice closer overall as the track has a very distinct sound. As with most of the album this song is exceptionally tight.

Final Word/Verdict- I used to think that the three albums after this were better. Now I am sure that this album is better than "Them" and "Conspiracy". It is very close to being as good as "Abigail". It's far more concise that some of the albums that follow. The music is the focus rather than the stories and it shows. So often the music of this band gets overlooked because of the image that is often associated with the King and his beliefs, lyrics and stageshow. There really were and are some great musicians in this band. The production is stellar as well. This is one of the few twenty year old albums I have reviewed that actually sounds better to me now then it did in 1986. It took me a while to find time to really listen to this, but I am glad I did as it is still quite a solid album.


**Next month's 20 year old album review will be Metallica's Master of puppets.