Description

Original Massacre rec pressing

‘The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces’ – Saint Thomas Aquinas

King Diamonds ninth studio album ‘House Of God’ is probably the most diverse and well conceived that King Diamond and Andy La Roque have ever come up with. The opening track has a quasi-Middle eastern sounding tinge to it, as does the mini-epic rocker “Catacombs”. You have more classic sounding rockers like “The trees have eyes”, “The Pact”, “Black Devil” and the quasi-Judas Priest sounding “This Place is Terrible”. Meanwhile, songs such as “Goodbye”, “A Passage to Hell”, “Just a Shadow” and “Follow the Wolf” have more progressive elements to them, and also some dramatic vocal performances. “Help” is, without a doubt, one of the most insane vocal performances I’ve ever heard. And we also have a rather beautiful instrumental to close the album, provided by La Roque, which has some rather odd sounding ambiences at the very ending. One particularly interesting aspect of later King Diamond material, particularly the post-Them era has been the use of atmospheric devices to aid in setting the album concepts. On earlier works, keyboards were often used sparingly at the intros, and acoustic/clean electric guitars were not often to be found. On this album, we find both Diamond and La Roque doing some rather impressive keyboard work, in addition to a rather believable choir of wolf howls on track 3. Stand out atmospheric tracks include “Upon the Cross“, “Follow the Wolf”, “House of God”, “Help”, “A Passage to Hell”, and the outro.

Track listing:
1. Upon The Cross
2. The Trees Have Eyes
3. Follow The Wolf
4. House Of God
5. Black Devil
6. The Pact
7. Goodbye
8. Just A Shadow
9. Help!!!
10. Passenger To Hell
11. Catacombs
12. This Place Is Terrible
13. Peace Of Mind