King Diamond - general biography and current information


A year after breakup of legendary Mercyful Fate, in 1986 King Diamond and two other ex-MF members - Michael Denner and Timi Hansen formed a new band. This is the beginning of King Diamond - the band. The original line-up was completed by two ex-Geisha musicians - guitar player Floyd Konstantin and drummer Mikkey Dee. Actually Floyd was far from the standards King wanted for his musicians, so he was replaced by EF Band's guitar player Andy La Rocque on the first day of recording. That made up the classic line-up that recorded the famous debut single with No Presents For Christmas song. Soon the first LP, Fatal Portrait, was recorded.

Next year Abigail was recorded. Soon after this Michael left the band and was replaced for the tour by Mike Moon. Later Timi also resigned and he and Mike were replaced by two new members - Pete Blakk and Hal Patino. The new line-up recorded 1988 "Them" which was the band's best selling LP. After that Mikkey left the band and was replaced by Chris Whitemier. Chris didn't perform good enough for LP recording, so King hired Mikkey to record one more LP. The LP, Conspiracy, continued the story from "Them" but wasn't that popular.

The new drummer to replace unfortunate Whitemier was Snowy Shaw. The new line-up recorded the next LP, "The Eye". Strangely, Snowy didn't perform then - a drum machine was used for recordings. Even while Snowy co-composed one of the tracks and was present in the studio then. Soon after that Blakk and Patino were fired because of lack of enthusiasm and also some drug problems. Their replacements were guitar player Mike Wead and bass player Sharlee D'Angelo.

Unfortunately the band went into a dispute with the record label (Roadrunner) which caused the new material not to be released. Following years were filled by 1987 live recordings released on In Concert 1987 - Abigail LP and greatest hits collection - A Dangerous Meeting. And then the band didn't release anything for another 3 years, until 1995 when Spider's Lullabye, written sometime around 1990 or 1991 was released. In the meantime all members (except King himself and Andy) left the band (they all met King later in Mercyful Fate) and new members - guitar player Herb Simonsen, bass player Chris Estes and drummer Darrin Anthony replaced them. The new line-up recorded also the next (and currently last) LP The Graveyard.

Recently Darrin Anthony left the band after having a serious car accident and were replaced by John Hebert. This line-up recorded the "Voodoo" LP, released in February 1998.

King Diamond toured USA and Canada in April and May 1998. Herb Simonsen was replaced on tour by Glen Drover due to personal reasons. Later he completely left the band and Glenn is the new member. The next new member is Dave Harbour, who is a new bass player, after Chris Estes left the band due to personal reasons. Dave is a long time friend of John Hebert, who recommended him.

The new line-up recorded the new Kind Diamond LP "House Of God", due to be released this summer.

Next to this text: "The King of Diamonds" by Coven.


King Diamond '96 (taken from "The Graveyard")

[ King Diamond ]
[ Andy La Rocque ]
[ Herb Simonsen ]
[ Chris Estes ]
[ Darrin Anthony ]

Paweł Więcek <coven@vmh.net>
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