How do I know this is the 25th anniversary of King Diamond’s Abigail album? Because our brother in blog Full Metal Attorney has devoted a post to the anniversary on his site today (here). I would add that today is also the first birthday of his twin children, who someday will realize that their old man is way cooler than the daddies of most of their friends.
FMA’s post about this album makes me feel even more ignorant than I normally feel, which is saying something since NormallyIgnorant is one of my middle names. I feel more than normally ignorant because, despite the fact that FMA calls Abigail “one of the most beloved metal albums of all time”, I’ve never heard it. In fact, I’ve never heard any King Diamond album, though I’ve heard scattered songs here and there. Maybe I listened to the wrong scattered songs, because they never sent me into a rush to discover more of the band’s music, and that’s been true despite the iconic status of Mercyful Fate.
According to FMA, Abigail “has some of the best songwriting and performances of any metal record, ever, by everyone involved. And a creepy horror story to go along with it.” With praise like that, I felt compelled to check out two of the songs from Abigail to which FMA devoted particular praise — “The 7th Day of July 1777” and the title track.
I must say, the acoustic + synth intro to “1777” was very cool, as was the riffing that followed it . . . and then I remembered why I never dived deeper into the music: THAT VOICE!!
Egad, that falsetto eruption came damned close to making me rip the headphones off and fling them against the floor. With all due respect for FMA, notwithstanding the nice solo and the catchy riffing, I just can’t get past those vocals. I mean, I don’t enjoy the sound of a small girl crying/whining under any circumstances, but ESPECIALLY not in a metal song.
Nevertheless, I gritted my teeth and listed (I meant listened) to “Abigail”. More nice riffing/soloing . . . and more comical falsetto vocals that made me grit my teeth in agony, which were not made better by the accompaniment of cackling laughter and the strangled grunting. I’m also not loving the keyboard bombast near the song’s end.
Okay, I’ve made my confession. Am I committing unpardonable heresy or do I have good taste? Comments, if you please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Ur93rL7kk
59 Responses to “TODAY IS THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF “ABIGAIL” BY KING DIAMOND”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
i join you in your heresy 😀
No heresy commited. I remember King Diamond always being devisive, even at his peak. I don’t know if anyone can question the caliber of musician he tends to surround himself with. The falsetto is another story. I always grudgingly accepted it because everything else about his music was so fantastic.
I’ve personally always loved King Diamond’s voice and think he is incredibly expressive, but I can understand why some people are not keen.
Fully agreed. I didn’t really like his voice at first either, though I’ve really come to like it. He isn’t the best falsetto out there, but his voice really matches the ghostly quality of the music.
I think you hit the nail with that comment…his voice perfectly matches the atmosphere of his albums
It is not heresy. I will not recant!
Bravo! I believe those were Galileo’s last words as he was barbecued. 🙂
Except of course he did recant and spent the rest of his life in house arrest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
Ah, it was that other Copernican Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake. I get them mixed up. I blame a Kim Stanley Robinson book I’m reading now called Galileo’s Dream.
I highly recommend Simon Sing’s “The Big Bang”, well researched and written in a way that you can appreciate it even if you’re not an astrophysicist.
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Bang-Origin-Universe-P-S/dp/0007162219/ref=la_B000APSATI_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1339966062&sr=1-3
Heresy…Im not a fan of clean singing by any means, but King Diamond/Mercyful Fate is freaking awesome
Nice write-up!
This is not from the best source, but MTV’s page on him starts out with “Widely regarded as the finest vocalist in all of metal,” and I agree that (a) he is the finest vocalist in all of metal, and (b) he is widely regarded as such, moreso than any other individual vocalist. If you polled all metal fans who are reasonably well-educated about metal (i.e., metal doesn’t begin and end with the mainstream for them) you will get more votes for KD than for any other, with Halford and Dickinson coming in second and third, respectively. That’s my sense, anyway.
That said, he is divisive, and I understand that to a degree. He would probably get a lot of votes in a poll for the worst vocalist in metal, too. At first, his style was a turnoff for me as well. But I soon came to love it, and now it’s difficult for me to get into the mindset of a person who doesn’t “get” it. It was like a switch was turned, and I went from kind of laughing at it to fully embracing and loving it in an instant.
If you can, listen to Melissa, Don’t Break the Oath, and Abigail through completely, twice each, within the span of a month, and I’m sure you’ll come around. That might be too much to ask, but I think it’s worth it.
I added polls on my site to gauge people’s opinions on his voice.
I really don’t get it. Granted, I can’t think of any metal vocalist besides KD who can sing (and I mean carry a tune) in this falsetto range (though I haven’t made a study, because I’m not a masochist). I suppose that’s an achievement. Maybe that’s what people are applauding?
I’m definitely prejudiced against this style of singing, but I’m not completely close-minded. I do appreciate Dickinson and Dio, for example. But KD just pushes the envelope so hard that to me it’s much more of a distraction than a complement to the music.
Having said that, listening to two songs twice through in the space of a month isn’t asking too much, so I’ll give it a shot, and I’ll attempt to keep an open mind in the process, though I have a feeling my switch will still be OFF at the end. 🙂
No way slacker…he meant you had to listen to those 3 albums..not just 3 songs…
Ive got my eye on you buddy
Oh fuck. Seriously? I was hoping “Melissa, Don’t Break the Oath” was the name of a song. And since I already listened to the song “Abigail” once, I thought I only had to hear that thing one more time. Now you’re telling me we’re talking about THREE WHOLE ALBUMS?!? Twice?!?
I have to give this a LOT more thought. That will cost me the time it takes to listen to six new albums that I will actually enjoy.
I did in fact mean the three albums . . . although they are also the titles of songs.
An alternative: Listen to “A Corpse without a Soul” and “Into the Coven” once per day, each, for two weeks straight. That might do it.
And during the second week, you have to sing along.
How about if I don’t sing along and say I did?
Nope. Gotta sing along.
It will also improve the experience drastically if you stand naked in front of a mirror, tuck your little Islander between your legs, gyrate suggestively, and wear a watermelon rind on your head when singing.
I don’t remember Jame Gumb wearing a watermelon rind. Also, would you please change your registration name back to something that involve skittles and not nut sacks?
“tuck your little Islander…”
That was worth the entire NCS day.
Don’t encourage him. It will only lead to tears.
No. Yes. Long John Islander’s Shrimp and Eel Plate. Now only $69!
You see what I mean?
I cannot see the porno for all the dicks on the screen.
I suddenly pictured Islander as Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9am7P9pWo8
I am not watching that. It’s already seared into my brain for all eternity.
Heresy. King Diamond is a genius. but in fairness, the voice being hard to listen to is part of the point.
But Abigail is not where to start.
Start with the Mercyful Fate song “Nuns Have No Fun” and then proceed to “Melissa.” 🙂
I am with you on this, Islander. I recognize King Diamond’s importance, and I can appreciate some vocalists who are not everyone’s cup of tea (Les Claypool, the guy from Billy Talent), but King Diamond grates on my nerves and ruins my enjoyment of the music. You may now label me a heretic.
Yay! I was starting to feel outnumbered.
I’m not a King Diamond fan but man I cannot handle Claypool at all. To the point I legitimately can’t figure out why he didn’t just bring in a frontman who can actually sing. Maybe I’m just starting in the wrong place in his career, I don’t know.
Then again, I’m also a heretic. I can make my way through a Mercyful Fate album but it’s more despite Diamond’s vocals than because of them.
Definitely heresy. The King is a legend, and Abigail is a masterpiece. I would refrain from expressing your opinion on this matter again, lest you be driven from the Internet by the true-metal hordes.
I do not fear this. I can only be driven from the land by torches soaked in liquid unicorn shit and ignited by the breath of dragons during a lunar eclipse. Threats of physical violence or harsh language also work.
I’ll track you down and put hairy mule nuts in your coffee if you quit making NCS a part of my daily masturbation routine.
I prolapsed laughing at this. I put everything back inside with white cotton gloves. I am sending you teh gloves.
Ooooooh! What a special day that will be in the masturdungeon.
I loved Priest’s Painkiller, so I picked up one a King Diamond best of or something like that a few years ago. I think I listened to it a few times, but his voice just never really worked for me. Which is weird, because I quite liked the most recent Lizzy Borden (Appointment with Death) and his voice is balls-retractingly high.
Although, let’s be honest, all these falsetto singers just want to be Baby Metal.
BABY METAL!!! No . . . .
Which would you rather watch, cute little girls dancing in frilly dresses or a middle aged man who stole your mother’s make-up kit?
Correct answer: donkey cock.
I’d like to buy a vowel.
Here, have a bowel movement instead.
Someone make him stop.
Perhaps you would prefer some bowel bowels? I have some cat guts and a frog’s stomach over here.
Or, if you’d like, you can wait for the curry to kick in and I’ll probably shit out my lower intestines. I’ll sell it to you for a loris and a hand job.
Wow. Every time I hit the refresh button I get a reward.
How about I give him the loris, you give him the hand job, and we split the intestines?
I don’t think I like this division of labor.
Is a loris any good at a hand job? Maybe that is the solution.
Lorises can’t give handjobs! It’s in their union contracts!
Jeez. Get it together guys.
TRex, let’s let her do it — you can save your hand and I save a loris:
https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Stretch-out.jpg
That is demented.
Thank you.
HAHAHAHA!
Rubber band colon for hardcore stimulation.
Kinda like my butt! Every time I poop, I get a tasty treat!
I thank my Fairy Shitmother.
Hail to the King, baby!
Okay, so I don’t worship KD/MF without question and I must disagree with FMA’s assessment that King would top the list of vocalists in a poll; I would think that the likes of Dickinson, Halford and Dio would come before him as better voices, while I think Ozzy would get a nod because, fuck, he’s Ozzy (oh, and he did have a decent voice and can still get it done now – as long as he hasn’t been on the road for too long). That’s not to say that King wouldn’t be on a list of great metal vocalists, especially if you polled metalheads who grew up and/or were listening in the 80’s and 90’s.
While never a big fan, I’ve gotten used to his falsetto over the years and thus can take more than a song or two at a time. As already stated, it works for the style of music he’s providing the voice for. Not everyone can get away with falsetto or simply a higher register, just as some bands do sound silly on the low even of the vocal spectrum. Fortunately, when someone covers KD or MF, they don’t go for King’s style of singing unless they can absolutely nail it – see Eidolon’s cover of “The Oath”, for example, as opposed to Metallica doing their MF tribute without falsetto from James Hetfield.
Whether you like the vocals or not, Abigail is one of those defining (if a bit divisive) albums that are held in high regard for a reason. To be honest, I’m not really sure how to accurately descibe how it sounds, much like anything from Mercyful Fate. It has stuff from multiple sub-genres rolled into one, sung by gremlim with a painted white face who sings into a microphone attached to a pair of bones. I don’t know if King is/was a Alice Cooper fan, but it’s hard to imagine anything but; I am pretty sure that King Diamond did not develop his stage presence using KISS as an example. Even assuming there’s some Cooper in there, King made it his own and is far from being an imitation.
So, back to your question. Is your ignorance of King Diamond’s work heresy? No, I don’t think so. There’s so much metal out there to be able to listen to a little bit of everything, much less actually become a fan. I see no shame in not digging what he’s done – there are probably bands and vocalists that you like that you feel are underappreciated. I’m not asking you to go through marathon sessions with entire albums, but I would still suggest that you check out some more material when you get the chance.
Having started this debate — or rather, continued it from FMA’s site — I’d feel sort of dickish if I didn’t give this more of a chance than I did at the outset. I’m still pondering what would be a fair test, and by fair I mean not something that would consume 4 or 5 hours over the next month (I wouldn’t spend that much time with albums that I actually like, or this site would come to a virtual stop).
I would suggest spending a bit of time at YouTube to get a taste of what all can be heard – just like you can with most any other band with today’s internet. You’ll find that the falsetto isn’t all that he does (and it’s not always the high castrato kind, either), but you will be subject to clean singing. Other than that, I don’t think there’s any other quick way to become more acquainted with the stuff that’s not the usual picks.
Try “Buried Alive.” It’s from Mercyful Fate’s last album, 9, and has very little falsetto. He uses it judiciously on that album, and really only plunges fully into it on the first song. That said, I still think something along he lines of “Black Funeral” would be the ideal. You know, like jumping into a pool of chilly water instead of slowly going in.