King Diamond - Halloween LIVE (Reaction! ) "Halloween Week" 

King started out as a football (soccer) player before getting into music. He was drawn into music as an outlet for exploring and studying supernatural occurrences in his own home in Denmark in the 80s. He experienced a lot of the usual stuff ; doors opening & closing, lights flicking on & off, objects levitating in thin air or moving on their own... this phenomena was enough to fascinate King out of professional sports and into a new vocation, as well as a life philosophy (Anton Szandor LaVey's brand of "Satanism"). There was one account where the guys from Metallica (who are still to this day good friends with King) were at King's place and witnessed some of that weird shit. King played it down like it was the most normal thing in the world (which by now for King, it probably was), but the Metalliguys were more than a little spooked, lol. Anyway, once King entered into the music scene, he was in several bands before developing what would become Mercyful Fate. MF only lasted for the first half of the 80s, disbanding in 1984, after releasing an EP (eponymous, but also commonly referred to as the "Nuns Have No Fun" EP in 1982), and two albums (1983's "Melissa", and 1984's "Don't Break The Oath"). Musical differences between guitarist Hank Shermann and King led to the band's demise, and it was then that King seized the opportunity to explore more diverse supernatural and occult topics beyond all the "Satan" and "witches & devils" stuff. So, retaining the bassist Timi Hansen and guitarist Michael Denner, and recruiting guitarist Andy La Rocque and drummer Mikkey Dee, King "went solo". At this point, Mercyful Fate was DONE, not to be heard from again for almost a decade. King's first single as a solo artist (consider this a STRONG SUGGESTION for a reaction video when the Christmas holidays get nearer!) was "No Presents For Christmas". What a way to kick off a solo music career that would ultimately focus on ghostly horror stories and supernatural tales of terror following a departure from a "Satanic" (black) metal band - a jovial holiday heavy metal anthem about Santa, Tom & Jerry, and Donald Duck. After a decade of releasing 5 studio albums ("Fatal Portrait", "Abigail", "Them", "Conspiracy", "The Eye"), one live album (recorded in 1987 but not released til 1992 entitled "Abigail : Live In Concert"), and an EP of singles & B-sides ("The Dark Sides"), interest in resurrecting Mercyful Fate was becoming apparent. A couple of compilations were released - a "best of" compilation featuring one half MF songs and the other half with KD songs (entitled "A Dangerous Meeting : Mercyful Fate & King Diamond"), and another comprised of old demos recorded/released between 1980-1982 (under the title "Return Of The Vampire", mostly by Mercyful Fate, but a couple of tunes from previous bands "re-done" for MF) were both released in 1992. In 1993, MF was officially resurrected with the release of their 3rd album ("In The Shadows", which showcased a new recording of the song "Return Of The Vampire", featuring Metallica's Lars Ulrich on drums), and King recorded, released material, and toured under both band names up until the late 90s (1994's "Time", 1996's "Into The Unknown", 1998's "Dead Again", and 1999's "9" under Mercyful Fate, with 1995's "The Spider's Lullabye", 1996's "The Graveyard", and 1998's "Voodoo" under King Diamond), when it was becoming evident the luster for Mercyful Fate was getting lost by both King and fans alike. The final MF album, "9", was released in 1999 , and Mercyful Fate was "Dead Again". Some speculate that part of MF's second demise was the personnel instability in both bands, but especially in MF. Mikkey Dee's replacement in 1989, Snowy Shaw, joined the MF ranks upon its resurrection, but left after 2 albums, replaced by Bjarne T Holm (1996-1999). MF guitarists included MF originals Michael Denner and Hank Shermann , the former lasting only 3 albums before being replaced by Mike Wead (1998-1999), while Shermann stuck it out til the end in 1999. Timi Hansen resumed bass duties only for the 1993 album, leaving thereafter for family reasons. He was replaced by Sharlee D'Angelo (1996-1999). KD personnel featured drummers Darrin Anthony (1994-1997), John Luke Hébert (1997-2001), and Matt Thompson (2001-present). Guitarists included Herb Simonsen (1994-1999), Glenn Drover (1999-2001), and the permanent return of Mike Wead (previously guitarist for MF until 1999). Bassists include Chris Estes (1994-1999), David Harbour (2000), and finally, the return of Hal Patino (2001-present) from the 1988-1990 era. King's wife, Livia Zita, joined the band providing backing vocals and singing female character parts since 2003. King's solo career continued (releasing "House Of God" in 2000, "Abigail II : The Revenge" in 2002, "The Puppet Master" in 2003, and live album "Deadly Lullabyes... Live" in 2004) up until after the last KD release in 2007 ("Give Me Your Soul... Please") when King's health was suffering and he had ultimately to undergo serious heart surgery. A triple-bypass, if memory serves? As I understand it, he has been recovering well and has spent the last couple of years planning a new album and more tours. Somewhere along the line, either before or after the surgery, King did Guitar Hero remakes of two Mercyful Fate songs : Evil and Curse Of The Pharaohs (both originally from the Melissa album), and some cool guest vocal spots with other bands and collaboration efforts, including Roadrunner United All-Stars ("In The Fire"), and VolBeat ("Room 24"). A worthy mention goes to the band Cage who did a song in homage to the master of the metal macabre, in a song simply entitled "King Diamond". A must-listen for any KD/MF fan.

The "welcome home" reference at the beginning was hilarious. "Is this a dream, are you really back..."

"No Presents For Christmas" should be the next order of business. :)

Andy LaRoque is a killer guitarist. The reason he sounds so different is he's so fluid and smooth

She is gonna flip when she hears the Abigail album if she likes this! \m/

King Diamond is more theatrical than Mercyful Fate. The bands are similar but different enough that it makes sense to do them separately. Also Andy wasn't in Mercyful Fate and I have a feeling that is King's favorite person in the industry to work with just the way he talks about the guy. He doesn't even consider King Diamond to be his band even though it's named after him he considers it to be his and Andy's band.

Cool review

Love the costumes. You pulled out Diamond very well. As always love the content. Keep it up. Stay Blessed and Stay Well.

Seeing the smile on her face made this video all worth the while. King Diamond and Mercyful Fate has been a huge influence in my life. King Diamond and Mercyful Fate guitarist have always been underrated in my option. Andy, Hank and Michael been a big part on creating my style of playing and that you also mentioned Death which Death was Chuck Schuldiner also been a huge influence. To many to list and wanted to keep this short but great reaction and I can't wait for this Blueray/DVD to come out.

Denner and Shermann's guitar work is always what I thought took Mercyful Fate to another level.

Guitar players get their sound based on a number of things. The wood carries a certain sound and resonate makes a difference in tone. 2. Set up intonation and hardware 3. Pickups bring a certain tone and sustain 4. Amplifier and effect pedal So basically the equipment and guitar setup is important to the sound and character of a guitar player.

All of King Diamond albums are stories, which makes him unique, hes just awesome!!

I LOVE hearing someone speaking about ALRs playing that way.

King has never sounded better live than the last few years . Really happy for him , he is a truly great dude . Btw , other guitar player is Glen Drover , who played for some years / albums with Megadeth . Some great shit he played with them

Yeah, Andy was in Death for one record. Chuck wrote everything and he needed one more guitar player for rhythm and asked Andy and he said yes, because at that time, both King Diamond and Mercyful Fate were recording their albums in the same studio in Florida, so they already meat each other. They went to studio, Andy did what he was supposed to do and actually played couple of his own solos (not all of them) and that was it. It was very cool experience at the end, because Chuck was big fan of both King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. And, Andy himself later said that it was great experience for him also, because he never been in that type of band before, which is of course death metal (Death was very progressive and technical at that point).

The Invisible Guests has like 7-9 different solos so please check that out !!

This is the best! Gramma ! Watch out for the slippery stairs, you could easily faaaaallll! Nicely done

The solo in The Invisible Guest is one of the best, I saw this tour and it was amazing. Please do some Death too. Happy Halloween.

Aah, there´s only one King. King Diamond. My King from the beginning. I think it was Mercyful Fate and Melissa which first caught my eye and ear, then it has been just a big rollercoaster ride from the first King Diamond album to the present. And yes, after his surgery he came back, better than ever. I saw him live in Espoo with the Abigail-tour, oh my, one of the best concerts ever and I´ve been in many. King is not everyone´s cup of tea, but if you like what he´s doing, it´s unconditional love ! Speaking of tea, I´m sure you´re dying for a cup :-))

Hell yeah Sistah! This is one of wonderful aspects of metal: It makes you feel completely liberated!

Maybe regarding the guitar the concept you were searching for is "timbre".

There is a lot of reaction video site on RU-vid, but those two are the only who really does it their own way. And they did King Diamond 😊, i mean it is like Halloween and christmas at the same time. Wolf and Sistah is like Ying and Yang, they here everything in a song, both in their own way..one can only like them, thanx for this one..it was a pleasure. And the makeup..it was great.

Andy's tone is similar to a lot of Neo-classical players of the time that had a very violin-like, trebily cleanness to it. If you listen to Rhoads, Malmsteen, Schenker, Vai and Le Tekro, (who were big influences on him), they also had a very violin-like chimey timbre, which IMO is crucial for good lead guitar tone (save the fuzzy overdriven stuff for rhythm work). He records with Marshalls typically and uses/used to use a Line 6 HD 100 Mk II tube modeling head live for it's ease of emulating the different tones used during the entire Merciful Fate and Kind Diamond catalog.

All I have to say is: 1. Halloween week was SO much fun! Thank you all for hanging with us ;) 2. I want more Kind Diamond 3. This song was uhmayzing >_< 4. I need more Power Metal 5. I need more Iron Maiden 6. I need more Megadeth 7. I need Painkiller 8. I need some Devin Townsend 9. You are all so freakin' awesome! :-* ♥

INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT PATTERNS WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

King Diamond FOREVER!! \m/

Haha like the make-up, i believe you were referring to Eddie Munster from The Munsters, not the Addams Family.

T H A N K You for this review! I've loved King Diamond for a long time and everything you've said and pointed out from King's voice to Andy's tone is exactly how I feel and it was great to learn that there are other people who see those things as an amazing and unique talent rather than just a scary make up and "noise". I have stumbled on this review completely by accident and I immediately subscribed to your Channel. Thank you so much again, best of luck in everything and can't wait to see your other reactions👍👍🤘

GREAT JOB on the KD facepaint, Wolf!! Many Halloweens ago, I started making it an annual tradition to do my own face as KD, and my "era of choice" was the Conspiracy/Eye design (1989-1990) with the intricate black & white batwings and "blister/wart" circles and the trickling of blood from the forehead. My first time took me about 3-4 hours to do. With each year, practice and refining techniques whittled it down to an hour or so. I have only ever done the "classic" Mercyful Fate design on occasion when it was a last-minute decision to dress up and go out. Otherwise, I prefer the complexity and challenge of the Conspiracy design. When I started karaoke, I incorporated that with my Halloween ritual by singing KD & MF song ONLY. There was one year the pub was having a slow night and that meant LOTS of singing opportunity - I ended up doing about 15-20 songs. Doing all that falsetto in one night was an experience. Amazingly I suffered no vocal strain. Sadly though, it's been about 10+ years since I have done either one (dressing up my face or doing karaoke). Maybe on a future Halloween series you could do a King Diamond & Mercyful Fate spotlight, and pick the "spookiest" songs (including their soundscape/dialogue introductions ; i.e. Out From The Asylum / Welcome Home, The Graveyard / Black Hill Sanitarium, The Storm / Mansion In Sorrow, etc), or maybe a complete album reaction? Anyway, again, great job on the KD makeup! :-)

Kamelot - Memento Mori It is the epic finale to a 2 album concept based on Faust. A Masterpiece in my opinion.

Haha, badass! I used to play in black metal bands back in the nineties and we got painted up every time we played live. It was so much fun!

Awesome Review!! Best Halloween reaction so far! Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to your fans!! Happy Halloween!

King is singing better now than ever before...

The reason King Diamond left Mercyful Fate was that he and guitarist Hank Sherman had a falling out. Hank created the band "Fate" to be more commercial.

wolf taking his glasses on and off for a look is so me hahaha. but great video!! his voice is amazing.

Mercyful Fate - The Uninvited Guest!!

Eddie Munster was not the Addams Family, but in fact from The Munsters, ;)

I normally apposed to reaction channels as I just find them rather played out at this point but I just adore how honest and real you both are. Keep being awesome and hope to see your channel grow.

Sorry if this was already mentioned but the woman singing backup vocals is King's wife.

Been a big King fan for ( oops ) decades now. Started with Abigail which I can still sing along to today. Then I went back to the beginning of Merciful Fate... lost track of him somewhere around the 2000’s. Glad he’s still kicking. Saw him live on stage in Munich once, supported by Candlemass with Messiah Marcolin at the time. Since you are an expert, Wolf, you know what a treat that was. King emerged from a burning casket they brought onto stage... shivers, man. Shivers. Ah... one more thing. Dear Sistah... they say some fabrics are more transparent under camera light than others... 🤭 Your Videos are great great great... I used to be a web radio DJ years back. The amount of background info you give. That was my thing too back in those days.

I've been a metalhead since I was 14 and honestly I have never heard anything by King Diamond. After watching your reaction and listening to this song, I guess I missed a lot! I need to Listen to King Diamond ASAP. Cheers guys, you are wonderful as always!

Lol i love both bands and never knew that fact either. Wow all makes sense now.

Here is a little fun fact. Did you know King Diamond actually hates his falsetto? He said in an interview that he does not like it because his grandma would make him sing to scare away spirits all the time. It is an interview where he isn't wearing face paint.

Happy that sistah loved the one and only's voice. Now we (true worshippers) are waiting for THE catalogue you mentioned my friend ;) stay heavy! P.s. Im very sure there are a lot of songs in the catalogue that gonna make sistah cry ;)

You missed out on the best Halloween-themed video = Devin Townsend's Vampira

Diamond is great! Definitely recommend his album Them if you want something spooky to listen to. Also I feel you MUST react to Voice of the Soul by Death on Make Sistah Cry! Havent seen anyone else do that one and i think you guys would do it justice! Much love and Happy Halloween!!

The logical thing is to react to King Diamond - No Presents For Christmas. ;)

FYI, they are back in studio

Very enjoyable video! As were all the Halloween ones. Thank you guys!

Excellent. I wouldn't have forgiven you if not done it

You guys are....AWESOME!

Don't think I've ever managed to catch one of your videos so early. Love the makeup. Welcome to the horror of lipstick. Have you guy's checked out Ne Obliviscaris yet? I'm fairly new to your channel so I haven't checked out everything yet. Not sure if it would make Sistah cry but I have seen And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope have that effect on some people.

Great makeup! I hope you guys had a fun filled Halloween!

Love you guys! Wolf is a cool cat and Sista is nothing less than a true Lady! One of my favorite channels now!

Judas Priest Blood red skies! Some of the best vocals ever on a metal album. Saludos desde Argentina!

You're on point brother

Sistah, looking killer in that dress! Wolf, holy cow man, you put a LOT of work into that makeup!

Damn. Great King Diamond. Great Job!!!

You guys put the most honest critical opinion on the music of the "KING", thanks so much,

Kim Peterson is going to eat your soul for that costume! LMFAO! And if you find out why King Diamond went solo, please post it. I've been curious about that for years. The Philosopher by Death is a great song, I'd like to see your review/reaction to it, however, while delving into Death, please do a couple tunes from Human, Symbolic and Spiritual Healing, as well as the Fragile Art Of Existence by Control Denied. But back to King, there really isn't one genre he fits into. Fate was a progenitor of Black Metal, but King is also a little thrash, a little power, a little AWESOME!!!! Peace!

For voice changes (what I would term "dialogue with oneself") in a song, could you sometime do KING DIAMOND's "At the Graves"?? Hopeful here!

Wolf dude, you nailed that costume. Amazing job! :-)

I think you should listen to a band called CAGE. They have made a tribude to Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. The song is called "King Diamond" it's not a cover song, but a tribude to MF/KD. Enjoy

Great reaction video as usual. For something different “BBF III” by Godspeed You Black Emperor may be one you’d like. The “poet” in it, recites some familiar words Wolf might know.

love it, total king diamond.

love that story. and now i want to hear Sistah sing

The Stephen King of Metal

Don't forget King Diamond Christmas

Awesome 👊🏼

Thanks for the reaction, and nice job on the makeup. I couldn't help it, but I kept thinking... Wolf should white powder out that beard like Cesar Romero had to do with his signature mustache playing The Joker in the Adam West (1960's) Batman TV show. LOL!!! And if you guys do a Christmas version of your reactions, try "No Presents For Christmas". Another fun one off of Dark Sides. Tom and Jerry... still drinking sherry. They don't give a damn.

Happy Halloween

Can you plz react to Devin townsend - Kingdom? I can recommend the EMGtv live version to add a bit of the man's character. The song is very well done, performed by a man that has had the time to ripe and collect experience. The first time I heard his music was live and he and his band set the tone as an opener for a festival. I haven't seen better that day, though around equally good concerts were played.

Love the makeup! So awesome. 🎃 👻

Mercyful Fate Curse Of The Pharaohs

Great King Diamond make up Wolf!!!

Mercyful Fate and King Diamond were very different musically.

I love that you used Halloween by the Misfits for the intro.

Black label society- the last goodbye Cradle of filth- forgive me father I have Sinned Type O Negative- September Sun

Alter Bridge - "Blackbird" for Make Sistah Cry. It will I promise.

Let me help you out.... King Diamond is Operatic Horror Metal.... and yes, it is a genre all His own.

Love the intro, 🎃🎃🎃 awesome video love your costume & make up Wolfkain & as always Halflifesistah you're beautiful 🤘you're almost close to 10k subscribers woot woot! Keep up the awesome work! 🎃🎃🎃🎃

Love that I'm not alone loving the king

for me, i heard a mansion in darkness on radio. totally hooked... and before a classmate played song from the oath, snd i remember always trying to finf that voice again, hehe... back in 84...

The trees have eyes 🤘🤘🤘

I was actually at the show where this was filmed. It was October 31st, 2014 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. I felt so bad for King, he was actually suffering from food poisoning that evening. Still he came out like a true professional and put on an amazing show. Just felt bad watching him run offstage like every 15 minutes to either throw up in a bucket or drop a deuce in a bucket and then run back onstage like nothing happened. At one point he actually confessed to the crowd that he was dealing with food poisoning...but not before cracking a joke about it...."I'm oooooolllllllllllllllld...dah!" Found a fanshot phone video of the entire show if anyone is interested.... link is below. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OLMrlEHB6FU.html

King and Andy two gods to me!

I would like to add another genre: Troll-Metal, Finntroll being probably the only band... "Trollhammaren" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GpqkUCPytI8.html "Under Bergets Rot" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e_TIWNOYlWc.html "Nedgang" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-o5XNwAU8cJo.html

I'm guessing that Hank Shermann and his wearing Hawaiian shirts on stage made King do his own thing.

actually Attic (it's new band) they soun very similar till King Diamond btw react to Attic - Headless horseman or band HELL - On Earth as it is in hell p.s. Sorry for my bad english

If you like Nightwish, try out Epica - Storm the Sorrow. I don't know what's in the Dutch water, but it must be good...my three favorite vocalists are dutch women...Floor Jansen of Nightwish, Simone Simons of Epica and the young (only 15!) opera phenom, Amira Willighagen.

Great song for my birthday. Love the makeup.

ah i love that we are so similar in our metal journey

I don't know how Andy does it but if you listen to D.R.I. they also have a really clean tone. I was reading an interview with them when Thrash Zone came out and they said their tone comes from playing through nothing but bass amps. So maybe that is the secret.

I love the vibe. You guys should have a little bit of eerie music in the background while you're talking though

Mr Wolf you're on the money about Andy...Mercyful Fate and King Diamond riffs give me goosebumps. Btw I'd like to know your opinion on Criss Oliva's guitar tone(my fav guitarist)

If you wanna hear some more obscure and wicked King Diamond, I recommend "Eye of the Witch." And if you wanna hear some of the best power metal, "The Piper Never Dies" by Edguy is a great example :)

Andy LaRouqe is amazing!!!!

Long live the king 😈👿👹🤘💪

King is always on the edge of progressive metal. when mickey dee played the drums it was full on progressive metal

One day you’re gonna react to Painkiller and it will change your life