King Diamond, July 1 Roundhouse London
It’s the first day of July, and we’re from London heading to Camden Town, which is the next stop on the European tour by King Diamond, accompanied by Unto Others and Paradise Lost.
The Roundhouse is a comfortable venue located in the centre of town, a town well known to UK metalheads, as it’s the most remarkable for the Metal scene. If you’re seeking a metal-themed bar or pub to watch underground bands perform, the map will lead you right to Candem.
The first band to appear onstage is Unto Others, giving the crowd a dose of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal, dark enough to be baptized as the stage tonight. The vocals are very low, something uncommon and unexpected, but surprisingly interesting.
“Butterfly”, “Momma Likes the Door Closed”, “Suicide Today”, “It Doesn’t Matter”, “Can You Hear the Rain”, “Heroin”, “When Will God’s Work Be Done” and “Give Me to the Night” are the songs that this band have chosen to put the crowd in tune.
The next band is Paradise Lost, which brings even more darkness to this afternoon, with that heavy mix of Gothic Metal, Death Metal, and lots of Doom.
“Enchantment” and “The Enemy” are the first songs on the setlist, followed by “No Hope in Sight” and “Pity the Sadness”. Songs filled with low tempo and an overwhelming sense of density, the one that Paradise Lost always knew how to bring to their performances.
“Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us”, “The Last Time”, “Ghosts”, “Embers Fire”, and “Say Just Words” ended a set that left everyone wanting more, and expecting what’s next. And we all know what’s next…
With a magnificent stage, emulating a haunted abandoned hospital, King Diamond welcomes us, opening the Abigail casket. He grabs the child and stabs her in the face while the “Funeral” tape is sounding in the background.
Next to this, the full band starts playing “Arrival”, and then “A Mansion in Darkness” as it happens on the “Abigail” album, a total fan favourite.
In this stage, you can see the perfection of the performance; you have the stage, the band (King, Andy, Pontus, Mike, and Matt), the female choir singer on one side, accentuating the high falsettos from King, and an actress who plays the role of a character in the songs. King does that as well, interacting with her most of the time while singing.
“Halloween” and “Voodoo” are the following songs, and then we got to hear his most recent single, “Spider Lilly”. His first song in more than 6 years.
After that, the essential fan favourites made their appearance: “Sleepless Nights”, “Welcome Home” (with the character of the grandma approaching on her wheelchair), “The Invisible Guests”, and “The Candle”. Followed by another of his latest releases, “Masquerade of Madness,” which was published as a single in 2019, being the first song released in 12 years. Yet we still don’t have a new King Diamond record since 2007’s “Give Me Your Soul… Please”, but it seems that the band is fully working on that nowadays!
“Eye of the Witch” and “Burn” were the next songs, and after leaving the stage for a while, the band returned for an encore, playing the total hit “Abigail”.
King Diamond doesn’t tour a lot, but looking at his schedule and the fact that he recently released a new song gives us a chance to get to hear a new album soon. And get to see him playing new songs in incredible performances like tonight.
Review by Agustin Lopez