Nut Suite. Mini reviews of albums old and new. Minimum words. No fuss. No spoilers [?]. Occasional smugs.

Monday, November 28, 2011

KING DIAMOND / Fatal Portrait (1986)

King's music is firmly rooted in the traditional heavy metal camp, but is much more inventive and visually theatrical than most. He fuses quality riffs with technical (widdly) guitar solos that sometimes go on too long. Vocally he can go from a balls-in-a-vice falsetto to a balls-in-hell demonic growl in the same sentence, and it's that talent that can make people laugh and fail to look beneath the surface. The fools. Fatal Portrait, the first of his solo albums, isn't his best work, his voice is too screechy much of the time, but it has some fun moments and some comedy moments that are worth a revisit every now and again. Get the reissue for his Christmas 12" song as a bonus track - I shit you not.

Songs of Note: The Portrait; Charon

2½ faces in the candle flame out of 5

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