Songs For The Dead Live is the new live album/DVD by classic Danish heavy metal band, King Diamond. It features live footage from two different shows in 2016, one indoor show and one festival show from Philadelphia and Graspop Metal Meeting respectively.
The lengthy and value-for-money setlist features the classic Abigail album from 1987 played in its entirety, plus a selection of songs from the debut, Them, Conspiracy and The Eye as well as a couple of Mercyful Fate covers (King Diamond himself’s other band). Basically if you are interested in early King Diamond material, this is the record for you.
The show is quite theatrical, with actors, an elaborate stage setup with steps and stained glass and upside-down crosses and pentagrams. There are even a fake babies and grandma to match the stories in the lyrics.
Most importantly of all, for a concert DVD, the performance of the concert from the band is excellent, and the audio-visual quality of the DVD is brilliant. King Diamond has always been a guitar fan’s paradise and watching Andy La Roque blast through the superb solos is wonderful. King himself does a great job of replicating his bizarre and unique vocals live and the rest of the band hammer it home perfectly. It feels ‘live’ and not too clinical, but at the same time very faithfully replicate the album tracks. The seamless editing, sound and camera work are well balanced and everything just looks and sounds right.
If like me, you are a casual fan of the band, with a few of the early records but don’t know every twist and turn of his lengthy discography, this would be a fine starting point (just be aware it might take a while to get used to the vocal style).
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