Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 11:12 AM by Nikos Nakos
“Conspiracy” is the 4th studio album by King Diamond, and the second part of a story that began on the glorious album “Them”. “Conspiracy” was released on 21 August 1989 via Roadrunner Records, and is the last album to feature drummer Mikkey Dee who left the group yet recorded the album as a session member.
After the events of “Them”, an adult King returns to the House of Amon to reclaim his rightful place as heir to the house (“At the Graves”). He makes a deal with “Them”, the unseen demonic antagonists from the previous album, to return control of the house to “Them” in exchange for the chance to see his now-dead sister Missy again, as he believes she can help answer some of his questions (“Sleepless Nights”). He attends sessions with a therapist named Dr. Landau, who he despises, distrusts and lies to; Landau suggests letting King’s mother visit the House of Amon, and King reluctantly agrees (“Lies”). That night, Missy appears to him in a vision (“A Visit from the Dead”) and warns him through a dream where he sees Landau marrying his mother (“The Wedding Dream”). The next day, King’s mother indeed arrives accompanied by Dr. Landau; despite King’s protestations about the deal with “Them”, they enter the house, and King is ambushed and sedated by his mother and the doctor (“Amon Belongs to ‘Them'”). They then go to the local demented priest Sammael, and convince him that King is possessed by Satan and must be disposed of (“Victimized”); they put King in a coffin and burn him (“Let It Be Done”), and the album closes with King’s promise to haunt them forever from beyond the grave (“Cremation”).
“Conspiracy” isn’t the only King Diamond ‘sequel’ album. In 2002 “Abigail II” after 15 years since the first part followed, still “Conspiracy” as it came only a year after the first part, was a commercial trick making the fans anticipating for the back then new album as they wanted to see what would happen to the adult now central ‘King’ character in the future from his perspective. Musically speaking the album is pure gold. The engineering and production work from Robert Falcao (with the help of Chris Tsangarides on guitar solos) is perfect placing guitars a bit in front and leaving Diamond’s voice with lesser effects (King and La roque also helped on production), the instrumentation too, the songs structure is so rich and probably sometimes challenging, with outstanding keyboard orchestration that built extra atmosphere (I should notice here that Roberto Falcao is producer and sound engineer since the first King Diamond record “No Presents for Christmas” on this and other King Diamond albums, he is producer, sound engineer and guest performer on the keyboards), well worked guitars memorable leads and riffs while Pete Blakk and Andy LaRocque are phenomenal especially on soloing, Mikkey Dee’s excellent percussion and thick powerful and audible bass lines by Hal Patino. Of course King’s vocal are incredible ranging from mid-range to crying falsetto as he is acting his twisted personas roles in a crescendo of Heavy Metal singing like no other.
“Conspiracy” is an album featuring elements from the spectrum of speed/thrash, prog/tech and heavy/power metal without actually “belong” to any of the aforementioned sub genres, showing a mature King Diamond both as a composer and as a singer and a band/gang operating as a well-oiled war machine at its best.
Timeless hymns: “Sleepless Nights”, “At the Graves”, “A Visit from the Dead” and my personal favorite “Victimized”.
As for the sketch that is featured on the inner sleeve it would have been a much better cover for the “Conspiracy” album definitely…
