Happy Halloween Metalheads!! Hope your day is filled with spooky treats and ghoulish activities. What better way to celebrate the day with a blog post from the one and only King Diamond. The album – FATAL PORTRAIT and the song – HALLOWEEN!!
Released in 1986, this is the first album by King Diamond after Mercyful Fate disbanded in 1983. While the album is not a conceptual album, five of the songs on the album form a short story (“The Candle”, “The Jonah”, “The Portrait”, “Dressed in White” and “Haunted”). The narrator sees a face in every candle that he burns and this face speaks one word to him: “Jonah”. He finds an old book, speaks a rhyme and frees the spirit from the candle. It’s the spirit of a little girl named Molly, who tells him her story that happened seven years before. Mrs. Jane kept her 4-year-old daughter Molly locked in the attic until she died. Mrs. Jane decides to paint Molly’s portrait and put it above the fireplace, so that she would be forever immortal. Molly, however makes the portrait speak to her, so she would know about the pain she went through while in the attic. Mrs. Jane speaks a rhyme and burns the portrait. Now a free spirit, Molly returns to haunt her mother until she goes insane.
The album cover art by Thomas Holm and Torbjorn Jorgensen of Studio Dyzan depicts Molly had she been able to grow up. Holm and Jorgensen have done several covers for King Diamond and Mercyful Fate including “Melissa” , “Don’t Break the Oath” and “Abigail” to name a few. The lineup for Fatal Portrait is: King Diamond – vocals, Andy La Roque and Michael Denner – guitars, Timi Hansen – bass and Mikkey Dee – drums.
Make it a safe and Happy Halloween and let’s start the “All Hallows Eve”‘celebration with King Diamond’s Halloween:
And of course the album that started it all – Fatal Portrait:
The Metal Wire 