Most of us during the COVID-19 pandemic have been trying to keep busy. King Diamond is on overdrive during the pandemic. He’s working on a double album, The Institute, with his solo band. In addition to that, he’s now working on a new album with Mercyful Fate. YouTube show The Electric Theater with Clown has the scoop from the King. Here’s what the King had to say.

I’m writing with Hank [Shermann, guitar] from Mercyful Fate and writing with Andy [LaRocque, guitar] for King Diamond and writing on my own for King Diamond. For King Diamond, it’s an album that’s gonna be called The Institute, which is part one of two — there’ll be two full albums that will be completing a full story. And as the title [suggests], there’s gonna be some crazy weird stuff.

And for Mercy, I also have the title, but I’m not giving it out to anybody at the moment. We have the front cover for the new Mercy too. It’s very correct, very right for Mercyful Fate. It’s very back to basics.

The Basics Of The New Mercyful Fate Album

We already knew about The Institute, but this is fantastic news that he’s working on a new album with Mercyful Fate. As for the album itself, he said that he’s not giving away the title. We know he’s working on it with Hank Shermann, Mike Wead, Bjarne T. Holm, and new bassist Joey Vera.

We’re getting new/old forms of vocals on the album as well. Here’s what the King has to say about that.

For my part, with both Mercy and King albums — even more King Diamond, I would say — all vocals are gonna be lead vocals again, like they were in the old days. It didn’t matter if there was a choir singing on the right side or the left side, or whatever, they would still go and pick up parts of the lyrics to progress the story and so on. So it’s gonna be anything goes with the vocals, for sure — back to the old style.

And for Mercy too, it’s gonna be very old-fashioned — Hank is writing very much like the old days. And it’s nice to feel that we can capture that again. So that’s two albums that are being worked on that will be done by the time we can go out and tour again, I’m sure.

So, what do you think about this news of a new Mercyful Fate album? I’m super stoked to hear about it and can’t wait to listen to it! You can check out our review of King Diamond’s live show from 2019 on The Institute tour here.

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Source: The Electric Theater with Clown