KING DIAMOND — Deadly Lullabyes "Live" (review)

Live album · 2004 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2010-07-05
UMUR

Deadly Lullabyes is a double CD live album release by multi-national heavy metal act King Diamond. The album was recorded during the 2003 North America tour, supporting the 2003 The Puppet Master album. Deadly Lullabyes was released in September 2004 by Metal Blade Records in the US and Massacre Records in Europe. The album was produced by Andy La Rocque and King Diamond.

The setlist on the album consentrates on the older material plus songs from the at the time two most recent album releases Abigail II: The Revenge (2002) and The Puppet Master (2003). That means that there are no material from the four albums that was released between The Eye (1990) and Abigail II: The Revenge. Some might mourn that, but personally I´m pretty much content with the songs that the band have chosen to include on the album.

The band´s performance of the songs are flawless and there´s a great live feel to the songs that sets them apart from the versions of the studio albums. Thus the first premise of releasing a live album is fulfilled. Now it´s no secret that I´m not the greatest fan of most post-The Eye King Diamond material but the songs from the two newer albums actually work much better in these live versions than they do on the studio albums. It´s like they are brought to life. Even drummer Matt Thompson´s usually "stiff" playing style is more vital and "loose" here. King Diamond´s vocal performance is really strong on the album and I suspect the use of autotune in places ( the times I´ve seen King Diamond perform live weren´t this perfect), but his vocals are not too perfect and there are a couple of places where he is out of pitch, and that´s actually quite charming IMO. As I mentioned above the performance of the new songs is really good, but for an old fan like myself it´s of course the old songs that I´m mostly interested in, and they are fortunately performed to perfection.

The album starts with the Abigail (1987) medley of Funeral, A Mansion In Darkness, The Family Ghost and Black Horsemen, which is just about the perfect way to start a concert. This is pure magic to my ears. Then there´s a medley from Abigail II: The Revenge which consist of Spare This Life, Mansion In Sorrow, Spirits and Sorry Dear. Conceptually this works like a charm with the songs from the first Abigail album. CD1 ends with Eye Of The Witch from The Eye and Sleepless Nights from Conspiracy (1989). Both are performed to perfection. Lots of power and vitality in the performance.

CD2 starts with a medley from The Puppet Master consisting of The Puppet Master, Blood To Walk, So Sad ( which features a guest appearance by the female Hungarian singer Livia Zita) and Living Dead (Outro). As mentioned above I enjoy the live performance of these songs far more than I enjoy the studio versions. CD2 continues with Welcome Home and The Invisible Guests from "Them" (1988). Again those are personal favorites of mine, and when the performance is so good, there´s nothing to complain about. Burn from The Eye is the next track and a great one too. The album ends with an introduction of the band members and Halloween from Fatal Portrait (1986) and the single track No Presents For Christmas. While both are good songs, these are probably the only tracks on Deadly Lullabyes that I would like to replace with other tracks from that period. There are simply far better tracks available on Fatal Portrait.

So all in all Deadly Lullabyes is a great live album by King Diamond and I have very few complaints about it. A 4 star rating is deserved.