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KING DIAMOND confirms appearances at Sweden Rock and Hellfest!
King Diamond has confirmed that the band will be performing their first shows this Summer. King himself has posted on update that can be found below…
"Hail to all of you. FINALLY. We can now officially announce King Diamond's return to the stage. We will be headlining the Rock Stage at Sweden Rock Festival on Saturday, June 9, 2012.
Please check out the links below for more info.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX97_JOqpDY
http://www.swedenrock.com
We will also be headlining the Main Stage 2 at Hellfest in France on Friday, June 15, 2012.
Please see link below for more info:
http://www.hellfest.fr/
Can't wait to see you there.
Stay Heavy,
King Diamond."
For up to date information, check out these official pages:
http://www.covenworldwide.org
http://www.facebook.com/kingdiamondofficial
http://www.facebook.com/pages/King-Diamond-Mercyful-Fate/10077528421
King Diamond offers an update; hints at upcoming shows
It has just been confirmed that King Diamond has joined forces with Nick Storch at ICM and Paul Ryan at The Agency Group. Nick Storch will be in charge of booking King Diamond concerts in North and South America, and Paul Ryan will be in charge of booking King Diamond concerts in Europe and rest of world.
"It is great to be in the top professional hands of Nick and Paul. They both come highly recommended by Brian Slagel of Metal Blade, who personally suggested the partnership that is now in effect. ICM and The Agency Group have so much combined experience, which will open new doors for us. When it comes to getting us back on stage again, we all agree on how to bring King Diamond to a whole new level. Within a few weeks, we should be able to announce the first part of our plan. WELCOME ON BOARD AND STAY HEAVY." - King
"I can speak for the entire team here at ICM that we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with such a legend of heavy metal. I could not be happier to be involved with King Diamond's return to the stage." - Nick Storch
"It's a huge honour, and one I and everyone here at The Agency Group shares, to be part of King's team moving forward!… Being such an influence on the metal genre and an artist I have personally enjoyed and been inspired by for many years; it's a very exciting time to be involved!" - Paul Ryan
King Diamond adds: "There'll be a lot more great news coming the next couple of weeks. It's been difficult keeping everything under wraps, but soon it will all be out in the open. I want to thank you for your amazing patience. We will get back to the Skype sessions in not too long as well."
Stay Heavy,
King Diamond
http://www.covernworldwide.org
http://www.facebook.com/kingdiamondofficial
http://www.myspace.com/kingdiamond
King Diamond undergoes triple bypass open heart surgery
King Diamond was recently hospitalized and underwent open heart surgery. He is currently recuperating at his home and is expected to make a full recovery. King's wife, Livia, made the following post on the official King Diamond website, covenworldwide.org:
"Let me catch you all up on the past couple of weeks' happenings, because it affects many things.
On Monday the 29th of November, King had to be transported to the nearby hospital by ambulance. After several different tests were done and the EKG machine showing abnormalities, the doctors recommended that he get a cardiac catheterization.
Cardiac catheterization is a procedure where the doctors lead a very thin tube up from the leg and into the heart, where it injects dye into the bloodstream. Then a camera at the end of the tube takes many pictures of the heart's arteries, looking for blockages. After this was done, they determined that King had several heart attacks, and three of his heart's arteries were the cause: one was completely blocked, the second was 90% blocked, and the third was 65% blocked.
The only solution to this was an open heart triple bypass surgery.
If you are interested in the details of how this surgery is performed, please look it up online. I will only touch on the basics. The sternum (breastbone) is cut in half and pulled apart, to expose the heart. Veins are harvested from other places of the body, in King's case it was his left leg and chest wall. The person is then hooked up to a machine that practically does the job of the heart, circulating and oxygenating the blood. The heart is then stopped, and the lungs collapse (the lungs stop working since the blood is being oxygenated by the machine). The surgeon then sews the harvested veins in place, bypassing the found blockages. Once the surgery is done, the surgeon moves the ribs and breastbone back into place and wires it together. The chest is closed as well. They use an electric pulse to start the heart and a breathing machine is lead into the lungs to restart breathing. King's surgery took approximately 7 hours.
Everything went well, and King was taken to ICU for recovery. He was walking and eating solid food already 2 days after the operation, and he was the first one in the history of the hospital who walked on his own power from the ICU to normal care. 10 days after the ambulance took him to the emergency room, he is at home and is recovering well. It will be a few months before he feels completely normal and is without pain.
He would like to mention here that he's eternally grateful for the wonderful staff at Centennial Medical Center who took care of him. Dr. Kourlis, Dr. Kamili, Dr. Alang, Nurse Christie and Nurse Thomas among many others made sure that he got the best care and attention he could ever have hoped for.
They were always very nice to me too, letting me stay overnight in the ICU after visiting hours were over.
In light of this, he will be taking a break from music and the music business altogether until further notice. He very much wants to write new music, finish the DVDs, and go on tour, but for now, all those things are in the distant future and he's not thinking about them.
Please understand that the King Diamond band is not stopping, disbanding or anything of the sort. King's health is first priority, and when everything is going good with him, the music will resume.
Thank you all very much for reading this and STAY HEAVY,
Livia"
http://www.covenworldwide.org/
http://www.facebook.com/kingdiamondofficial
http://www.myspace.com/kingdiamond
Metal Blade Records to reissue classic King Diamond albums ‘The Spiders Lullabye’ and ‘The Graveyard’ this October!
Los Angeles, CA – September 14, 2009 – KING DIAMOND is quite possibly the most recognizable and prolific personality ever in heavy metal. Revered by icons as big as Metallica and Pantera to inspiring new upstarts like Goatwhore; KING DIAMOND, the man and the band, have left an indelible mark on the history, and now again, the future of heavy metal.
Reissued KING DIAMOND albums The Spider’s Lullabye and The Graveyard have both been re-mastered by KING DIAMOND guitarist Andy LaRocque and are set to be released on October 13th. Each album will include bonus material that purchasers will be able to obtain digitally. Both The Spider’s Lullabye and The Graveyard will include live “bootleg” versions (with video footage) of the following songs: 'The Spider's Lullabye' from the album of the same name, and ‘Trick Or Treat' and 'Up From The Grave' from The Graveyard.
“Andy LaRocque re-mastered both records and you can really hear more details and sounds that I remember recording but didn’t come through in the original mastering. The records have much more bottom end this time around. There’s even more details and clarity than the original version and you’ll hear things you’ve never heard before in both releases. Andy did a great job re-mastering and improving these albums above and beyond my expectations. The artwork has also been completely redone for Spiders and Graveyard and is just amazing. I did not expect them to come out this good and am just completely thrilled with the result.
We originally were going to include bonus footage on the albums as a CD-ROM, but the sound and video quality was going to suffer tremendously and that is just unacceptable. Instead, the bonus footage is going to be available for download to those who purchase the albums. The video downloads will be available in multiple formats so everyone can see them” commented King Diamond.
It has also been confirmed that the two KING DIAMOND songs 'Welcome Home' and 'Cremation' will appear on the upcoming videogame, Brutal Legend, scheduled for release in October.
Both KING DIAMOND and MERCYFUL FATE have worked out a deal with C1rca Shoes to have featured artwork on several of their sneakers, the first pair set to arrive in October 2009 with more to follow in 2010. Make sure to keep an eye on the official King Diamond/Mercyful Fate site http://www.covenworldwide.org/ for product details and updates.
Expect the first ever DVD from KING DIAMOND as early as the winter 2009 or as late as early 2010.
http://www.covenworldwide.org/
http://www.myspace.com/kingdiamond
Heavy metal frontman King Diamond to join the digital cast of Guitar Hero® Metallica®
Having united forces with rock ‘n’ roll legends Metallica for encore performances and recordings throughout the years, Grammy® Award-nominated heavy metal vocalist and Mercyful Fate frontman King Diamond will take to the cyber-stage with Metallica this spring in Activision Publishing Inc.’s Guitar Hero® Metallica®.
Fans, stagehands and groupies alike will have the opportunity to shred and drum with or wail as the digital King Diamond during performances of “Evil.” The song, which originally was recorded in 1983 and is one of the Mercyful Fate songs that comprise Metallica’s “Mercyful Fate” medley, was re-recorded by four of the five original band members for Guitar Hero Metallica. The recording session was overseen by guitarist Hank Shermann in the band’s native Denmark; after which King Diamond laid down his vocals in Dallas, Texas, and mixed the song with J.T. Longoria.
“It's been absolutely amazing to be a part of this Guitar Hero experience. It was quite a trip to re-record the song ‘Evil’ almost 25 years after the original recording took place. The end result with four out of the five original musicians turned out so much better than I would ever have hoped for,” said King Diamond. “Seeing my animated character take form was totally eerie in a very good way. It's so strange to see yourself animated in such perfect detail - cross bone microphone, Eye necklace and all. This game looks and sounds METAL all the way. HORNS UP!!!”
“Ride the Lightning” with musical icons Metallica and 21 other rockin’ acts in an all new Guitar Hero® experience – Guitar Hero Metallica. Enter the world of Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo and experience the intensity and skill of one of the greatest bands of all time. Shred on the guitar controller, rip on the drum kit controller and wail on the mic to a set list featuring over 45 explosive hits from Metallica’s illustrious career and a wide variety of other legendary artists personally selected by the band, such as Alice In Chains, Bob Seger, Foo Fighters, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Queen. Fans will be able to rock as Metallica while performing in venues reminiscent of the band’s epic album covers, themes from their music and real world locales.
Guitar Hero Metallica is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The Wii™ home video game system from Nintendo and the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system versions are being developed by Budcat. The game is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB. For more information about Guitar Hero Metallica, please visit guitarhero.com.
http://www.myspace.com/kingdiamond
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