King Diamond

King Diamond — Kim Bendix Petersen, born in Copenhagen on 14 June 1956 — is one of the most recognisable voices in metal history, and one of the few artists in the genre whose influence is as visual as it is sonic. His vocal signature is falsetto. Rather than singing in the deep, powerful register heavy metal had established, he builds characters in high, piercing voices, alternating them with low registers within the same song, as though acting out dialogue. The effect is theatrical by intent: it is not a display of range, it is dramaturgy. He founded Mercyful Fate in Denmark in 1981, and with Melissa (1983) and Don't Break the Oath (1984) laid one of the foundations of what would become black metal — in the occult lyrics, the atmosphere and above all the face paint he adopted years before corpse paint became the uniform of an entire scene. Norwegian bands of the 1990s acknowledged that debt openly. In 1985 he created the band bearing his name, and there did something rare in metal: concept albums with an actual plot. Abigail (1987) tells a ghost story with characters, a sequence of events and a resolution, spread across the whole record — not a collection of songs about a theme, but a continuous narrative. He repeated the method on Them (1988), The Eye (1990) and Abigail II (2002). He underwent heart surgery in 2010 and resumed the activity of both bands afterwards.