Published on Feb 11, 2001
Before King Diamond made his mark on the world of heavy metal,
both with Mercyful Fate and as a solo artist, he was leaving a scar
on the face of Denmark with the group Black Rose. While many people
might not know of Diamond’s pre-Mercyful Fate work, Diamond seems
to recall his days with this band fondly – borne out by his liner
notes to
20 Years Ago: A Night Of Rehearsal, a previously-unreleased
session of Black Rose literally practicing together.
If you pick up this disc expecting to hear some early form of
Mercyful Fate, you are going to be in for a shock. What you’re
instead presented with is a band whose inspiration comes heavily
from Deep Purple (especially in the instrumentation). Also, Diamond
does not often use the falsetto he has become synonymous for,
instead allowing his still-developing vocals to carve their own
unique path across the songs.
No lyrics to the songs are provided in the liner notes, so I’m
at a bit of a loss when it comes to taking songs like “Virgin,”
“Kill For Fun” and “Doctor Cranium” and comparing them to Diamond’s
later musical output. What can be said about Black Rose is that
they did show their skill more often than you might expect, and
this rehearsal recording, despite some technical weaknesses (like
not having Diamond mixed up high enough), is surprisingly clear.
Why Black Rose never got more notice outside of Denmark can be
debated; maybe the rest of the world wasn’t ready for the violent
stage show which predated some of W.A.S.P.’s antics. But they just
might have had a good chance at being on the cutting edge of the
second wave of heavy metal coming across the sea to America.
So what makes this disc so special? Possibly it’s the rawness of
the setting and the human aspect of recording – even including the
false starts and band conversation (albeit in Danish; Diamond
translates in the liner notes). Possibly it’s the bare energy of a
band who knows they have what it takes to get somewhere. Possibly
it’s the near-note perfect cover of Golden Earring’s “Radar Love”
that closes out the disc. Whatever the case, this is a disc well
worth your time.
Even today, just over 20 years after this rehearsal was recorded
for posterity, the music sounds incredibly fresh. Maybe it’s
because almost all of the civilized world has not had time to get
adjusted to what Black Rose was doing, or maybe it’s because the
songwriting was strong, even back then. But
20 Years Ago: A Night Of Rehearsal is the kind of disc that
gives the listener an interesting glance into Diamond’s musical
past, with only a few hints at what path he would take in just a
few short years.