KING DIAMOND's "Halloween", the three-track picture disc first issued in 1986, is being re-released worldwide on October 23 via Metal Blade Records with new artwork by Mario Lopez. The timing is not subtle, and does not need to be.
The contents are drawn from the band's first year. The title track and "The Candle" both come from the 1986 debut "Fatal Portrait" — "The Candle" opened it, and belongs to the early run of storytelling that would become the whole architecture of KING DIAMOND records. "The Lake" was recorded around the same sessions but was left off the nine-track album, which makes this the easiest place to find it. "Halloween" was produced by King Diamond and Rune Höyer, with production assistance from Michael Denner and engineering by Roberto Falcao.
"Halloween" track listing:
- A1. Halloween
- B1. The Candle
- B2. The Lake
There is a second thing this reissue does, whether or not Metal Blade intended it. The 1986 recording lineup printed on the sleeve is King Diamond on vocals, Andy La Rocque and Michael Denner on lead guitars, Timi Hansen on bass and Mikkey Dee on drums — a lineup that reads differently in 2026 than it would have a year ago. La Rocque and King Diamond parted after forty years earlier this month, with Gus G of FIREWIND stepping in, so the picture disc arrives as a document of the partnership's first weeks just as its last ones are being processed. Hansen died in 2019; Dee has spent the intervening decades in MOTÖRHEAD and SCORPIONS.
The band's present shape is King Diamond on vocals, Gus G and Mike Wead on guitars, Pontus Egberg on bass and Matt Thompson on drums. The forward-looking business is a horror trilogy whose first part is titled "Saint Lucifer's Hospital 1920"; its lead single "Spider Lilly", mixed and mastered by Arthur Rizk with a guest appearance from Myrkur and a video shot at the Pennhurst Asylum outside Philadelphia, came out in December 2024. The most recent full album remains 2007's Grammy-nominated "Give Me Your Soul…Please", which is a long time to keep an audience waiting and, on the evidence of ticket sales, no obstacle at all.
Pre-orders for the LP are open now.