Vocal Analysis: King Diamond

Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson are the archetypal Heavy metal singers, combining shrill tenor voices with prolonged mixed voice screams that still sounded very full and present despite the ascension to the higher octaves of the male range. Powerful and soaring above the distorsion of the guitars, this style was perfect for expressing triumph, grandeur and desperation yet something was lacking. Occult themes and horrors were man was insignificant couldn’t be explored with such rallying cries.

Enter Kim Bendix Petersen. Taking influence from David Byron’s falsetto and overly dramatic approach while incorporating the aggression of Rob Halford mixed with the varied approach of Arthur Brown. The shrill tenor voice was still apparent on proto Mercyful Fate project Brats but the seeds were planted for what would become his signature style.

While “Fighting for the Knighthood” would never be released by Mercyful Fate unlike the other songs on the Brats demo, a lot of the riffs and ideas were recycled for “Satan’s Fall” including the way that KD would approach vocals for the rest of his career. The approach to the high notes was completely to the forced screams of similar vocalists. Instead King opts for a smoother and controlled approach similar to the contratenors of the IXth century. Contratenors were tenors and baritones who had learnt to sing solely with their head voice to replace the outlawed castrati singers. The floaty approach was the only possible way to sound angelic while still retaining a masculine quality to the voice. King Diamond took this style from David Byron and with the darker riffs beneath him would create haunting vocal melodies and harmonies.

Demo 1981 would mark a great change for KD’s natural sung tone. Eschewing the shouted cat like approach completely for an overly dramatic tenor whine. The distorsion was completely removed and replaced with a wobbling vibrato that sounds almost uncontrolled. A much fuller voice similar to the Verismo style of Opera that succeeded the Classical period. The Verismo era was marked by a rejection of mythology and nobility in favour of the plight of the common man. The singing strayed away from the Bel Canto format to a declamatory form that featured laughter, cries and shouts.

As unlikely as it is that King was directly inspired from the Verismo style, it is undeniable he inherited the tradition through his influences though adapted for the Merycful Fate style. From there KD would only look to develop his style towards the same direction with some additional flourishes and the ability to change between the full song voice and the airy contratenor falsetto mid phrase. The eponymous EP marks the complete refinement of King’s style in both style and execution. At this point King Diamond was a refined vocalist and would only add more tools to his arsenal.

For Melissa, the band had access to better recording facilities and certainly more time as vocal harmonies were used extensively. Vocal Harmonies require the ability to be consistent with pitch. Luckily that was not an issue as King had stated himself that during the recording sessions, he was once able to match a note in the harmony to such an extent that when played together in inverted phases, they cancelled each other out due to how they were virtually identical. Songs like “Curse of the Pharoah” and “Into the Coven” would feature complex harmonies to provide tension while King delivered fantastic vocal hooks in his trademark tenor whine. King had now fully developed into a virtuoso with full control of his instrument yet never fell into a narcissistic haze of dominating the music.

Production values were improved even further on Don’t Break the Oath and many vocal effects were applied. The reverb was particularly thick yet covered by the guitars. The large jumps in pitch were smoothed out and the harmonies were widened. No new techniques were added to the already vast panel of voices available. King focused on small variations of his style. Adding more grit to the tenor voice when needed. Thinning out the falsetto at times as a lead voice to more aptly evoke the horrific lyrics. The controlled screams that form the harmony on “Come to the Sabbath” to conclude the album. The reverb drenched intro of “Welcome Princess of Hell” that sets the way for the piercing screech. The list of subtle innovations were never pushed to the forefront of the music but were tailor suited for each passage and many of these ideas would never resurface in his career which shows the care and the effort that was put forth into his magnum opus.

Much later in his solo career, King Diamond would carry one final surprise. On the song “Sleepless Nights” when faced with portraying an evil spirit in the narrative style that his lyrics, King delivers a low haunting growl that contrasts his clean falsettos. Gravely yet still tonal unlike the Death metal vocals that were coming to be during that time. The throat singing provides the tools for King to create a demonic voice without resorting to the atonal Death metal that would feel inappropriate adjacent to his melodic vocals and possibly outside of his reach.

While the music throughout the rest of his career would drift away from the groundbreaking classics. King Diamond’s voice would forever remain a highlight. His guest appearances on the Roadrunner compilation and Usurper’s Necronemesis would push those songs to new heights. Very few dared to copy him and even fewer succeeded. A unique voice in metal that has yet to be built upon. His virtuoso technique kept him out of the reach of most metal singers but the ideas on a theoretical level inspired legions of Death and Black metal vocalists. The high/low attack that is now ubiquitous in Extreme metal can trace its origins here. There is only one King in metal and his name is King Diamond