PHOTOS + REVIEW — King Diamond 2024 ⋆ Shows I Go To | 🎤 Florida Concerts, Festivals, & Giveaways

PHOTOS + REVIEW — King Diamond 2024

King Diamond • October 26, 2024 • Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, FL • Photos by Randy Cook

LIVE REVIEW: King Diamond

King Diamond, Overkill & Night Demon | October 26, 2024 | Mahaffey Theater St. Petersburg

Danish heavy metal band, King Diamond, brought their ‘Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920’ tour to the Duke Energy Center for the Arts – Mahaffey Theater in downtown St. Petersburg, FL for a Saturday evening performance of the band’s “…ever-growing horror story…there will be some horrific surprises taking place on stage…this is Saint Lucifer’s Hospital, also known as The Institute. Enter if you dare!” With the show being so close to Halloween, there were tons of attendees in costumes and many costumes paying homage to the reason we were all gathered in the first place for some creepy metal fun.
Hailing from Ventura, California, the band Night Demon got the show off to a rousing start with their old school metal sound. Their eight song set was straight out no frills, we are going to come out here and kick your ass with our sound. It was my first introduction to this band and I absolutely loved their sound. There was already a solid crowd on hand for the opening act, and Night Demon having that traditional heavy metal sound with powerful riffs, definitely gained a new fan in me. Their musicianship, and fan interaction really made for a fun and engaging performance. The night was off to a great start.
Overkill was up next and somehow these titans of thrash metal had somehow eluded me seeing them live over my concert going years, as this would be my first time seeing them live. The word legendary barely begins to describe the influence this band has had on the thrash metal genre. With a history over four decades long, there has been some personnel turnover in the band but that does not detract from their vintage sound and the band sounded just as I was hoping and expecting. With twenty studio albums to pick the set list from, their set was a literal ‘best of’ and raised the crowd’s energy level that much higher. I saw many in the crowd proudly sporting Overkill shirts. Their sound is a relentless barrage of thrash metal fury, even their newer material staying true to that old-school thrash sound. At one point, in between songs, vocalist Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth paid tribute to the Tampa Bay area because in the mid-1980s through early-1990s, the state of Florida, especially the Tampa Bay area, became the center of development for the death metal genre.
Kim Bendix Petersen is better known by his stage name King Diamond. A vocalist hailing from Denmark, he is known for a powerful and wide-ranging countertenor singing voice, in particular his far-reaching falsetto screams. I will say it was probably the biggest stage production I have ever seen at this venue, with an almost over the top layout with staircases going up both sides of the stage over the drum riser and even with cell door # 9 in prominent display in the back center of the stage. With about as much piped in smoke and fog possible, a barely illuminated King Diamond removes the doll Abigail from her coffin and our evening of metal theatrics was underway. With such an elaborate stage set up and various additional actors intermixing with the musicians it can be difficult to take everything in. With a set list that spanned the band’s entire near forty year career and a complex horror story that is absolutely mesmerizing, it was a fantastic show.
Joining the band this evening, adding her backing vocals was Danish artist Myrkur, who was poised at the top of the left side staircase from my vantage point for my three songs behind the lens. Her vocal range has been described as haunting and she absolutely compliments and adds an additional layer of depth to the live performance of King Diamond’s amazing vocal range. She is much more than just a backing vocalist as her interaction with some of the other characters on stage were just subtle enough to not take away from the moment as a whole, but added enough of an element for me to notice, recognize and appreciate. Rounding out the band are Andy LaRocque and Mike Wead on guitar, Matt Thompson on drums and Pontus Egberg playing bass. The band sounds fantastic, crisp and tight. This is an acoustically superior venue, even one of the usher ladies came up to us photographers as we concluded and were packing our gear and praised how well the band sounded. Which in a way is funny because as interested in the demographics of the crowd I am for the Shows I Go To, for this show, knowing it was at a more upscale theater venue, I figured the older usher team working the show would think this was certainly a more ‘rougher crowd’ than usual, and here is this sweet older lady appreciating the killer sounds of heavy metal alongside the crowd.
After I had stowed my gear with security and had made it to my seat I will share that one person in the row behind me said to her companion how this show was “…way better than Halloween Horror Nights…”, that gave me a laugh and I thought to myself, you guys made the right choice. With a stage full of props and creepy eye candy, Andy and Mike weave in and out of trading sweet solos while the story on stage unfolds. I honestly did not understand all of the imagery, characters and meaning of this in-depth cross-timeline story but that did not diminish the fun that I had jamming out with this fascinating band. The plot is set in a 1920s medical horror scenario and revolves around twisted characters from various timelines, with hints of dark medical experiments and practices. Visually the stage design gives the appearance of a hospital from your nightmares. I saw a giant jar near the drum set with what looked to be an oversized human brain. There was a deceased baby suspended in a see-through box just outside of room/cell number 9. The number nine is incorporated into King Diamond’s album Abigail to represent cycles, reincarnation, and the concept of an eternal circle. As kick ass as the show was musically, I was equally fascinated by the elaborate story behind what I had just witnessed. And people say heavy metal is just noise.
King Diamond’s vocal range was the highlight of the show for me. His signature falsetto which is eerie, and sharp matches up perfectly by his growls, whispers, and spoken lines that help intensify the storytelling. The other thing that stands out is how spot on his live vocals are to the studio recordings, and I heard more than one person this night express their amazement at such a feat. There were certainly times when I could not take my eyes off Myrkur and her sultriness dancing in the shadows. The musicianship across all members of this band is brilliant, the stage set up is elaborate and the theatrics keep the audience engaged in this fantasy and eerie world from start to finish. I can easily say this is a full audio and visual experience and not just a concert. It was a fun night as I was able to meet up with several of my friends and we got to see some fantastic bands play great music.
The current tour lineup boasts nearly one hundred years of metal history on stage. King Diamond has North American tour dates that continue until early December I fully suggest anyone on the fence about going to this show to absolutely get your tickets and go! See King Diamond’s tour dates here.
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