๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ - ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐จ๐ย ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ & ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐โฆ
16 years ago today, King Diamond told us the tale of the house on Neverending Hill!
On this day (June 26) in 2007, King Diamond released his twelfth full-length solo studio album, "Give Me Your Soul...Please via MASSACRE RECORDS.
Background:
The album's concept and cover art are both based on a painting titled "My Mother's Eyes". The black cat featured in the album is based on King's own cat, Magic. This was the last album to feature bassist Hal Patino, who was fired from the band in 2014.
In the July/August issue of UK Metal magazine Zero Tolerance, King elaborated on the themes of the album, being a story of two dead children, murdered by their father, relating their tale to him. He stated that cases of parents killing their children and then themselves were a large influence, citing such an incident which occurred in Dallas four days before the interview took place. Coincidentally, the music video for "Give Me Your Soul" was also released the day after the highly publicized Chris Benoit double-murder and suicide.
The Albums Plot:
At the beginning, a sister and brother are waiting in the afterlife. The brother is to go to Hell, so the sister decides to find another soul for him so that he can follow her to Heaven ("The Dead"). She takes off to a house in Neverending Hill, where King Diamond lives with his black cat, Magic ("Neverending Hill"). The girl tries to contact him for help but she only manages to haunt him ("Is Anybody Here?", "Black of Night").
As the darkness grows, objects are moving on their own, lights flicker ("Shapes of Black") and the temperature drops to freezing levels ("Cold as Ice"), and haunted by the bodyless ghost with only a head ("The Floating Head"), King uses black magic to contact the girl ("The Cellar", "Pictures in Red"). She reveals that her father chopped up her brother with an axe, splashing her with his blood, then choked her to death before shooting himself in the head.
The "Thirteen Judges" mistakenly think that the brother committed suicide, so she needs to find a soul free of sin for him ("Give Me Your Soul"). She wants Diamond's soul but, since she finds him full of sin when she gazes at him, he pleads with her to leave and find another soul before sunrise ("The Girl in the Bloody Dress"). The girl decides to come to "THIS house" (implying a visit at the listener's home) ("Moving On").
A music video was filmed for "Give Me Your Soul". Depicting King and his bandmates as ghosts, it tells the story of the girl and her brother being killed by the father. It premiered on MTV's HeadBangers Ball on Wednesday, February 27, 2008.
Critical Reception:
The track "Neverending Hill" was nominated for a 2008 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance but lost to Slayer's "Final Six". The album peaked at #174 on the Billboard 200. Also the album charted in the Finnish Charts (peaked at #25) and in the Swedish Charts (peaked at #28).
AllMusicโs Greg Prato writes; โGive Me Your Soul...Please is exactly what you'd expect from Diamond and his band -- metallic riffing, proggy song structures, and, of course, an emphasis on King's multi-octave vocal range. To experience some vintage King Diamond, take your pick of such headbangers as "Never Ending Hill" and "Mirror Mirror," or creepy ballads like "Pictures in Red." You can always rely on King Diamond to deliver some good ol' horror metal tales, and Give Me Your Soul...Please certainly delivers.
Noteworthy:
This was the only album to be released by King Diamond in the past 15 years. In late November 2010, King Diamond was rushed to the hospital after having several heart attacks. There it was discovered that three of his arteries had been blocked, which meant he had to undergo triple bypass surgery. Following a successful operation, he returned home to rest. An new album was set to be released in 2020, tentatively titled โThe Instituteโ, but has been pushed back to 2023. The first single from the album, "Masquerade of Madness", was made available for streaming on November 8, 2019.
Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:
Click this link to listen to โGive Me Your Soulโฆ Please!โ via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/give-me-your-soul-please/257150114
Click this link to listen to โGive Me Your Soulโฆ Please!โ via Spotify: Give Me Your Soul...Please https://open.spotify.com/album/397QdD9P9VmgT7xQ4loIe5
Click this link to watch the official music video for โGive Me Your Soulโ: https://youtu.be/8tl-N9FJMpY
Click this link to follow King Diamond on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kingdiamond
Click this link to follow Andy La Rocque on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/andylarocque.official/
Click this link to follow Hal Patino on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HalPatinoOfficial
Click this link to follow Mike Wead on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MikeWead/
Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. โ E.N. Wells
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