20 Years Ago: A Night Of Rehearsal

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 Den ...

20 Years Ago: A Night Of Rehearsal
20 Years Ago: A Night Of Rehearsal
King Diamond & Black Rose
Metal Blade Records, 2001
REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/11/2001
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 scaron the face of Denmark with the group Black Rose. While many peoplemight not know of Diamond's pre-Mercyful Fate work, Diamond seemsto recall his days with this band fondly - borne out by his linernotes to 20 Years Ago: A Night Of Rehearsal, a previously-unreleasedsession of Black Rose literally practicing together.
If you pick up this disc expecting to hear some early form ofMercyful Fate, you are going to be in for a shock. What you'reinstead presented with is a band whose inspiration comes heavilyfrom Deep Purple (especially in the instrumentation). Also, Diamonddoes not often use the falsetto he has become synonymous for,instead allowing his still-developing vocals to carve their ownunique path across the songs.
No lyrics to the songs are provided in the liner notes, so I'mat a bit of a loss when it comes to taking songs like "Virgin,""Kill For Fun" and "Doctor Cranium" and comparing them to Diamond'slater musical output. What can be said about Black Rose is thatthey did show their skill more often than you might expect, andthis rehearsal recording, despite some technical weaknesses (likenot having Diamond mixed up high enough), is surprisingly clear.Why Black Rose never got more notice outside of Denmark can bedebated; maybe the rest of the world wasn't ready for the violentstage show which predated some of W.A.S.P.'s antics. But they justmight have had a good chance at being on the cutting edge of thesecond wave of heavy metal coming across the sea to America.
So what makes this disc so special? Possibly it's the rawness ofthe setting and the human aspect of recording - even including thefalse starts and band conversation (albeit in Danish; Diamondtranslates in the liner notes). Possibly it's the bare energy of aband who knows they have what it takes to get somewhere. Possiblyit's the near-note perfect cover of Golden Earring's "Radar Love"that closes out the disc. Whatever the case, this is a disc wellworth your time.

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