King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque recently offered 'The Metal Voice' updates on the band's long-awaited new album The Institute, which is expected to surface in 2022 and will be their first full-length studio offering in 15 years. The band released their first song in over a decade, "Masquerade Of Madness", about two years ago and it was promoted as the album's lead single.

LaRocque stated: "During COVID-19 we have been working on and writing for King Diamond, I know people have been saying it takes forever but yeah it does. We want to have the best material when we pick out the good songs before we start recording them. Our goal is to go out on the road again when all this COVID stuff is over with but before that we need to have an album out there. We got some pressure yes. King has got the basic lines of the story already in his mind and I have 4-5 songs that are possible for the next album. I know King has got tons of riffs. As soon as he sits down and gets it down on tape it's going to go fast."

He also commented on the COVID situation that foiled the band's plans to play shows: "COVID was difficult because we had a few shows booked at the time it started, it came like a shock for all of us I believe, we were kind of paralyzed in the beginning and then we tried to make the best out of it and that was just to sit down and write riffs. Yeah we got a little paralyzed with all this happening we just tried to adapt to the new situation and make new plans for the future."

On his vision for the new album, LaRocque says: "Melodies of course, super important, without melodies there is no music. I am also envisioning a more organic sound on the album. If you look back to the older albums, when Mikkey [Dee] played, a little up and down in tempos, that makes it dynamic and also organic. So that is one thing I would like to hear on the next album an organic feel. The drummer is a really important thing and I know that Matt Thomson is the right guy to do it."

Source:	youtube.com
Band profile:	King Diamond