Kim Bendix Petersen
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Member
Guest musician
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Personal information
Also known as: King Diamond, Masthema Mazziqim
Born on: 14.06.1956
King Diamond (born Kim Bendix Petersen, June 14, 1956, Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Grammy Award nominated heavy metal musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his use of falsetto, mixed with mid-range vocals in most of his music. As the frontman for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond, his music has had an influence on many bands across a variety of metal sub-genres.
On stage, Diamond uses a trademark microphone handle consisting of a femur bone and a tibia bone in the shape of an inverted cross. A live trademark was also Melissa, a full human skeleton which Diamond would sing to. In the mid-1980s Melissa's skull was stolen after a performance in the Netherlands. It was claimed to have been finally returned in 2006. however, this was denied by King Diamond himself. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons claims to have sent Diamond a cease-and-desist letter over Diamond's makeup design, which Diamond complied with.
Diamond has changed the design of his make-up often over the years. With Conspiracy, he wore a mesh of black and white line war paint, with some red "blood" made to look like a wound coming out of his forehead. With his album The Puppet Master, he used very little white and mainly had black inverted crosses going up and down his face.
During a spring 1984 interview with British heavy metal magazine Kerrang! correspondent Dave Dickson, who, after some introductory remarks and questions about the then-current Mercyful Fate album Don't Break The Oath, took Diamond to task regarding his Satanic beliefs. Dickson made frequent references to infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, by whom Diamond denied being influenced. Diamond expressed his admiration of Anton Szandor LaVey (founder of The Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966) in the interview, which has been cited by some as influential in the demise of Mercyful Fate (although Diamond has always denied this). In the same interview he claimed to have cursed Manowar, as Fate had briefly toured as a support act to Manowar in the UK, and there were personality conflicts between the two bands.
He adorns himself with inverted crosses, the sigil of Baphomet (from the LaVeyan perspective) and has written lyrics openly hostile to Christianity (as evidenced in "The Oath" with lyrics including "I deny Jesus Christ, The Deceiver, and I abjure the Christian faith holding in contempt the whole of its works"). However, with the albums released under his own name, he has downplayed the overt Satanism in favour of a "horror movie" approach, though he still wears inverted crosses as jewellery and makeup.
In an interview from 2006, King Diamond reveals that he does not follow any specific religion, and expresses concern that religion has led so many people to kill and destroy each other. He stated that he cannot comprehend why religion has caused so much death and destruction, when it is logically impossible to prove the presence or absence of any god (for example, the Holocaust, Crusades, etc.). He reveals that he has reached a point in his life where he has completely given up believing in anything religious and that he simply does not know what to answer when asked whether he is a Satanist or not.
On November 29, 2010, King was taken to hospital where they discovered several blockages in his arteries. They determined that he had had several heart attacks and that he needed triple-bypass surgery. The surgery was performed successfully. On December 11, 2010 it was announced that he is at home recovering. All his music projects will be on hold for the time being.
Marital status
King Diamond is married to Livia Zita, a Hungarian-born singer who has made appearances as a backup vocalist on the albums The Puppet Master and Give Me Your Soul... Please, as well as during live performances. She is also his business partner, and is currently working with him to compile old footage for two planned DVD releases of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate live performances. She also helped him make remastered editions of the King Diamond albums The Spider's Lullabye, The Graveyard, Voodoo and House of God.
Born on: 14.06.1956
King Diamond (born Kim Bendix Petersen, June 14, 1956, Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Grammy Award nominated heavy metal musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his use of falsetto, mixed with mid-range vocals in most of his music. As the frontman for both Mercyful Fate and the eponymous King Diamond, his music has had an influence on many bands across a variety of metal sub-genres.
On stage, Diamond uses a trademark microphone handle consisting of a femur bone and a tibia bone in the shape of an inverted cross. A live trademark was also Melissa, a full human skeleton which Diamond would sing to. In the mid-1980s Melissa's skull was stolen after a performance in the Netherlands. It was claimed to have been finally returned in 2006. however, this was denied by King Diamond himself. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons claims to have sent Diamond a cease-and-desist letter over Diamond's makeup design, which Diamond complied with.
Diamond has changed the design of his make-up often over the years. With Conspiracy, he wore a mesh of black and white line war paint, with some red "blood" made to look like a wound coming out of his forehead. With his album The Puppet Master, he used very little white and mainly had black inverted crosses going up and down his face.
During a spring 1984 interview with British heavy metal magazine Kerrang! correspondent Dave Dickson, who, after some introductory remarks and questions about the then-current Mercyful Fate album Don't Break The Oath, took Diamond to task regarding his Satanic beliefs. Dickson made frequent references to infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, by whom Diamond denied being influenced. Diamond expressed his admiration of Anton Szandor LaVey (founder of The Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966) in the interview, which has been cited by some as influential in the demise of Mercyful Fate (although Diamond has always denied this). In the same interview he claimed to have cursed Manowar, as Fate had briefly toured as a support act to Manowar in the UK, and there were personality conflicts between the two bands.
He adorns himself with inverted crosses, the sigil of Baphomet (from the LaVeyan perspective) and has written lyrics openly hostile to Christianity (as evidenced in "The Oath" with lyrics including "I deny Jesus Christ, The Deceiver, and I abjure the Christian faith holding in contempt the whole of its works"). However, with the albums released under his own name, he has downplayed the overt Satanism in favour of a "horror movie" approach, though he still wears inverted crosses as jewellery and makeup.
In an interview from 2006, King Diamond reveals that he does not follow any specific religion, and expresses concern that religion has led so many people to kill and destroy each other. He stated that he cannot comprehend why religion has caused so much death and destruction, when it is logically impossible to prove the presence or absence of any god (for example, the Holocaust, Crusades, etc.). He reveals that he has reached a point in his life where he has completely given up believing in anything religious and that he simply does not know what to answer when asked whether he is a Satanist or not.
On November 29, 2010, King was taken to hospital where they discovered several blockages in his arteries. They determined that he had had several heart attacks and that he needed triple-bypass surgery. The surgery was performed successfully. On December 11, 2010 it was announced that he is at home recovering. All his music projects will be on hold for the time being.
Marital status
King Diamond is married to Livia Zita, a Hungarian-born singer who has made appearances as a backup vocalist on the albums The Puppet Master and Give Me Your Soul... Please, as well as during live performances. She is also his business partner, and is currently working with him to compile old footage for two planned DVD releases of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate live performances. She also helped him make remastered editions of the King Diamond albums The Spider's Lullabye, The Graveyard, Voodoo and House of God.