KING DIAMOND

November 6, 2024
Cleveland Agora

By: Michael Strong

The hallowed halls of the legendary Cleveland Agora were buzzing with anticipation, waiting to see His Royal Majesty and the place nearly exploded time after time, throughout King Diamond’s blistering set.

Opening with “Arrival” and not taking his claws off the crowd’s collective throat until the the last notes of “Abigail” rang out into the night. The band recreated every note perfectly from the King’s lengthy discography, while the King himself sang like an angel, albeit a fallen one. Switching effortlessly from the highest screams to the low guttural growls, King Diamond proves to be a maestro, yet again.

The band itself was up to the tall task of backing the King. Long time collaborating guitarists, Andy LaRoque and Mike Wead dazzled with every riff and sweeping solo, never missing a note while the frothing crowd all tried to keep up valiantly on our air guitars. Pontus Egberg was nonstop energy on bass, guest vocalist/keyboardist Myrkur’s vocals seemed low in mix, but honestly does KD need any help?

Matt Thompson is an unrelenting machine on the drums, just destroying everything in his path, in the best possible way. From the intro to “Welcome Home” to the groove in “Abigail”, Matt is just flawless.

Bludgeoning through a setlist that included everything from encore “Abigail” to “Halloween” crowd favorites “Voodoo”, “Welcome Home”, “Eye of the Witch” and “Burn”, King Diamond, the man and the band had the whole joint on edge waiting to see and hear what’s next.
Being that it was souled out, seeing all the nonstop action on stage was hard the vertically challenged. Catching glimpse of the nurse/grandma, the mutant baby always lends to the story. The King, in all his regalia is worthy of craning your neck and getting on your tiptoes to peek around the talls.   The “St. Lucifer’s Hospital 1920” set was dynamic and harrowing, with all the usual King Diamond visuals and then some. Truthfully, the music stands on its own, but the theatrics make it an extravagant rock event not to be missed.

Night Demon kicked off the night riling up the audience with their classic mix of Metallica/Mötörhead thrash, with dabs of the Scorpions styled riffs and a sprinkle of Malice. Energetically blasting through songs, leading off with  “Outsider” and closing with namesake “Night Demon”, this three piece really laid it all out there. Even providing some theatrics of their own during “The Chalice”.

Mid card, Overkill. An absolute Cleveland favorite for decades. Some recent changes in their lineup has affected the precision tightness they delivered for the last 10 years or so, but Bobby Blitz and the boys still had some highlights.  One of course, bringing the crowd to a fever pitch during set closer was “Fuck You!” “Elimination” was beefy, but definitely was lacking DD’s signature bass tone(get well soon, Legend.) “Hello From the Gutter” riled everyone in the crowd up, even with its looser performance. “The Surgeon” was a particular display of the new lineup being locked in.

Overall, a great night for heavy metal in the Rock n Roll Capital.