King Diamond - Halloween [Picture Disc]

King Diamond's Halloween returns as a three-track picture disc, reviving a 1986 release for listeners who like their autumn soundtrack theatrical and properly macabre.

At the time, the Danish singer had just stepped away from Mercyful Fate to launch his own band, and his debut album Fatal Portrait introduced the storytelling horror that would define his career. This release gathered two songs from that album with a rare companion from the same period, all performed by King Diamond with guitarists Andy La Rocque and Michael Denner, bassist Timi Hansen and a young Mikkey Dee on drums. King Diamond and Rune Höyer handled production.

Halloween takes the A-side alone, a gleefully ghoulish anthem driven by twin guitars and that unmistakable falsetto, swooping from menace to theatrical shriek. Flip it over for The Candle, the atmospheric opener of Fatal Portrait, followed by The Lake, a song recorded around the same time but left off the original album.

As a picture disc it doubles as a piece of wall-worthy art between spins, and the music inside still delivers every chill it promised four decades ago. Short and all killer, it makes a perfect seasonal ritual for metal fans who keep the jack-o'-lanterns burning well past October.