King Diamond has been teasing new (apparently) triple album The Institute for quite some time now. We only recently got a new single called "Spider Lilly" both as a studio version and played live, and apparently there's another one coming called "Lobotomy" coming this June. Or at least the band is planning on playing it live, according to Diamond himself in an interview with Full Metal Jackie.
In the interview, Diamond notes he and the band planned on playing "Lobotomy" during their recent North American tour, but didn't get it done in time despite having the stage props for it all ready to go.
"There's so much, actually. There's another song we played live, which has not been finished yet, but it's extremely close. But it's not like we are working on one song at a time; we are working on the entire album. And so there's 10 titles right now that's being worked on simultaneously, and was being worked on before the tour as well.
"And one is almost done. The lyric is not completely finished, but all the parts for the lyric is there — the way to sing it is there completely. It's one of the songs that will probably have a guest sharing one of the characters with me, the different moods of that character. And this is a song called 'Lobotomy', which all the music is written except for the guitar solos that the guitarist will do themselves.
"There's an intro and a small outro on that one song, on 'Lobotomy'. There's another song called 'The Nun' that has old Hammond [organ] from start to finish, actually — super raw. Lots of stuff — very, very tricky parts, tempo changes. And it's a very full power, double kick. But this one, 'Lobotomy', is heavy and very dark. I played it, just the music, for [Metal Blade Records founder and CEO] Brian Slagel one day at my house and he was, like, 'That is so dark.'
"And it's turned out exactly like it should. It also has some Hammond parts in it that makes it really crazy, because we're actually gonna perform it live. And we had an extra wheelchair, actually, on stage that was supposed to be for 'Lobotomy', but 'Lobotomy' never got finished completely. So, in Europe, we are hoping that — of course it will be done by [the time we start the European tour] — but we will be able to do 'Lobotomy' and show it on stage."
So when can we expect King Diamond's long awaited new album The Institute to come out? According to guitarist and songwriter Andy LaRocque in a recent interview with The Metal Voice, everything should be wrapped up in Spring 2025 and the album will be out before King Diamond does the European festival circuit in the summer.
"We are still working on it and as soon as we get back from tour we're going to have a little Christmas break and then we're going to pick it up again," said LaRocque late in 2024. "So the plan is to have everything done this spring. It will be released shortly after the European summer Festival tour and all that that's the plan we have."
King Diamond is hitting the road across Europe this spring and summer for a handful of festival dates and some venue shows with Paradise Lost, Angel Witch, and Unto Others. Get all the dates below (with their corresponding openers). Tickets are available here.
6/4 Sölvesborg, Sweden Sweden Rock Festival
6/6 Gdansk, Poland Mystic Festival
6/7 Berlin, Germany Columbiahalle (w/ Paradise Lost & Angel Witch)
6/8 Plzen, Czech Republic Metalfest Plzen
6/10 Wiesbaden, Germany Schlachthof (w/ Paradise Lost & Angel Witch)
6/11 Tilburg, Netherlands 013 (w/ Paradise Lost & Angel Witch)
6/13 Oberhausen, Germany Turbinenhalle (w/ Paradise Lost & Angel Witch)
6/14 Ludwigsburg, Germany Mhp Arena (w/ Paradise Lost & Angel Witch)
6/16 Milan, Italy Alcatraz (w/ Paradise Lost)
6/17 Zurich, Switzerland Komplex 457 (w/ Paradise Lost)
6/20 Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhell
6/22 Dessel, Belgium Graspop Metal Meeting
6/26 Cartagena, Spain Rock Imperium Festival
6/30 Manchester, England Manchester Academy (w/ Paradise Lost & Unto Others)
7/1 London, England The Roundhouse (w/ Paradise Lost & Unto Others)
7/3 Ballenstedt, Germany Rockharz Festival
7/5 Dunaujvaros, Hungary Rockmaraton
7/8 Bucharest, Romania Arenale Romane (w/ Unto Others)
7/9 Sofia, Bulgaria Arena Sofia (w/ Unto Others)
7/10 Athens, Greece Rockwave Festival
7/31 Bergen, Norway Beyond The Gates Festival
8/8 Helsinki, Finland Hellsinki Metal Fest
