King Diamond recently unveiled their new song "Masquerade Of Madness" off the coming album The Institute. The song immediately starting getting compared to very early King Diamond, meaning just about everyone loved it. Guitarist Andy La Rocque confirmed to The Metal Voice that The Institute overall is going to be very inspired by old King Diamond, meaning he's done his job well.
"I've been looking back to the origin of King Diamond, back in the '80s. And that's what we tried to go back and find — the original roots kind of thing. So I would say it's back to the roots. A lot of riffs will be, like, well, you'll recognize some of the style from the early albums. And it seems like everyone likes that."
As far as a release date for The Institute, La Rocque said the album is still being written.
"So far, we only have one song from the upcoming album, because we're working on the new songs for the next album. But we really haven't composed that many songs yet. I have, like, four or five in the loop, and King has a lot of ideas [in his head] that he hasn't had time to realize down on the computer yet. So one song is what we managed this summer to play live."
King Diamond will also reunite with Mercyful Fate in 2020 and will play new songs, their first since 1999.
