King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque recently spoke with The Metal Voice about the band’s two new songs. During the chat, the guitarist confirmed a new upcoming album and shared a predicted date for it.
“No, it’s not. We’re still working on it,” LaRocque responded when asked if they finished the record. “And as soon as we get back from tour, we’re gonna have a little Christmas break and then we’re gonna pick it up again.”
“So the plan is to have everything done this spring, and it will be released shortly after the European summer festival tour and all that. That’s the plan we have,” he added.
The band’s first studio album in 18 years is titled ‘The Institute,’ and is set for release in 2025 via Metal Blade. The album will be presented as a two-LP horror concept story, with the second part to be released at a later time.
LaRocque also discussed the new songs in more detail during the same interview. He explained that ‘Spider Lilly’ was only completed just before the tour began and is expected to be one of the singles for ‘The Institute.’
“That idea came up from King. I don’t know exactly when but he’s been working on it for quite a while,” the guitarist said. “I think the lyrics for it got done just like a few days before the tour started actually. He sent me the basics of the song just a few days, like a week prior to the tour starting, I believe. So we had to learn it real fast, record it because we knew that we’re going to shoot it on video too. So it’s the newest song we have right now that we actually play live.”
As for ‘Electro Therapy,’ LaRocque revealed that the song has been in the works for about five years.
King Diamond is currently on his fall North American headlining tour, named the ‘Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920 Tour.’ The tour kicked off on October 15th in San Antonio and features support from Overkill and Night Demon. It will wrap up on December 6th in Dallas.