Chordplay - The Chords Of King Diamond

Here's the next episode of Chordplay with The Chords Of King Diamond.
I've had numerous requests for Andy LaRocque and the music of King Diamond this year, and while I did create a Three-For-All lesson surrounding Andy last year around this time (which also featured touring guitarist Michael Moon), this lesson takes a look at Andy's inventive and aggressive chord-based ideas and rhythm playing.
This episode hits a number of classic King Diamond songs and riffs, including sections from songs such as 'Lurking In The Dark,' 'Halloween,' 'The Family Ghost,' 'Welcome Home,' and many more. As you'll discover in this lesson, Andy's a very interesting rhythm guitarist and his ideas utilize plenty of classic hard rock and metal ideas but using his own signature twist and edge to the mix.
Aside from the heavy riffing and power chord play found in this lesson, there are also a few samples of his lush clean tone ideas, including moments from 'Sleepless Nights' and 'Black Horsemen' to round things out.
There's a little bit of everything hiding in this lesson, from hard-hitting and aggressive metal riffage to ambient and atmospheric chords, so be sure to take your time tackling these ideas and explore some of the edgy ideas that Andy has to offer.
Give this episode a view, leave some comments and feedback, and please subscribe to Late Night Lessons - THANK YOU!

[@IbanezFan550]

A lot of riffs were actually written by king himself!

[@voronOsphere]

King originally never intended to be a lead vocalist. He originally just wanted to be a guitarist.

[@voronOsphere]

And King wrote the lion's share of the music on "Don't Break the Oath," including "The Oath."

[@LateNightLessons]

Hey and thanks for this comment! There were a few people on Facebook that mentioned this too and I honestly had no idea how much KD wrote/played guitar on his albums. I did read a few articles that mentioned he played guitar and wrote guitar parts for his music, but it sounded like an afterthought in those articles and I didn't know he really did write/play most of the riffs/rhythms. I had no idea and that ROCKS. : )

[@IbanezFan550]

@@LateNightLessons Yeah, the guy is a legend! Could I suggest a Mercyful Fate version of chordplay? In the Shadows and Time are fulllll of killer riffs

[@matts8708]

@@LateNightLessons yeah, I remember reading an interview where he says he writes like 70% of the music

[@todddavis4274]

Andy said that Kim (King) wrote and arranges most of the material.Just think about that. Plus performing all vocals, writing all lyrics, all storys... harmony's. King is a dedicated genius who remains true to the imagery and art.There is and can be only one King Diamond, not even mentioning the King Diamond band. Seriously World Class musicians each and every album and tour for the past 3 decades at least. One of a kind voice and mesmerizing music.Like him or not, King Diamond deserves respect.

[@stephenc.4319]

It's true KD writes a lot, but Andy also writes a significant amount of the music. On Conspiracy for example Andy has the same amount of writing credits as KD.

[@notofthisgod32]

@@stephenc.4319 King wrote every track on Them

[@caljerm]

@@notofthisgod32 the definition of "write/wrote" doesn't mean composing every single note and accent.

[@peterthomas3589]

I won the Conspiracy album on the Radio! It has the signature of every member at that time.

[@TheDesertRat31]

That's totally cool!

[@davejohnsonmusic]

Abigail is such a killer and chilling album. I must've played it a million times. That album IS metal.

[@samunden]

Bought Abigail in cassette back in the day just for the album art and fell in love with KD upon my first listen. No one does a concept album better than him. Hail to the King!

[@voronOsphere]

He never skimps on effort! King is always all in!

[@hank987]

Love the King..Andy does not get enough love! Waiting for the Mercyful Fate!

[@undeadFLESHeatinZOMB]

Andy is a phenomenal player. The whole band are fuckin rad

[@palix5925]

Andy and King are my favorite metal Duo of all time. Their songwriting is so sophisticated and heavy. Andy's Phrasing is perfect.

[@mrbigbri]

Long Live THE KING

[@mrbigbri]

In all seriousness... thanks for doing this one. Saw King Diamond for the first time back in December, I believe. Was completely blown away.

[@kimchi2780]

Andy writes some of the best chords and riffs. Sleepless Nights is Andy in a nutshell.

[@notofthisgod32]

Andy didn't write anything. King Diamond writes all the music

[@kimchi2780]

@@notofthisgod32 yeah and ozzy wrote bark at the moon

[@fivedoors4631]

When you hear "sounds something like that" you know he's nailed it. Love the channel , thanks.

[@johnny8771]

Thanks for looking at the rhythm side. He comes up with some of the coolest riffs. Sleepless nights is a crazy tune.

[@jmar482]

Great stuff. Andy is such an under rated guitarist. He kind of gets forgotten with all the 80’s shredders. His riffs were killer but so was his soloing. There’s a great story about him in the “Death” documentary where he guests on a few songs for the individual thought patterns album. They say he basically just shows up to the studio and gets straight to it. Chuck wanted to go over each song piece by piece and Andy just says I got it hit record. 👌.

[@pietrayday9915]

I'd heard a similar story about James Murphy (another guitarist who contributed to Death, along with Obituary, Disincarnate, and so many others!) Murphy too apparently just showed up for the recording, picked everything up with no practice or preparation, and just improved some killer guitar music as if he'd been doing those songs for years. My first time listening to this channel, if this fellow hasn't don one of these for James Murphy, that might be an interesting guitarist to dig into - I'm not a musician, but, like Andy's guitars, I always found Murphy's death metal guitar parts to be weirdly beautiful.

[@stephenc.4319]

They did say that on the doco, but Andy later said they were mistaken, and that he did turn up prepared with multiple solo ideas for each song. But I have no doubt he would be capable of improvising amazing solos on the spot.

[@shadcovert1160]

Got to see The King last year at the schnitz in pdx. I've been to MANY MANY concerts and shows over the years. And I can say EASILY without any doubts whatsoever that that show was the best live sound I have ever experienced anywhere. Perfect mix, perfect musicianship, King was nailing it at every turn. All TOTALLY live! No fakery with the King. Had chills all over my body damn near the whole show.

[@Stitsel]

And what's crazy....at his age, his voice sounds better than it has in over 20 years....apparently his health issues over the last several years made him clean up his act ( he quit smoking I guess ) & you are correct: I saw him about 2 years ago right before the covid nonsense & the whole band/production/everything was breathtaking & King sounded out of this world.Live sound was stellar & even Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats blew my mind! Then the Uriah Heep blasting over the PA into the lights going out was just perfect, thematically & theatrically.A seriously memorable show indeed, & I too have been to MANY shows over the last 40 yrs!!

[@josephnickell6652]

@@Stitsel I seen the same lineup in Cleveland at The Agora in '19.

[@Icedsymphony7]

Andy laroque baby

[@MateoBakija]

the whole Family ghost song is a riff party. I love to play that song on the guitar.

[@Scottocaster6668]

☝️Again! I love Fatal portrait 👍👍

[@JD-vj4go]

Thanks man. King Diamond and Mercyful Fate are my favorite bands.

[@uncleremus5046]

🍺’ski your are the man & it truly is Helloween. The King has always had great guitarists with my favorites being Laroque/ Blakk.🤘

[@peterthomas3589]

I have been listening to King Diamond since i bought the Abigail album on a summer vacation in Sweden 1987.I was 14 that summer.

[@jollyca]

I've seen a loger interview with King Diamond once - turns out he's a very down-to-earth kind of guy: huge respect for his fans, very careful about how his shows are coming across, very strict about illegal substances (he made it very clear that whoever is caught with something is fired from the team), smoked like a chimney the whole interview :)

[@michaelrayle3467]

Yeah!!!!!!! My request omg I just about fell over omg thanks man. Well other ppl probably requested it to but soo did I!!! ;):):). Have fun guys\m/

[@scottdunn2178]

Andy is my favorite guitarist next to Randy Rhoads. I love Andy's tone, and vibrato. Been a fan since the beginning. Another fantastic lesson, David. Regards 🎸

[@cybersixx]

Wow great video,,, king is my best for riffs,,, i want more

[@micheal7005]

AWESOME jamming👍 Andy is my ALL time favorite guitarist, so underrated.

[@headwinded1948]

This lesson was so good, it makes me want to go repaint my front door.

[@image30p]

Thanks for the great lesson! King is a favorite of mine. I really love those clean parts. Thank you for showing them!

[@kellyjackson7889]

Grrrandmaaaah!

[@billstevens3361]

Can you do Michael Denner and Hank Sherman from Mercyful Fate they have way more than 2 albums very underrated guitar players on lead and rythym guitar

[@voronOsphere]

Yes! And Michael Denner played on Fatal Portrait & Abigail!

[@scotth1360]

Very underrated and both legends. Very influential for other bands and myself.

[@gunslinger80sguitars]

Ohhhh damn🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻thank you!!

[@J24777]

Awesome David!!! Definitely a great Show you are doing!! Love Andy playing the Guitar!!

[@AmericanThunder]

No one sounds as sinister as Andy. He plays one riff and you know exactly who it is. King, like Ozzy, is very skillful in finding phenomenal supporting musicians. eg: Mikkey Dee = god on drums.

[@mykecasper4026]

You are Killing it this month David...Happy Haunting!!!

[@billyarsenault1970]

Dude. If you really just listened to everything starting with Melissa- your already the man without playing a note. But then you start off by playing Halloween the same fucking exact way I have been playing it since the day I learned it by ear 30 something years ago. Too funny watching someone else play it for once. Glad I had it right. Probably the only song I ever nailed the first time. As a young guitarist you hear that riff and you already see in your mind how it goes and you can’t wait to get home from school and play it. Lol. Great stuff. The rest of the vid is totally amazing- have not seen too many people capable of treating this stuff with proper respect. Blown away. Have a great one Brother.

[@jamesaleman]

Thumbs up to anyone covering KD/MF content. Thank you. In 89 we skipped school to visit a record store, I bought Them when I was 16 based on the tape cover. (Also how I found Dio/Holy Diver) Never looked back, discovered Merciful fate and life was complete. To peak at such a young age, music has been a curse since Them ;) Sure, in the 90's we got the Eye and later more content from King arrived, but how many epic albums is one man entitled to? Very impressive KD groups and music, ruined most other music. Even so, I am grateful. I could live in a parallel Earth with just 3 of their albums especially if Mikkie Dee is on drums, but instead we have many of their master works. Thank you

[@BackingTracksByTim]

Another great lesson! Thanks Dave!

[@guitarstorms]

Keep up the great work brother love all your work you do....poor eddie its a drag....hope your doing great pal

[@eddiejr540]

It always amazed me how heavy this 80’s metal sounded, and it was tuned straight up...then all these other bands came out and had to tune down 5 steps to sound heavy...I just found that kinda interestingly funny!!!!

[@shadcovert1160]

SERIOUSLY MAN! It's quite silly to me... All the downtuning, it's so ridiculous these days. So low, you can barely hear the distinction between notes. I just don't get it.

[@TheDesertRat31]

Good point. They were certainly plenty heavy at standard tuning.

[@fosymraz]

For me, that's the result of the choice of the notes. Metal had its own musical language, so as blues or jazz does. Nowadays, there's a lot of bands that makes pop music with distortion and double bass drums and pretend they're playing metal but they're not, if you remove the distortion, it's plain pop music.

[@jani.rasmussen3502]

Super lesson again🤘Mercyful Fate made another 5 Albums with King Diamond, after Melissa and Don’t Break The Oath🙂

[@voronOsphere]

The Bell Witch is a great tune from that period.

[@voronOsphere]

Nice!!!!! Great lesson! Perfect for October!!!! I didn't know Andy played for Death! I'm gonna have to check that out. Thanks, David!

[@zandig666]

This is just as good as any top tier metal that was out at the time Thanks for covering this David, like usual your playing really does it justice man

[@AE-hx7wy]

Actually Andy plays halloween in the open position, it's easier once you'll get used too it. I used to play the way you do too. But watching him live it's clear as day to see how he actually plays it.

[@virtualvortex85]

Thank you so much for this content! KZbin is deprived of King Diamond guitar related content. Please do a part 2! THANK YOU Legendary vid:D

[@samkupper]

Amazing video man, love it and thanks for all the hard work you do.

[@ollid.5590]

Love the metal of the 80s. We were blessed to witness all the great stuff that came up ... King Diamond, Accept, Stryper, Malice (they would be worth a Chordplay lesson, too). David, you picked up awesome parts of Andy‘s playing!! Congrats.

[@zandig666]

Very cool just saw mercyful fate and I love King since the early black metal days !!!

[@mksounds6326]

LaRocque is the reason I bought my H.M. Strat in '89 (he had a pink/purple B.C. superstrat). Mine still plays killer. Diamond also played all guitars on "Voices from the Past" (Fatal Portrait). Thanks for the lesson and all the best from the Bay Area. MK

[@robaxl3088]

Thanks for making this video..I’m a 30 year guitarist that loves to play some king diamond songs…Andy is such a phenomenal guitarist

[@thetakenking7061]

Andy is definitely the best player in metal. King Diamond is the only one who constantly changes key in a song which makes it way harder to solo over.

[@chogumchonsa]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Fantastic!!!!

[@joshd1062]

All hail the king. Fatal portrait is a bad ass album. I still think voodoo is my favorite but its very looked over when compared to the earlier albums.

[@JosephDunegan]

I saw King Diamond on the Abigail tour back in the late 80s. They tore it up!

[@MegaBBURKE]

I have an overwhelming thirst for knowledge I love the breakdowns

[@jasonb7693]

Thank you for this lesson! Andy is really underrated and really talented.

[@bongos4641]

Please make a video about Mick Sweda from Bulletboys!

[@Mad_Axe_Man125]

he is so underrated..dont forget King Kobra too.

[@davejohnsonmusic]

Oh yes!

[@eddiejr540]

Love the Bulletboys!!!!

[@williamsimmons4678]

Thanks David !!!

[@MedicSD]

All hail the King!! Great video! Very cool

[@todds.6012]

Power chords get a bad rap but I love playing them. It just makes the riffs sound so much heavier. Very nice lesson and I'm so glad I stumbled upon this

[@bryanmagallan6126]

Awesome as always!! Andy Laroque has some absolutely killer ideas. All those albums you showed are definitely a must jam to. They're loaded with insane riffs and parts and of course monster solos with just an insane vibrato!!

[@rrguitar1]

All those solo records were awesome! The merciful fate albums were just as great.

[@bema_seat]

There best be no thumbs down here. Very cool David.

[@scottdunn2178]

Andy said his favorite solo is Sleepless Nights.

[@WrathWithinMe]

Great episode as always!

[@jillianlynneswope]

Very Great Again! Thank you!!! The Black Horseman intro makes me miss playing Diablo II

[@stevenblakeakahashburns]

I’ve noticed Late night lessons coming up on my yt feed Loved the Iron Maiden one Loved the Judas Priest one And wondered, has he done King Diamond??? Wahey and here we are I think I’ll be subscribing to this channel

[@julianschulz1620]

PERFECT!

[@rogeralleyne9257]

Thank you for helping me discover this band!!! Solid lesson as well!!!🙏🙏🙏

[@binkywarren21]

Oh, wow! I just stumbled across this one after watching some Andy Larocque videos. Awesome job Brewster. :)

[@gavin8tor]

Timeless!!! Andy is my fav. 🤘

[@williamsimmons4678]

Bravo !!! Good playing man !!

[@michaeld2716]

Andy LaRocque mentioned that when he visits King Diamond's home to go over new material, that it is an exhausting process. K.D. has so much energy and A.L. is just trying to get his head around it and write. Please include ALL the chords for these particular songs...

[@iharjula]

Great video! For me, the coolness of King Diamond lies in the modulation of the riffs. The riffs are cool by themselves, and the vocal lines on top of them are superb, but what really makes for example The Family Ghost special instead of being "just another hair metal song", are the constant shifts in the key and rhythm, and especially the key changes. They kind of get mentioned in the video (it goes three steps down or something), but I would like to see a more through analysis of the typical modulations in King's music. As a singer, I find them sometimes very challenging. For example, The Family Ghost starts in one key. The intro solo is in another key. When the vocals kick in, you are back to the original key, and there is no reference from the previus riff where the vocal line should start, but you have to remember how the line would go on top of the intro riff. What i do live, is that I hum the starting note during the intro and keep that in mind during the solo section :).

[@iharjula]

Another great example is in the beginning of Welcome Home. Guess why the "Grandmaaa!!!" sounds so effective? Because it modulateds two half steps up from the intro.

[@fearlessfrankie6479]

You know I'll admit I never got into KD. But I've got ideas now after fooling around with the chord progressions !! Dave your great!! Thanks!!

[@xXSTYLExSNYPESXx]

Never seen any of your videos but seeing you break down one of my favorite guitar players is a great way to get me to watch more!

[@P3t3rPizzarelli]

If you don't have it planned for this metal month, next year you have to do a video on Meshuggah! Fredrik Thordendal is very Holdsworth influenced and has tons of interesting solo's and melodies

[@chrisbassartist4344]

Who’s the one douche that disliked this? Your videos are always awesome!! I’m a bassist but I watch you they inspire my writing and helps to know how guitarist think and what they do 🤘🏻🤘🏻

[@JoJo-pj2er]

Thanks... now I am going to be late to work. Excellent riffage

[@SpyrosSolda]

"It reminds me of Theater". 5 years before theater debut 😀

[@DaPoopIsInDaPudding]

I would love to see some riffs from Mercyful Fate. Especially the album 9. Check it out if you haven’t heard it or if you have time.

[@bassethoundgang2800]

Thanks for the lesson. I saw King Diamond in Cleveland about a year ago. Great show.

[@thunderdrummer1]

Super video. Thanks for all the work you put into this before recording.

[@NVC1019]

thank you very much dave been waiting for andy la roqcque such a great player nice tone and heavy riffing with sweet leads!!! keep shreddin' \m/

[@jem550]

Halloween, knew it on the first strike of the pick.

[@Ggnosyss]

awsome video man. Also 11:12 this is true, i never noticed that until i started playing guitar, and i had like 13 years of listen king diamond before that

[@burttheburger]

Love this video, King Diamond is a god tier band for me

[@jiantjingerjohn]

By coincidence a friend brought up he was listening to Conspiracy for the first time yesterday, so I re-listened along with Fatal Portrait as they are 2 of the 80's albums that I never really got into much. I found a lot of King Diamond's stuff slow burners for me, but I grew to love them. Abigail is my favourite followed by The Eye and Conspiracy. They all have great songs, but I find that most of the albums only have half an album of songs that I like, I feel Fatal Portrait's 2nd half is much better than the first, and the reverse for Conspiracy in my opinion.

[@Reinaras89]

0:10: Halloween! una maravilla

[@keithmartin6416]

Excellent Lesson. This helped me a lot!

[@gianpaolousai1768]

Great tutorial, thanks Dave

[@MikoDarkblade]

All the fatal Portrait rhythm guitars were all recorded by Michael Denner. Andy only has a some solo's on that album having arrived after they were already recorded. Source by Andy himself in an interview

[@alanbhz8367]

Very cool!

[@brandoncruz4480]

Great playing, man!!!

[@RealBillyGarcia]

Awesome lesson!

[@mgdarenz]

Andy didn't write the music on Fatal Portrait, as he came in at the end of the recording sessions. King writes most of the music and all lyrics, but on Fatal Portrait, Michael Denner co-wrote "Halloween" and two other tracks on side two, plus he co-wrote the famous "No Presents For Christmas" track, which was recorded around the same time and released on the EP The Dark Sides, and as a single with a B side, I think, and later included on reissues of Fatal Portrait.

[@julianschulz1620]

"Horsemen" kinda has the Randy "You can't kill rock & roll" progression, which was similar to Ace Frehley's "Fractured Mirror" from '78.

[@AE-hx7wy]

Thanks i love such history lessons. Have to check those tracks out

[@stephenc.4319]

Whoah. The intro to Horsemen is one of my favourite guitar parts ever. I always thought King was an absolute genius for writing it, turns out he just 'borrowed' it lmao. Still an amazing composition with how it's used in that song though.

[@Taylor-kd6lr]

Great lesson David from an underrated player. I really like your teaching style. You make hard concepts simplified. Good job.

[@666jony666]

Thanks so much for delivering all this high quality content. Been trying to give more King Diamond and Castlevania vibes to my music so this analysis is very much appreciated!

[@jamesthompson2804]

Always thought that Black Horsemen part must have been influenced by Ozzy’s “You Can’t Kill Rock and Roll”.

[@joshd1062]

Yes i always thought that also. Very interesting indeed

[@joshfike6464]

I mean it could be, Abigail came out only 6 years after diary of a madman

[@joshd1062]

Ya thats true. Either way there both awesome songs. Diary has always been my favorite ozzy solo album. Thought i was the only one that ever saw a resemblance in them

[@javiercespedes9523]

Listen to ace frehley - fractured mirror Iron maiden - prodigal son

[@hazardeur]

andy is amongst the cream of the crop. highest lvl

[@barryhaynes103]

Love the “out of the box” content ... King Diamond wasn’t in my rotation, but certainly going to take a “deep dive” into their music ... have you done a three for all from Matthias Jabs? ... maybe from Animal Magnetism, Blackout, and Love at First Sting ... love the content and the commentary

[@eddiejr540]

Hell yea....Jabs is great!!!!

[@voronOsphere]

Matthias rips!!!

[@t.y.3966]

What did you think? To this day his work solo and with MF are my top5 favorite bands of all time

[@geezer3090]

great video!