King Diamond's 2007 release "Give Me Your Soul… Please" features a spattering of good metal but because of a weak storyline and some rather strange musical direction, the overall production of this record comes up short on the approval rating.
That's not to say there aren't any good songs.
"Mirror Mirror" might be the best one. It flashes a catchy guitar riff under the chorus and is also well placed with the first twist in the plot.
Just as great is the follow up track "The Cellar". This song is highlighted by the chorus introducing the signature voice of a little girl whining "mine, mine, mine, mine…" for
King's soul.
To be fair, the first four songs (after the intro) showcases the hardest and heaviest parts of the album. It's after this halfway point when it gets weird.
Rising action in a story is musically augmented best with faster and heavier songs.
Here, the further the story develops the direction of the tempo drops.
"Pictures in
Red" starts out with some really trippy guitar pedaling, but when the hard part kicks in, the slowness of the beat feels like the tune is dragging. Alos, female vocals are featured on some of the lines here and although Livia Zila (who also apprears on "The
Girl In The Bloody Dress", too) does a commendable job, the overall sound ends up soft as well.
"Shapes Of Black" does give us the both the harpsichord and the carnival organ for musical variety, but even here it ultimately does little to reverse the afformentioned trend.
By the time the album ends up at "Moving On" the metal well has run dry. What remains is the character of
King wailing to the antagonistic girl under another layer of trippy guitar to leave him alone and go bother someone else… and that's it.
King Diamond typifies classic Hollywood horror, but what we have here is an unorthodox positive resolution.
Now, spun around, an argument can be made that if you bypass the lyrics, what remains is some very solid bass work from Hal Patino backing up some impressive dual breaks and rhythm riffs by Mike Wead and Andy LaRocque.
Yet, its the great horror concepts that is the hallmark of a
King Diamond album and, without it, "Give Me Your Soul… Please" ends up just being only half good !
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