Date: Saturday, May 7th, 2005
Location: Pound in San Francisco, California
Opening Bands:

What can I say other than BRILLIANT!  What a night.  Great opening acts before the King took the stage.  It's not often I will spend over $25 for a show (this one was $27.50), but with 2 opening bands that I really like, and to see King Diamond again was well worth the money.  I have seen both Behemoth and Nile before and I really like them, they both put on a great performance.  The Black Dahlia Murder I don't really like but oh well.  I saw King Diamond twice before but many years ago:  1986 and 1989.  What really made the show great was that it was outdoors.  First time for the pound but the stage and sound was excellent.  Lot's of fans for all the bands attended, I think it was sold-out.  The only problem that I had with the show was getting in.  The line was long for will-call (I had purchased the tickets nearly 4 months ago).  It took so long to get in that Behemoth actually was on stage before we got in and was already half-way through their set when we did get in.  I don't know why they took so long, they need to be faster as it upset a lot of fans including us.  And to add to this, they took the people paying cash to a separate line and processed them before all of he will-call people were in.  Well with that said, onto the review of the bands.

Behemoth started the night off right with crushing tones of Black/Death Metal.  They presented themselves in traditional black metal ensembles of spikes, leather and of course corpse paint.  I have seen Behemoth twice before and they never disappoint the crowd.  This is where Behemoth likes to be, on a stage outside with a great crowd.  They played songs from their latest release 'Demigod' and previous releases.  Inferno (drummer) was amazing to watch as were the other members of the band.  Being the first opening act they didn't play for too long but enough to get us ready for the rest of the night.  Again I only saw half of their set because of the delay getting into the place.

The Black Dahlia Murder played next.  Like I said earlier, don't really like their music and I have seen them before.  But they do have a following and that's good, seems like a younger generation.  During their set I was inside picking-up a Behemoth shirt and meeting other fans of King Diamond etc.

Nile took the stage and they have a new drummer and a stand-in bassist.  They played songs from their upcoming release 'Annihilation Of The Wicked' and some of their older material.  If you have not listened to Nile before you should.  If you are going to wait though, wait no longer than May 24th, 2005 as that is when this new album will be out and by what we heard it is going to be great, just like their previous releases.  Nile has a great stage presence and with their Egyptian theme, they bring a different sound but still Death Metal.  3rd time seeing this band and again no disappointments.  Pit was large and very brutal.  Plenty of Nile fans on hand.  If you ever get a chance to see Nile live, go!

King Diamond - All HAIL the King!  With a fence in front of the stage, King Diamond provided the crowd with what King Diamond is known for, a theatrical performance with his famous stage setup including a coffin.  King Diamond came on to the stage with a doll which he thrusts a dagger threw it's neck and eventually started out with the ever so popular 'Abigail'.  The Abigail story continued which included an actress taking on roles along with King Diamond's performance.  He also sang songs from 'Them', 'The Eye' and others including the last release 'The Puppet Master' plus a Mercyful Fate song.  His performance, along with the actress, was fantastic as it usually is.  Great theatrics and the standard leaving the stage a couple of times making you think that it was over made his performance one to remember.  OK so King Diamond is not Death Metal at all, but fantastic metal from the old days.  For over 20 years King Diamond and Mercyful Fate has provided fans young and old with great music.  So let's not forget the rest of the band especially the never aging Andy La Rocque.  Fans that have never seen King Diamond before were treated to an amazing show and for those of us that have attended previous events were again blown away.  A few people tried to start a pit but it's not the music and place to do that, you will just miss the show.  This was what I paid the big bucks for!

To close this review all I can ask is 'were you there?'  If not, why not?  It was truly an amazing night even for diehard Death Metal fans, as Behemoth and Nile fed your hunger for that.  But King Diamond was the main attraction of the night and even though he is getting on in age, he didn't disappoint anyone!

Written by:  Steven Ansell