Legendary metal icon King Diamond guested on The Electric Theater hosted by Slipknot's Shawn "Clown" Crahan and discussed the current status of new music for both King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. Check out the interview below.

King Diamond: "I'm writing with Hank (Shermann / guitars) from Mercyful Fate and writing with Andy (LaRocque / guitars) for King Diamond, and writing on my own for King Diamond. For King Diamond, it's an album that's gonna be called The Institute, which is Part 1 of two; there'll be two full albums that will be completing a full story. And as the title, there's gonna be some crazy weird stuff. And for Mercy, I also have the title but I'm not giving it out to anybody at the moment. We have the front cover for the new Mercy, too. It's very correct, very right for Mercyful Fate. It's very back to basics. It's gonna be anything goes with the vocals, for sure; back to the old style. And for Mercy, too, it's gonna be very old-fashioned. Hank is writing very much like the old days and it's nice to feel that we can capture that again. So that's two albums that are being worked on that will be done by the time we can go out and tour again, I'm sure."

"Masquerade Of Madness", due to appear on The Institute, can be heard below.

King Diamond comments: "'Masquerade Of Madness' is one of the first King Diamond studio songs in a long time. It will be featured on a future two album horror concept story, of which the first part is titled The Institute. The style is very classic King Diamond with lots of dynamics and limited amounts of compression to achieve very natural sounding vocals and instruments throughout the song. You'll find some complex orchestrations, including the typical choir works you're used to hearing from King Diamond, and a special thought process bringing vocals back to the forefront: 'All vocals are lead vocals.' Both Andy and I are presently working on several different songs with high potential for the upcoming album; all of which are absolute killers. We will continue this work when we're back from our North American tour in December, during which you can hear the live version of Masquerade of Madness. For now, we hope you'll enjoy the brand new studio version of ‘Masquerade of Madness'."

King Diamond lineup:

King Diamond - vocals
Andy LaRocque - guitar
Mike Wead - guitar
Pontus Egberg - bass
Matt Thompson - drums