The first part of King Diamond's new concept album, The Institute, will be released in late 2020 via Metal Blade Records, with the second part of the story to surface in the future.

For The Metal Voice, former Anthrax singer Neil Turbin spoke to King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque and bassist Pontus Egberg on December 3 in California at The Grove of Anaheim.  LaRocque spoke about the making of the new single, "Masquerade Of Madness" and gave an update on the upcoming album, The Institute.

On when The Institute will be released: "There will be two albums, the first one will be released late 2020, it will be a concept story over two albums. The second part of the story will be released in the future."

On how The Institute compares musically to past King Diamond albums: "Music wise, I have been looking back to the origins of King Diamond music back in the 80's and that's what we have been trying to go back and find, the original roots. So I would say the new album is back to the roots. A lot of riffs will have the style of the early albums."

"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