Search - King Diamond :: Them/Conspiracy

A Great Value No Matter What Way You Look At It..

12/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've just recently found the magic that is King Diamond, about 20 years after his solo career started. What I've found is the most unique and true-to-form artist around. I traveled down to the cd store hoping for at least Abigail, but I found much more. I found Them/Conspiracy two-pack, Abigail and Puppet Master and didn't hesitate for a second to purchase all of them at once. I would have payed 15 bucks seperate for each cd included in this set, but finding only this for 15 dollars, how could I say no?!

Taken as a whole, I only have a few complaints about the set, and they are pretty miniscule. My first complaint is that the booklet contains no lyrics, so that's a downside, since it is sometimes hard to understand what King is saying. The last complaint is that Conspiracy was not as good as I had thought, but it's still good, not as good as THEM though.



From the start, I had always figured that THEM would be my least favorite King album, but as soon as I listened to it, my mind changed drastically, this is King's absolute best album ever. Not only does it have a very creepy and unique story(not like that's news for King Diamond), but it's overall sound and presentation is unlike any of his other recordings. Though the sound production on THEM is rather weak,It's good, but not very clean like his preceding attempts. Every song here is strong and there is some beautiful musicianship throughout. The track "TEA" perfectly suits the title, with hypnotic flowing notes and soothing and mellow choruses by the King.



Conspiracy follows up to THEM, but it seems like less attention was placed on story than the previous part of the story. "AT THE GRAVES" seems to drag on for too long, and several of the tracks are rather forgettable. "Sleepless Nights", Victimized, A Visit from the Dead and Cremtation are the strongest point of the album, but the rest don't have the same magic as the afformentioned. But considering the fact that you can get two albums for the price of one is totally worth dishing out 15 bucks for."