While Volbeat sounds more like Social Distortion covering Misfits songs, they’ve announced that King Diamond will be making a guest appearance on their forthcoming album, Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies. The King will appear on “Room 24,” a song that was, according to the bio, inspired by a terrifying experience in a hotel room somewhere in the heart of America. “I’m a huge fan of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond,” guitarist Michael Poulsen says. “Having King on the record is a huge privilege. Normally, it’s not something he does. He wrote his own lines, and it is half my lyrics and half his. It’s a weird, scary story, and he’s the perfect person for it.”
This will mark the first time King Diamond’s voice has been heard on new material since his 2007 album Give Me Your Soul… Please. And while this is King’s first appearance on an album, the Mercyful Fate/King Diamond connection with the band is nothing new. Michael Denner appeared on Beyond Hell/Above Heaven, and Mercyful Fate’s Hank Shermann filled in on guitars on their 2012 tour. Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies will be the band’s first album with former Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano in the band. He co-produced the album, along with Jacob Hansen.
The album comes out in America on April 9th on Vertigo/Republic Records/Universal Music.
