"Them" (Them - King Diamond)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Them - King Diamond
Date:	01/09/08 (11 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun horror movie heavy metal.

Disadvantages: Pretty daft.

Another great entry in the highly consistent King Diamond discography, "Them" is one of the band's defining works, and easily the peak of their silliness, however tongue-in-cheek it's intended to be. A concept album that wants to be a cheap horror film, "Them" tells the tale of a grandma's return home from a mental asylum, her reunion with the ghosts in the attic and the initiation of her young grandson to share her fate. There's a lot of stuff about drinking tea as well, with track four possessing the only tea-based heavy metal chorus that I'm aware of.

It's clearly ridiculous, and however much the band and King Diamond himself throw themselves into the whole horror movie gimmick, it's obvious that this isn't as serious a work as the previous 'Abigail.' Even the intro pokes fun at itself, and the album's biggest downfall is that it does tend to favour the concept over the music itself as the album draws to a close, with too many interludes in place of full-length songs. This isn't the case for the first half of the album though, which features many classic King Diamond songs but which is clearly dominated by the excellent 'Welcome Home,' a song that features King Diamond and Andy LaRoque at their very best, and never gets old.

1. Out From the Asylum
2. Welcome Home
3. The Invisible Guests
4. Tea
5. Mother's Getting Weaker
6. Bye, Bye Missy
7. A Broken Spell
8. The Accusation Chair
9. "Them"
10. Twilight Symphony
11. Coming Home
12. Phone Call

Summary: King Diamond's third album (1988).