KING DIAMOND: 'Video Games Have Opened Up So Many People Onto Cool Bands'

Carlos Ramirez of IGN recently conducted an interview with Danish heavy metal singer King Diamond (MERCYFUL FATE, KING DIAMOND) about his involvement with the forthcoming Guitar Hero: Metallica game. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

IGN: First off, I have to ask you, did you ever play Guitar Hero or any other video games before you were approached to do this project?

King Diamond: I actually do play games. It's a great way to relax and not think about everything else going on in your life. I love playing the military type of games. I'm into the ones where you have a mission to run and all of that kind of stuff. Games like Fallout are great. You just get lost in it. But now with this METALLICA game, I have to really start getting good. The company did a great job with it and I know everyone who already plays Guitar Hero will really like it.

IGN: Throughout your career, metal heads have tried to imitate your high pitched singing voice and the results have been disastrous. Now with this game coming out, I'm sure that won't change.

Diamond: [Laughing] Yeah I have heard that through the years from fans and some parents even. I know people get together and have parties at bars and at home playing Guitar Hero so it will be fun to hear them singing along to these tracks.

IGN: One of the things you recorded for the game was the song "Evil" which you first laid down in 1983. Did you do anything different in the tracking?

Diamond: Well, the main thing about that is besides the drummer, we have all of the same people playing on this new version that were there for the original sessions. It was very interesting going back to listen to the records and trying to figure out all of the vocal layering and harmonies. We couldn't find the original tapes anywhere so we started over. Hank (Shermann) might have changed a few things in the guitar solos but they were just improvement types of things. He's obviously playing better these days because that was so long ago but that's really the only big changes. The craziest part of the recording process for me was the technical part of it. Since this was going to be for Guitar Hero we had to have a separate track for every instrument. There was no panning or that kind of stuff going on. I think these new versions came out really great. Once the game is out, I know that the songs will be available on iTunes too.

IGN: How do you feel about video game culture and its impact on music? They are musicians who think it has taken away attention from it and made younger people lazier but some think it has opened up new avenues for their music to get out there.

Diamond: I've always said that video games are positive thing. Like I was saying before, I find it as a really relaxing thing. It's a nice way to escape for a while. For the musicians who are against the whole thing, I think they are crazy. Look how many times people are exposed to music they like that they normally wouldn't have been exposed to. Video games have opened up so many people onto cool bands so I have never understood the argument against them.

Read the entire interview from IGN.