The Puppet Master is the 11th album from King Diamond. It is, of course, a concept album, although I’m not well enough versed in the lyrics to fully comprehend or describe it. From online sources, we can figure out the main lines, though. It’s set in Budapest, in the 1700s, where a puppet master has created a show with life-sized puppets. Of course, these are not ordinary puppets but real humans converted through torture and magic. There’s a love story in there as well, but I’m not really going to analyze the lyrical context anyway, I think. In recent years I’ve found myself listening to and analyzing album lyrics less than before. Less work for me, but also a way to surely lose one dimension of what I’m listening to.
Musically, I find this a very complex experience, though. It’s not straight-up Metal and certainly not the hardest of Metal either. I think there are some interesting time signatures. Nothing too fancy, maybe, but at least a bit more than just 4/4 straight all the way through. There are at least 3/4 in there as well. I can’t claim to be a time signature expert, of course, but it does bring a bit of variation, which is always nice.
Most of the time there is a spooky feel to it, and I find that King Diamond is very aware vocally of what he is doing. Of course, fans of King Diamond will say that it’s always the case, and my experience with him is not great, but I have heard earlier albums where there’s mostly falsetto and not the variation and combination of pitches and singing styles as there are on The Puppet Master.
I like it, and with The Puppet Master, I think I finally understand the “thing” with King Diamond. In earlier days I mostly associated him with the Church of Satan and Anton LeVayish satanism. That’s what you get for reading pop culture magazines back in the day. I think there is much more to King Diamond than that. There is a genuinely talented guy behind the music and lyrics, not just a strongly associated falsetto kind of singing.
