The Dark Sides

A six-track EP released by Roadrunner Records in 1988, it holds no new recordings: every track had been issued before. The running order is "Halloween", "Them", "No Presents for Christmas", "Shrine", "The Lake" and "Phone Call", and the disc credits the production and mixing to King Diamond and Roberto Falcao. In Europe it came out as a 12-inch (RR 2455 1) and a CD (RR 2455 2); in North America Roadracer Records issued it, distributed by MCA. The band's own site lists it among its extended plays. The CD booklet carries Roadrunner's own note on each track. "Halloween", written by King Diamond with Michael Denner, comes from the debut album Fatal Portrait, dated there to March 1986, and "Them" is the instrumental title track of the third album, Them, dated June 1988. The 12-inch single "No Presents for Christmas", released in December 1985, is presented as the first King Diamond record after Mercyful Fate. "Shrine" was the B-side of The Family Ghost 12-inch single in July 1987; it was recorded at the Abigail sessions but left off that album because it has no part in the story. "The Lake" was recorded at the Fatal Portrait sessions and had appeared on the limited Halloween picture disc, which came and went in September 1986. "Phone Call" has no music: it is a call from King's dead grandmother that fills in the story of Them, and until then it had been only on that album's CD. Metal Blade Records reissued the EP as a picture disc in 2018 and on 12-inch and CD in 2020.