The Spider's Lullabye

The Spider's Lullabye is the band's first studio album since The Eye in 1990. In the meantime Mercyful Fate had re-formed in the summer of 1992 on a new deal with Metal Blade Records, and the singer had made In the Shadows (1993) and Time (1994) with them. Interviewed in November 1994, he said he had just finished the band's new album: guitarist Andy La Rocque was still in the band, three new members had joined, and he meant to keep both bands going side by side. It was recorded and mixed at the Dallas Sound Lab in September and October 1994. King Diamond produced it with Tim Kimsey, who also engineered it, with La Rocque as assistant producer and Braden McDonald as assistant engineer; Eddy Schreyer mastered it at Future Disc, and Brian J Ames is credited with the cover art and design. The line-up is King Diamond on vocals, keyboards and harpsichord, La Rocque and Herb Simonsen on guitars, Chris Estes on bass and Darrin Anthony on drums. King Diamond wrote all the lyrics. La Rocque wrote the music of "Killer", "Six Feet Under" and "To the Morgue", on which Estes also plays keyboards, and King Diamond wrote the rest. Only part of the album is a single story. The first half is a run of separate horror tales: "Killer" deals with an execution, "The Poltergeist" with ghost hunters and "Moonlight" with a group of evil children. The last four songs, from "The Spider's Lullabye" to "To the Morgue", tell one story, about a man named Harry and his fear of spiders. Metal Blade released the album in the United States on 6 June 1995, and Massacre Records released it in Europe. It was the band's first album for Metal Blade, and it reached No. 31 on the official Finnish chart.