Pandemonium

Pandemonium arrived on Frontiers Records on May 14, 2010, twelve albums in, with "Little Drops of Heaven" as its lead single. Four years had passed since Wake Up to the Real World, and from this record on the band settled back into releasing roughly every three years. Its eleven songs are built on clean riff outlines and large choruses. The title track walks heavily into its refrain; "I.N.V.U." and "Cielo Drive" keep the tension up on speed. "Little Drops of Heaven" carries the most open melody here and became a fixture live. None of it sounds like a band feeling its way back after a gap — the present-tense sound is there from the first bar. The line-up moved around the record. Kenn Jackson, on bass since 1991, left in April 2010 and King Diamond's Hal Patino stepped in temporarily. In 2011 the band marked thirty years with a show at Tivoli in Copenhagen, and Rene Shades has held the bass position since.