King Diamond guitarist Andy La Rocque recently provided an update on the band’s highly anticipated new studio album, Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920. During an appearance on the “Pod Scum” podcast hosted by “Reckless” Rexx Ruger, the musician expressed his hopes that the first installment of their upcoming horror trilogy will finally see a release before the end of the year.
Addressing the current production timeline, the guitarist confirmed that the instrumental foundation is largely in place. He noted that he submitted several tracks to frontman King Diamond years ago, and the band has already debuted one of the selected songs in a live setting.
“I really hope so. That’s our goal. We have most of the songs,” Andy La Rocque stated regarding a 2026 release. “I sent [King Diamond], I think, eight songs, like, four years ago, and we decided to use three of those. And we actually played one live from those songs. And as soon as he’s done with this stuff — he’s gotta write five songs, I believe, and he’s got a lot of the stuff already written down, with the lyrics and everything. As soon as that’s recorded and arranged from his side, we can put the right guitars on, the right drums, bass and everything. So I really hope it won’t take very long before we can continue working on that. And if that’s the case, we can start recording soon, and during the summer, [and] then we have a chance for it to be released at the very end of the year.”
The conversation also touched upon his creative approach to the new material. He explained that his playing style adapts depending on who authored the specific track, ensuring that the instrumental arrangements do not interfere with the complex vocal layers.
“Nowadays King has usually a request for me to play the song the way he would like it to be played. So I probably play my songs a little bit different than his songs, because I know, that, for example, he [doesn’t] like when I play the rhythms with like a vibrato kind of thing at the end of a riff or whatever, because that might be interacting with his vocals that comes on later. But on my songs, I just do what I feel is right to do. I mean, if it’s good for the song, it’s probably good. And if it doesn’t fit, when he puts the vocal on, I change it,” he said.
Ultimately, the guitarist emphasized that the new music stays strictly true to the classic King Diamond sound, remaining firmly rooted in traditional 1980s heavy metal without relying on modern studio trends like down-tuning.
“But first of all, I just write what comes out of the heart. I don’t really care what other people think about the style or whatever. I just write my stuff, and it’s kind of based in the ’80s. I mean, standard tuning — we don’t tune down with King Diamond, so it’s standard tuning, pretty straightforward. And, melodies [are] super essential. I think it’s so important to have melodies in the songs, and create space for melodies, too, for the vocals. That’s really important,” he concluded.
Last year in June, during an interview with Heavy Demons radio show, La Rocque confirmed that recording for the new material began prior to King Diamond’s last U.S. tour and remains an ongoing endeavor.
“We started to record things before the last U.S. tour. And we still have a lot of things to record, so we’re working on that too, and we’re gonna continue with that as soon as the European tour is over. So, we’ve been really busy with everything,” he explained at the time.
La Rocque detailed his initial contributions: “I pretty much come up with a complete demo with a programmed drum track and some keyboards on and some rhythm guitars. I try to make my demos as complete as possible — sometimes even with some solos that we can use on the album — and the right guitar and keyboard sounds too.”
