When Andy LaRocque says a new project came together naturally, he means it took 18 years. The seeds of Lex Legion — the debut album from the band of the same name — were planted back in 2008, when LaRocque and fellow King Diamond guitarist Pete Blakk started throwing riffs around in his studio outside Gothenburg. Nothing clicked into place right away. Life got in the way, as it tends to.
Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly there was time. Blakk played some of the material for Mikkey Dee, the longtime Scorpions drummer who spent two decades behind the kit for King Diamond. Mikkey‘s reaction was immediate. “Wow, this is really good,” LaRocque recalled Dee saying. “I want to be a part of this. Let’s call Andy to see if he’s interested, too.”
LaRocque said he barely needed to hear a note before signing on. “Pete and I work very well together, so I didn’t even really have to hear the songs. We’re going to do something good together — I was sure.”
From there, the band filled out into something that will look very familiar to fans of a certain classic King Diamond era: bassist Hal Patino and Pagan’s Mind vocalist Nils K. Rue rounded out the lineup, putting four-fifths of a classic King Diamond configuration back in the same room. Or at least in the same email chain. Given Dee‘s touring commitments with Scorpions, the album was recorded across multiple sessions, with Dee visiting the studio four or five separate times just to track drums.
The result is a debut that clocks in at under 40 minutes across nine songs, and LaRocque sees that brevity as a feature, not a flaw: “I think around 40 minutes is just perfect. It gets kind of intense. If you have good songs and good flow in the order of the songs, that’s a perfect length.”
He pointed to Van Halen II (32 minutes) and Rush‘s Hemispheres (36 minutes) as reference points, albums that made every second count. Lex Legion belongs in that same conversation.
The album opens with “Sleep Eternally,” which the label chose as the lead single. LaRocque said the band deferred to the label’s instincts on the single selections and had no regrets. “I think it was a great choice, actually.” The second single, “Gypsy Tears,” takes a different angle — something closer to a metal love story — and the video treatment matches the song’s vibe.
The sequencing holds up throughout. “Life Eternal” hits hard near the end of the record, a fast and aggressive cut that sets up the closing instrumental perfectly. That final piece brings the album home in a way LaRocque is clearly proud of: “There comes like an instrumental piece which just ends the album in a perfect way,” he said. “Hopefully, that’s what the listeners and the fans will appreciate. It’s just a great sequence the way it’s put together.”
One of the album’s subtler moments comes on “When the Stars Align,” where the keyboard work draws an unmistakable line back to the early King Diamond records, specifically the playing of Roberto Falcão, who appeared on Fatal Portrait and Abigail in the 1980s. LaRocque confirmed the connection was deliberate: he had reached out to Falcão in 2022 to contribute keyboards to some songs being written for the next King Diamond album, and that collaboration stuck with him.
“What you hear now is not by him, but it’s kind of inspired by Roberto, actually,” LaRocque said.
Those King Diamond recordings remain the benchmark in LaRocque‘s own mind. When asked about underrated work in his catalog, he acknowledged that listeners tend to fixate on the early records, and he gets it: “From Fatal Portrait up to maybe The Eye — of course we did a lot of really good things after that, too, but there is something special about those first four or five albums that you’ll remember forever. It was very unique, and it was a different time.”
On the topic of Patino, whose exit from King Diamond over a decade ago was reportedly not smooth, LaRocque was characteristically blunt: water under the bridge. “That was like 12, 13 years ago. We’re too old to hold grudges. We just want to have a good time and be friends.”
Rue was chosen partly for his vocal range, broad enough to handle whatever the material demands without defaulting to constant high-pitch histrionics, and partly because LaRocque already knew him from a project 15 years prior. Geography also factored in; Rue is based in Scandinavia and can make the trip to Gothenburg without anyone booking a transatlantic flight.
“His range is amazing, but we didn’t want him to sing high-pitched all the time — though he can do that if it’s necessary,” LaRocque said. “And he’s a good friend, which matters, too.”
The band is already developing material for a second album, described as being in roughly the same territory as the debut. LaRocque was careful to frame Lex Legion as its own thing rather than a continuation of any prior band.
“We don’t want it to be like a clone or copy or even a continuation of something we did before. This is something we try to make completely new. But again, you can’t really erase the way we play or the way we think when it comes to writing and playing music. You will hear some 80s influences in the music, of course.”
Live shows are being planned for 2027, with the caveat that the album’s current runtime is too short for a full headline set. The plan is to have new songs ready, possibly a second release as early as next spring or summer, before committing to a touring schedule. For now, LaRocque and the band are waiting to see how the debut lands. Given what’s on it, the wait should be short.
Lex Legion is out June 12 via MNRK Heavy. Order your copy here.
