young King began his musical career playing guitar in a Danish heavy-metal band called Brainstorm it was 1973 and King was 17 years old.

Then in 1979, 3 years before Mercyful Fate released their legendary "Mini-LP" King Diamond began his singing career as a lead vocalist in an all Danish band by the name of Black Rose. Black Rose was a 5-piece band, influenced by Deep Purple and Kansas. The band had a reputation for delivering a very violent and bloody show. This was when King first began to develope his amazing vocals and unique use of make-up and theatrical shows. Madness ruled on the stage, pigs heads and dolls filled with blood, a man that eats pigs eyeballs and homemade pyros.

Although they never made an album they did record a night of rehearsal on the 30th of September 1980. The session took place in a storage room under a bar in the outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark, which at that time served as the band practice facility. Recorded onto a 2-track reel to reel tape recorder, using 8 microphones, which went through the band's 8-channel mixer and then straight to tape. It took almost 20 years but King finaly released the only existing recording of the band.

The band was all about the live shows The headlines of the time read: "Black Rose: Violently Insane Musicians???" The photo showed: King in full makeup holding a human skull, while being stabbed by the drummer. The 3 other band members looked as if they didn't know that anything wrong was going on. Under the photo it said: "Black Rose when they behave as human beings. When they are on stage they are so much worse, and pure insanity seems to invade them."

The article itself read: "Black Rose: Insane, nerve wrecking, exciting, fantastic, vomitingly wonderful. There are many opinions and descriptions of the great new Danish rock band "Black Rose", which even before having broken completely through here in Denmark, has shown promise of a great career abroad. The band's manager, Robert Meinertz, has no doubt, that they are the biggest thing that has happened for Danish music, and that they are the first Danish band with a real chance to make it in the USA. Black Rose plays REAL DEMANDING ROCK!! VIOLENT ROCK if you will. They have a stage show that would have Kiss and Alice Cooper envy them... There is no doubt that Robert Meinertz has stuck gold. Black Rose belongs among the best on the international music scene."