King Diamond hasn't released a new album since 2007's Give Me Your Soul... Please and has been talking about new material for some time. Fans at Hellfest got the first glimpse at what's to come as the band debuted a new song, "Masquerade of Madness," which can be viewed in the video below.

At this time, only a portion of the song has surfaced through fan-shot footage from the weekend festival in France. "Masquerade of Madness" has a classic King Diamond feel with a hard-driving mid-tempo, the eerie leads Andy LaRocque is known for and King's versatile gritty singing contrasted by his signature piercing falsetto shrieks.

The singer has been guarded when it comes to discussing the forthcoming record. Speaking with Full Metal Jackie recently, King Diamond revealed the concept will play out across two albums.

"Oh, the next album gonna be gruesome. Absolutely gruesome," he said. "The storyline is, well, it's in a way where I can't even put it into just one album. So, it has to be over two albums. And it's really planned out to work in a very special way with the show as well. So the show is being built right now in Denmark and built around that story so it really can go hand in hand."

It's rumored that the story is set in a 1920s mental institution, though the painted frontman insists this is only partly true. "I chose that because it’s a very creepy scenario. Thing is I know that somebody has talked about that but that is not the setting actually," he offered, cryptically explaining, "It’s a lot of things involved but the setting looks as if it's a 1920s asylum."

Despite reportedly working on the album for some time, it is still not known when the follow-up to Give Me Your Soul... Please is intended to be released. The King did, however, finally deliver on a long-promised live DVD/album, Songs for the Dead Live, which was released earlier this year through Metal Blade. Get it here.

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