Tell us about this concept?
"It starts with three siblings arriving at their family mansion. Their father, a stern, old, conservative, paranoid, evil, noble fuck, has passed away, and they're gonna divide his will between his three children, right? There's two twins, one man and one woman in their late 20s, and then a young girl who's riddled with polio, some skeletal-type of disease. The lyrics are like the reading of the testament. That's why the songs don't have titles, just paragraph one… two… down to seven.
"Throughout the reading of the testament, these kids find out a lot of about themselves, a lot of their about their father's secrets, and their connection with family. The twin siblings are the result of a donor procreation. The patriarch and his wife tried to have children, didn't work out, the patriarch blamed the wife for being barren, but they wanted children so much they tried with a donor – an actual guy having sex with his wife. She got pregnant with the twins, but in the meantime, the main character had regrets that his wife has been violated by another man. So he basically regrets the two twins, and also they are not his blood.
"Throughout the reading of testament, the twins find out that he wasn't their father, and they are ultimately left out of the will. His only true child by blood is the sick woman. She inherits everything. But she is the result of a love affair that he has had with the maid of the mansion. He lied to his wife, saying that this maid had an affair and that they should take care of her poor child like one of their own kind.
"Now, his wife has also passed away. But she kind of knew it was her husband being unfaithful, and the child is still brought up in the house. She is a blood heir. She inherits everything. Then the testament ends, and the last song, The Story Never Told, comes in. So, she's now living in the mansion. She's got it all. But then a letter arrives. It's from her mother, the maid, saying, 'I lied to your father. You're the result of another love affair. He was never your dad.' So that's kind of the twist of the story: the patriarch was sterile."
That all sounds pretty King Diamond…
"I mean, I can't deny that (laughs). He's more into characters and names and those kind of things, which I wouldn't do. But I was interested in the whole family, how family members can clash over inheritance, and blood not being thicker than water and all that kind of thing. That was even on the last record. It kind of it stayed with me, and I felt it could be an interesting, dark topic for a record with music that could illustrate it in a good way."