Then on the following September 21st, the new live album recorded during the "Puppet Master" tour has been released. King wanted to do this live album for so long and every year, he talked to the label and told them he had to do another live album because he had never really done one, as "In Concert 1987 - Abigail" was more to fulfill a contract than something planned. This time, the band actually changed its approach and actually went out and bought the equipment themselves and brought it out on the road and started recording before they had actually signed a contract for the live album. It was not actually in their contract; usually these live album deals are an amendment to the contract they have for studio albums, so they were waiting for that to get signed. It was completed right before the tour started so they knew that they were going to get the budget and mix this afterwards. Otherwise, they would have been sitting with all these tapes and just waiting for a good day and hoping for the opportunity. They had already made the setlist for the tour so they already knew what they were going to play but when they found out they were recording, the question arose if they were going to change the setlist and King totally didn’t want to do that. It didn’t make sense to him to do a 'best-of' live because, to him, that is something you do at the end of your career and of course, King didn’t felt he was there yet. The band did a setlist that was a document of where King Diamond was live in 2003 and included the whole setlist from beginning to end. They wanted it to be so that the people who came out to the shows listened to the record, they would remember everything of the show and totally feel it. At the opposite of "In Concert 1987 - Abigail" who featured two solos, the new one didn’t featured any. Because now the band has too many songs they want to perform, there’s no more place anymore for guitar or drum solos like it was the case in the earlier days, so they’re now taken off the setlist.

The recordings comes from several shows, and for psychological reasons, there are no mentions in the liner notes of what songs were taken from what shows. When you know that the show recorded was not the one that you have been to, it automatically loses some value to you than if it was actually the show you've been to, exactly the same night, same city, knowing you actually was part of the crowd you hear on the disc. King didn't want the recording to lose value to the eyes of his fans who went to one of the shows of that tour, and for that reason, he keeps secret where which song has been recorded. All of the shows have been recorded, and in order to decide which version of the songs that would be used, the band, excluding King, went over to Andy’s studio in Sweden and listened to all the tapes. They found three versions of each song from all these different shows on the tour that they felt were the best in general. Let’s say the song "Welcome Home", for example, might have been Mike’s first choice, Matt’s second choice and Andy’s third choice. Then on an average, they would choose the three best ones. Then King would judge how his vocal performance was there, but not much about the playing of the musicians as he consider them being extremely solid, making of them the best line-up that he ever been involved with his career without any doubt. They are so solid every single night that one of the reasons for King of having his best tour ever vocal-wise was that he had no worries on stage; he knows that everyone knows their stuff and that there would never be any problem of that matter, so for that reason, there was plenty of good takes to choose from. King doesn't think he ever sang this good on a live tour ever; the other band members told him that night after night. Another that helped was that, for that tour, King had an extremely good monitor system that is one of a kind, there is not another one like it in the world; he has four monitors built specifically for him and the system that he runs it through is separate from the entire monitor system on stage. The ones in the front of the stage each have a long horn and a shorter one. The short ones spread the sound perfectly when he's standing right in front of the stage; those four have only his voice, not even a kick drum. It’s blasting loud and it’s right in his face, so he hears himself very well. The crew knows exactly how to set it up on the different stages so he gets perfect sound. There are difficult parts in songs like "Welcome Home" and "The Invisible Guests", some extremely high notes, and seven years before, he was dreading to get to those places, almost praying to hear himself properly when he got to those parts, not that he couldn’t do it but if I doesn’t hears it perfectly, he might get a little bit out of pitch and then it’s not going to sound like it should.

When King and Andy were mixing it at King's house, that's were they really put to the test because then they realized what a totally different environment they were suddenly trying to be experts on. They realized that they were not sitting with a studio album where you can put things in any room that you want. Everything recorded on the road is dry signals except for the audience which always has a certain ambience to it. In the studio albums, you can create a room to suit whatever mood you are offering in that story but when it comes to live, all of a sudden they weren't sure of what to do. They didn’t want to make everything swim in reverb and make it sound like they were playing in an arena because they never did unless it was a big festival. You’ve got to be truthful and be as honest as you can so they put this whole thing into a room the size of 1,500-1,600. The average sized theatre that they will play in USA will be between 1,200 and 1,800, so that’s what they went for and King thought that really was what it sounds like. One thing they did that was different from the majority of other live albums was how they treated the audience. On most other live albums, when the music is playing, they turn the audience down because, of course, the sound quality is better and cleaner. This time, they had such a big debate about what they were going to do. If you want to stay true to a King Diamond concert, the fans are singing along in so many places throughout the concert that you can’t turn them down, turn them up for a chorus and then turn them down again. There are a lot of other responses that relate to what’s going on on the stage. In "The Invisible Guests", there’s a certain part in the middle where King is in the wheelchair. When there’s a break, he gets out of the chair and always puts his hand up to his ear to say that he wants to hear the audience. He doesn’t scream or anything and they come in; we can hear it on the album and the fans who have seen the show knows exactly what took place then because they saw it themselves. They couldn’t turn those things up and then down again, it wouldn't be what it really was, so eventually they started trying how loud they could allow the audience to be on an average and still be heard throughout the whole thing. They found a level and then they left it there. They didn’t change it between songs, and that plays such a big part of how this album is perceived when you listen to it. There are some parts where the fans don’t sing along as much as King would have wanted and there are others where they are awesome, but that’s the honest thing, because it would be unnatural if the fans were as loud on "Mansion In Sorrow", which is one of the newer songs, as they were on the classic "Eye Of The Witch" by example. As the first album recorded in concert from the King Diamond band in over a decade, there were some talk at a certain time that the album could also be released on DVD as both labels Massacre and Metal Blade have agreed that they wanted to collaberate on a live DVD. However, "Deadly Lullabyes Live" finally came out on CD fortmat only, as a 20-song double-disc album, and in Europe, a few quantities have been made as a digipak and a 3-LP set too. At the same time, King passed his naturalization test, so at this point, he just had to wait to get a date to go take the oath, and then he would be an American citizen.

In the meantime, King had to look at a lot of DVD stuff, old bootleg stuff, to see if he can put together a retro Mercyful Fate DVD and a retro King Diamond DVD to give the fans some of the very early stuff that they were involved with. They have copies of every bootleg that has been available, but they have masters of bootlegs that no one has ever seen. It’s that stuff that King would like to get out to the fans, so even collectors will be blown away. Very good picture quality, very good bootleg sound quality on all instruments, like one of Mercyful Fate in early 1982 in Copenhagen, even before Michael Denner joined the band. King already received 35 tapes from a guy in Europe that has all the master tapes, but the majority is stuff that people like collectors might have seen before, so King is not interested in that at all, but there's also some other shows that are pretty much rarer and better, such as one of Mercyful Fate in 1983 in a converted church that had become a concert venue called The Paradiesel in Amsterdam, Holland, where they have been playing songs off "Don't Break The Oath" even before its release, and when they were burning the cross on stage and all that stuff, in very good quality, and with the technology today, they can clean up some of the video. King is waiting to get a load of King Diamond stuff to go through and figure out which things would best fit the format they're going for. In addition, they'll add all the official videos on that too.

On February 21st 2005, the British black metal band Cradle Of Filth re-released their "Nymphetamine" album, originally released on October 5th 2004, but this time as a digipak with a brand new artwork plus a second CD with 6 new tracks. Among these new songs, the first of them was entitled "Devil Woman", with guest vocals by none other than King Diamond himself. The guys from Cradle Of Filth had heard rumors that King liked the band and when he was asked, he accepted it right away. However, we hear King only a few times in the choruses. That song was a cover of a 1976 hit of Cliff Richard, a very popular singer in UK since the late '50's.

On April 14th 2005, King embarked on a mini USA tour that would have last a little over one month. Starting April 14th in Fort Lauderdale, there was only 29 shows scheduled for that tour which took place exclusively in the USA. Sadly, King was much or less in good shape, and he had to cancel a show in Denver, Colorado, on May 2nd. Over the previous two weeks, King was taking prescribed medication in order to overcome the illness that hit him early in the tour, and he simply was not able to stand and perform. That gave King two days to get in good shape before his next show in Seattle on May 5th. That short tour, which ended on the following May 21st in Tampa, Florida, was comprised of the same setlist than "The Puppet Master" tour.

In celebration of Roadrunner Records' 25th Anniversary, they were re-releasing some classic albums with remastered sound, as double digipak with expanded artwork, extensive liner notes along with bonus tracks and a bonus CD or DVD. Among these re-releases, there were Mercyful Fate's "Melissa" and King Diamond's "Abigail". "Melissa", which came out first, in August 2005, contained 6 previously released bonus tracks: "Black Masses" (originally released on "The Beginning"), "Curse Of The Pharaohs", "Evil" and "Satan's Fall" (all three were recorded on the BBC Radio 1 Session and were also originally released on "The Beginning"), "Curse Of The Pharaohs" (Demo version originally released on "Return Of The Vampire") and "Black Funeral" (Demo version originally included as a bonus track on the 1997 remastered edition of "The Beginning"). Included in this package was a bonus DVD recorded live at the Dynamo in Eindhoven, Holland, in early 1983. Shot with three different cameras, the show was filmed just before King changed his make-up, and very shortly before the band got signed to Roadrunner. This 12-minute DVD was comprised of 3 tracks: "Doomed By The Living Dead", "Black Funeral" and "Curse Of The Pharaohs", and contained a bonus audio track containing King's commentary. The Following month, it was the time for "Abigail" to be re-released in the same way. The CD contained 4 bonus tracks, which were exactly the same as the ones on the 1997 remastered version, and a DVD featuring a 32-minute live show plus the 3 promo videos ever made by the King Diamond band: "The Family Ghost", "Welcome Home" and "Sleepless Nights". The 7-song show included here was filmed on the first show of the "Abigail" European tour on November 19th 1987, in Gothenberg, Sweden. At the exception of the promo videos, the two live recordings described here are bootleg quality. Please note that the bonus DVD for "Abigail" doesn't feature King's commentary.

As a special project, still to celebrate it's 25th Anniversary, Roadrunner Records has put together a groundbreaking record boasting 55 artists from 42 of Roadrunner's past and present bands. Released on October 11th 2005, debuting at #76 on Billboard’s Top 200 album charts, the album, called “Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions”, contained original tracks that were collaborations between numerous Roadrunner stars. Four central musicians were originally chosen to produce and write the songs: Joey Jordison (Slipknot/Murderdolls), Dino Cazares (ex-Fear Factory/Brujeria), Robert Flynn (Machine Head) and Matthew K. Heafy (Trivium). These four musicians play on the songs they have written and have also assembled a unique team of artists to appear on each track. In order to cover as wide a spectrum as possible, no musician has played for more than one writer/producer and each song features a different vocalist. Among the artists invited to participate to that special release were King Diamond and Andy La Rocque. King Diamond wrote the lyrics and sang on the 4th song, which is called "In The Fire". Other musicians on this song included the two Trvium guitarists Matthew K. Heafy and Cory Beaulieu, bassist Mike D'Antonio (Killswitch Engage) and drummer Dave Chavarri (Ill Niño/Gothic Slam/Laaz Rockit/Merauder/M.O.D.). King felt very proud to be invited to participate to that project and really liked the song, which the music was written by Heafy, as it reminded him some early Mercyful Fate stuff. On His side, Andy La Roque played only a trade-off solo on the 18th track, "Constitution Down", which also featured vocalist Kyle Thomas (Exhorder/Floodgate), guitarists Matt Devries (Chimaira), Rod Barrett (Cannibal Corpse/ Solstice/Malevolent Creation/Hate Plow) and James Murphy (Testament/Death/Obituary/Disincarnate/ Konkhra/Solstice), bassist Steve DiGiorgio (Death/Sadus/Control Denied/Testament/Iced Earth/Autopsy) and drummer Joey Jordison (Slipknot/Murderdolls). That release also contained a bonus DVD featuring a one-hour making of the album, with a few appearances from King Diamond. However, there is no appearance from Andy on the DVD. One song has been chosen to shoot a promo video, which is "The End", featuring Matthew K. Heafy of Trivium on vocals. The year-long, multi-tiered celebration of Roadrunner Records' 25th anniversary culminated the day the label hosted a once-in-a-lifetime concert at the Nokia Theatre in New York City. Taking place on december 15th, the show featured a Roadrunner United house band, comprised of Joey Jordison (Slipknot/Murderdolls) on drums, Andreas Kisser (Sepultura) on lead guitar, Dino Cazares (ex-Fear Factory/Brujeria) on rhythm guitar and Adam Duce (Machine Head) on bass. Special guests included past and present Roadrunner artists and other metal icons, who joined the band onstage to play 20 classic Roadrunner tunes along with a few choice cuts from "The All-Star Sessions" album. Among the classic songs played during that evening, there was Mercyful Fate's "Curse of the Pharoahs" and King Diamond's "Abigail", both sang by Tim "Ripper" Owens (Winters Bane/Judas Priest/Iced Earth/Beyond Fear).

Even though King wasn't much pleased with his relationship with Roadrunner when his contract ended in the early nineties, King is still thankful to them as they were the ones who had the guts to release "Melissa" back in the day when Mercyful Fate was on a small Dutch label. Also, Roadrunner was the first to help the King Diamond band after Mercyful Fate disbanded, so they really were of great help at the time. On the other hand, Roadrunner is also very thankful to King, because if it wasn't for King Diamond (back then in Mercyful Fate), Roadrunner Records might have never expanded to the U.S. as it was basically the first signing to Roadrunner Records back when founded in Amsterdam in the early eighties. Due in large part to the success of Mercyful Fate, Roadrunner expanded and opened an office in New York City in 1986, and the following year, with the success of "Abigail", it placed Roadrunner on the Billboard Top 200 chart for the very first time.

During this time, King and Andy were already writing material for the next album since a while, and began recording on March 7th 2006, first in Texas and then at Los Angered Recording, in Sweden. Then the band took a break for a mini tour in Europe for two months, starting on April 15th in Denmark until June 12th in England. During that tour, fans of the sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden, were treated to a surprise guest appearance as King introduced the guest by saying: ""This is someone very close to the King Diamond family". To the big surprise of the fans, none other than former drummer Mikkey Dee sat behind the drum set and kicked off the classic "Halloween" during the encore, as the last song of the show. After that tour, the recording and mixing of the new album is then set to continue in the next August for a planned early 2007 album release, and a possible American tour may follow sometime later in 2006, but nothing is sure yet at this point.

For the very first time, a movie features King Diamond's work. On July 21st 2006, the movie "Clerks 2" was released in theaters and featured "Welcome Home" and “The Invisible Guests”. "Clerks 2" is the sequel of Kevin Smith's first movie, 1994 independent "Clerks", that was shooted in black-and-white and roughly edited due to a budget of less than $30,000 (mainly consisting of credit cards, the worth of director Smith's extensive comic book collection and insurance money); it became a surprising success after it was taken by Miramax Films and polished with additions to the soundtrack, and was the first movie starring the characters of Jay & Silent Bob who also appeared on many other Kevin Smith movies afterward. “Welcome Home” was also featured on the movie trailer promoting the sequel while both King Diamond tracks will appear on the movie soundtrack album that is set to be released next August 22nd.