In a non-descript city, a serial killer lives halfway between reality and legend. He is called 'King Of Pain', by street children. This sadistic "monster" kidnaps some “chosen” victims, to then torture them to death and wall up the corpses in his dilapidated villa. The souls of the dead take possession of the house, turning it into a trap for their executioner, now unable to move freely outside the mansion and haunted by nightmares and voices. During one of his delusions, a little girl appears to him and tells him that if he let those souls go, he would finally be free. There is therefore a parallelism with today's reality: he admits he knows, but he can't let them go... he needs them, he can't get rid of his own sentence. Just like an addict (be it drugs, alcohol), well aware of the fact that by abandoning his drug, they would be free to live. >From song to song we discover more and more, through the dialogues between the killer and the little girl who - we will discover - is the daughter of the protagonist, who died in a car accident caused by a drunk hit-and-run driver. In reality the 'King Of Pain' never killed anyone (perhaps), killing in his mind all those who were present at the scene of the accident and didn't lift a finger to help his daughter, too busy recording everything with their smartphones, in the ephemeral search for a "like" or a view. As a sort of self preservation, the man had completely forgotten this tragedy, hiding in his delusions, creating a new identity for himself, picturing murders and tortures, finding peace this way only, in his tormented mind. All memories emerge as he embraces the ghost of the little girl, among liberating tears and the purifying flames that envelop the house. The father begs the girl for forgiveness, cuddling the memory of his little blonde-haired angel, seeking in death, in the flames, a redemption for having forgotten his innocent princess, lost in his desperation, in his selfishness and in his anger.
The 'The Headless Ghost' project was born in 2021 from the common desire of Aurelio Parise (LionSoul) and Alberto Biffi (Black Orchestra, Daemoniac) to pay tribute to the music of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. The demo was prepared in a short time, including sounds borrowed from Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and a concept totally indebted to the old horror stories told by the diamond king. The difficulty in finding a stable, technically prepared and reliable line-up was the reason for several slowdowns. Tobias Cristiansson (Dismember, Grave, Necrophobic, Entombed A.D.) was one of the first elements to join the Italian duo, recording the bass lines for 4 songs. The need to have geographically-close musicians, however, prompted the band to look among their friends, logistically reachable in a short time. Simone Pesenti Gritti (Drakkar) was a turning point, with his present, powerful and imaginative bass, and bringing with him Omar Cappetti (Any Face, Ancestral Stigmata, Inverna) a drummer mostly known for his militancy in extreme bands, who gave a decidedly progressive and aggressive touch to the songs. To complete the line-up, the young talent of Steven Crow (Stefano Vallino - Tesla Shamans), a singer with a rough and versatile sound, decidedly rare in the Italian panorama. The demo was transformed, thanks to the contribution of all the new members, detaching itself from the sonorities purely indebted to Mercyful Fate, and assuming a new and personal character