Ahead of the release of the eponymous debut by Lex Legion — the band featuring four-fifths of the recording lineup from King Diamond’s Them — we spoke with drummer Mikkey Dee (Motorhead, Scorpions) about this exciting new venture.

With this new band, Dee has reunited with Andy LaRocque (guitar), Pete Blakk (guitar), and Hal Patino (bass), all of whom joined forces with vocal powerhouse Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind, Holter), who brings his own ear-piercing charm to the band on his own terms.

While a sizable portion of the album’s 35 minutes directly channels King Diamond vibes (each member aside from Rue has played on at least three King Diamond albums apiece, LaRocque being on each of the 12 studio LPs), Lex Legion isn’t merely retreading the past. It’s possible to revisit your legacy while still moving forward, with other elements of the music drawing inspiration from Iron Maiden and Queensryche as well.

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For the legions of King Diamond fans who have endured a nearly 20-year wait for a new album (with no release date in sight), there’s even better news — a second album is already in the works.

“Next year we’re going to go out and do some live shows,” Mikkey Dee shares, “We are writing the new record as we speak. This year we are trying to put the band on the map and, at the same time, trying to finish up the new record by the end of this year so we can release it fairly early next year.”

The hope is that, with two albums of material, Lex Legion can embark on a proper headlining tour, though a support slot remains an option if the tour package is right.

Dee’s 2026 is going to heat up with Scorpions tour dates on the books as well as another Las Vegas residency scheduled for the fall.

But, in this exact moment, his focus is on telling the world all about Lex Legion. Read our interview with Mikkey Dee directly below.

Do you remember the first time you heard his voice? It’s obviously unmistakable.

I lived in Copenhagen and kinda was hanging out with [Mercyful Fate and King Diamond members] Timi Hansen and Michael Denner. That’s how I actually got to know them and King. They were a great band. Long story short, King told me that he was going to split from the band and he was going to bring Michael and Timi and he wanted me on drums.

King is great. He is singing in a very unique style and tone and sound. The way he approaches songs with his voice is very special. There was never any doubt about wanting to play with the band. It was fun music. It was very complex. I had to come up with a lot of cool stuff. But when you’re a young buck, that’s really what you want to do. You want world champion in drum fills and weird backbeats. I’m very glad for those years because I became a good drummer and we did some fantastic U.S. tours. Touring was amazing.

We were a bunch of really good friends; we had fantastic success in a way and created something very unique.

Now, King Diamond’s Them recording lineup is back together, albeit without the king and Nils K. Rue commanding vocals. This is something that Andy LaRocque started kicking around in the late 2000s. How did you get involved? Who sent the emails or made the phone calls to finally get this to a place where it was actually going to happen?

Andy and Pete have been writing some riffs here and there since 2008, but that was not for a band really. We’re all friends and hang out. I talk to them and I see them on a regular basis. The only guy I haven’t seen all the time is Hal Patino because he lives in Norway.

It was actually two years ago when Pete came to me with a couple of riffs. He was away [from music] for many years. I listened to it; I really liked it and I said, “There’s some badass riffs you got there, Pete. Let’s do something with this. Let’s call Andy and Hal. If the four of us can create something and we find a good singer, maybe we have something.”

Lex Legion, “Sleep Eternally”

Obviously, everyone else had played together in King Diamond and there’s a history of chemistry. Sure, you have to reestablish that chemistry after all these years; how did the process go with singer Nils K. Rue involved?

Andy had done some sessions with him before and recorded with Nils [on the 2008 album New Universal Order by X-World/5]. Andy said, “How about this guy, Nils? I worked with him. He’s an amazing singer, a very nice guy and he lives in Norway.” It makes it a lot easier for us Scandinavian guys. The singers I was thinking about are some Americans and some Brits.

We sent a few songs to him and said, “Hey, do whatever you feel like doing on this.” And, of course, we were blown away by it. It sounded so awesome and so perfect for what we were looking for; so there was never a doubt that he would be the guy unless he was a complete moron or an asshole. We didn’t want to destroy this nice atmosphere with what we have with the four of us; not bring in some kind of rockstar bullshit or big-headed attitude… I’m only doing this if it’s going to be fun. I’m way too busy.

Lex Legion, “Gypsy Tears”

“(I Am) The Resurrected” is one of my favorite songs on this Lex Legion album and that structure is so playful. Your knack for arrangements is something you bring to the songwriting. Has that always been a strength of yours?

I did arrangements with King Diamond as well. With Motörhead, Phil Campbell and I wrote 12 studio records together. I’ve sung riffs for Phil and I can play some guitar as well; but I can’t do these complicated guitar riffs. But melody-wise, I can sing stuff for them.

Arrangements are so important on a song. If the song goes like this or goes like that [every time], it’s still essentially the same song; depending on what you do can make it sound monotonous or boring… A traditional producer would tear their hair out [working with Lex Legion] — “Why do you have this piece here? Why do you end the song like this? And isn’t the vocal supposed to come in after this part? No; there’s some guitar harmonies there and we have two solos; we end on this piece here.”

[What you hear on Lex Legion is] how we wrote in the ’80s; that’s what we want to keep in these songs.

When it comes to arrangements, where did this ability come from? Were there any songs from your childhood that changed your perception of what a song can look like structurally?

I really don’t know. When I hear a song, I go, “Wow, that guitar riff is awesome; that chorus is great.” Then I say, “Look; the verse is great but why isn’t the song great? There’s something missing; we’ve got to take it apart and put it back together differently.” The whole song just takes two steps up because of some new arrangements.

There’s usually too many chefs in the soup when you make records; record labels often say —”Can you simplify this song so we can play it on radio more?”

With Motörhead, they were constantly pushing us to write certain types of songs; but we just refused saying, “We don’t come to your office so don’t come to ours.” It’s great if people like it but if someone says, “This is the worst shit I’ve ever heard,” we still like it because we wrote it how we wanted it.

Typically with Motörhead producers would come in saying things like “Hey guys; I know exactly how you guys are going to sound.” Lemmy would just spin around in his chair saying “No; you fucking don’t; I do; so get out of here.”

It’s the same thing for Lex Legion; we know how we want to sound — that’s it — you either take it or leave it; it’s very simple.

Lex Legion is out June 12 on MNRK Heavy. Follow the band on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube. Visit the Lex Legion website for even more information.

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