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You know your music has had an impact when bands start taking your song titles for names and playing music in your band's style. Death has Gruesome, Helloween has Trick or Treat and King Diamond has Them (yeah, yeah, they took an album title, fine). Manor of the Se7en Gables is this former King Diamond tribute band's second full-length of original material and as you would expect, you get flashy guitars, vocals that span a couple of octaves and a tale of horror running throughout the album. Musically, there's a lot of King Diamond stylings, lots of guitar solos, solid riffs and supporting keys. It's a little less power metal than, say, Abigail or Them and a little more thrash in the mold of Metallica or Helstar but should still be quite familiar to King Diamond devotees. The fretwork isn't as intricate as Andy LaRoque's and the vocals not nearly as expressive or expansive as King but, to be fair, those are some big shoes to fill. There's a lot of exposition on the album that is there presumably to move the story forward (take the 3+ minutes spoken-word intro "Residuum" for example) which, combined with some poorly executed accents, is rather annoying. There are some cool tracks like "As the Sage Burns", "Witchfinder" and "Seven Gables to Ash" but just as many that sound like B-sides and leftovers from King Diamond's Conspiracy.

As I said, Them have set the bar high in trying to emulate King Diamond at his peak and they are not nearly there yet. Manor of the Se7en Gables has some good moments and overall isn't unpleasant but more consistent songwriting that needs less spoken word support is what will take Them to the next level.