King Diamond names Patino replacement

King Diamond has named Pontus Egberg as live replacement for bassist Hal Patino, who departed acrimoniously last week.

Lion’s Share, The Poodles and Zan Clan man Pontus Egberg will hit the stage with Diamond and co when their live schedule resumes in Stockholm on Friday.

Patino’s departure sparked a war of words between the two camps, with the bass player insisting he walked away from the band after being offered a “totally ridiculous” salary for his five summer shows. Diamond hit back, saying his former colleague had been fired and had spread “extreme lies” about him, leading Patino to call the frontman a “tired, bitter old man.”

Diamond reports: “Overtime rehearsals with stand-in bass player Pontus Egberg from Sweden is paying off.”

It’s not known if Egberg will be on board for the band’s US tour in October.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.