Mercyful Fate: Classic or Dud?

I'm surprised there's never been a proper Mercyful Fate thread before! Having started to delve deeper and deeper into metal over the past year or so, I've come to prize Don't Break the Oath as one of my favorite records in the entire genre. The first time I heard it was a revelation, and I love pretty much everything about it. I can see King Diamond's voice being a deal-breaker for some, but I can get with it--and the playing and the riffs are so flat-out amazing that they totally overcome any reservations I might have about it.

classic tho it took 20 years to get into his voice like it did with Dio

CLASSIC AND I'M FPing ANY FUCKER THAT SAYS OTHERWISE

classic. DON'T BREAK THE OATH

Absolutely classic for Don't Break the Oath and everything that came before it. (Everything that came after it, not so much...)

I have a special fondness for the first EP (Nuns Have No Fun) and other tracks from that period (conveniently collected on Return of the Vampire. The actual sound of it is so purely haunted and evil.

And King Diamond was on fire back in those days.

A top 5 band for me. I started to write a long graf about how I feel about them but it's like, people would laugh at how highly I esteem this band. I love this fucking band more than all but maybe three other bands ever.

Absolutely classic for Don't Break the Oath and everything that came before it. (Everything that came after it, not so much...)

This isn't true btw. Both In the Shadows and Time are outstanding albums, and their highlights stand alongside the best tracks in the band's catalog: "Shadows," "Angel of Light," "The Bell Witch," "Nightmare Be Thy Name": these are all great songs.

Sure.
But absolutely classic songs?
Not so much, imho.

those songs stand alongside anything from the first two imo - and the guitar work by that point has, if anything, gotten better. I think the first two benefit from historical perspective - they're acknowledged classics that sort of came out of nowhere, they get the debut-and-followup benefit. Both Time and In the Shadows are great records front to back

I don't hear it. But I think it is better than King Diamond solo for sure.

classic tho it took 20 years to get into his voice like it did with Dio

― it looks like something rupert the bear would wear (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, June 13, 2012 5:58 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Damn, 20 years! You're a persistent guy... I've had a harder time getting used to the black metal voice than any of the high-voiced dudes.

I don't hear it. But I think it is better than King Diamond solo for sure.

whaaaaaaaat

Fatal Portrait: total, undeniable classic
Abigail: Ditto
Conspiracy: just a batwing-hair beneath those two

Not only are Mercyful Fate undeniably fucking classic, but Force of Evil, the band made up of MF and King Diamond solo-band alumni, made two killer albums in the early 2000s that really deserve a wider hearing.

Fatal Portrait is an interesting transition album, where Diamond and his henchmen are slowly shifting from the layered and mystique Mercyful Fate sound and songs to the more straightforward approach of his future solo output.

why didn't anyone ever tell me this band sounded like this

currently listening to Melissa and this is what my face is doing:

o_O O_O ^_^ \m/

(yes, my face went "\m/", I am certain you all know exactly what I mean)

I'm so happy for you!

If you come to visit we can drive the 20 minutes or so to pay homage to King Diamond at his house.

what is this bit in "Evil" that sounds like "Eye of the Tiger"

I'm so glad I contributed to this:

Satan is Alive: A Tribute to Mercyful Fate

"Evil" is like 14 songs mushed together, so I'm not surprised you hear "Eye of the Tiger" in the mix; I haven't heard "Eye of the Tiger" in so long all I can remember is the opening lines.

I think people complaining about dude's voice are the most po-faced people alive

i probably say this on here a lot but KD has one of if not THE greatest Metal voices ever

feel like I did a good deed today

:)

best band

where does one begin w/Mercyful Fate

DON'T BREAK THE OATH

Just search "Gypsy" and "Nightmare" from that album.

Also, lol at Liz Frazer appearance on "Nightmare."

j/k

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c0.0.403.403/p403x403/546886_10152236115395467_367926966_n.jpg

crut, Don't Break the Oath and Melissa are both awesome, King Diamond's Abigail is great too.

I discovered Don't Break the Oath for the first time a couple of months ago. Holy shit, what an amazing record.

those first two Fate albums are basically the bedrock. King's debut Fatal Portrait is great, so's Abigail. Fate reunion albums Time and In the Shadows are also both excellent. Bootlegs from their early years are fucking HOT, they play really well and just burn shit down. (And King's patter is just the sort of dramatic metal stuff that everybody loves.)

DON'T BREAK THE OATH

^^^

i saw then live in '99, such a great live show

aero, y'all ever check out The Brats...the band that i think maybe 2 or 3 of the Mercyful Fate guys were in before Mercyful Fate? kinda awesome/cute band that i guess could be described as biker metal/new wave/power pop?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKsNfKRwLVM

By the way, both Melissa and Don't Break the Oath have cover art that's are in the all-time pantheon, too.

yeah the Brats are p. cool. Fun stuff. I'll buy basically anything pre- or ex-Fate, that band is the best

The riff-solo combination from 4:18-5:00 in "Satan's Fall" is so perfect.

:D

TONIIIIIGHT THE CIRCLE IS MEETING AGAIIIIIN

definitely a MF kind of day, kicking out the jams with Melissa...

I'M A CORPSE
I'M A CORPSE
I'M A CORPSE WITHOUT SOUL

"Satan's Fall" is absolutely fucking epic

I really wish he'd take MF off of hiatus. I actually liked 9, it was a more modernized, streamlined version of Fate. and maybe he could convince Denner to come back while he's at it.

I'm bummed that I never got to see them. I had a ticket to see Mercyful Fate in 1999 in Atlanta, but at the time I lived in Tallahassee and had no car. The show got cancelled so it became a moot point, and then...hiatusville.

oh and uhm In the Shadows is an underrated Fate album. like "Bell Witch" is in my top ten MF songs of all time.

I AM THE AIR YOU BREATHEEEEEEEEE
I AM THE BELL WIIIIIITCH

yeah agreed, I just listened to it and though it doesn't quite hit the operatic heights of the first few albums it's still really good. Those boys could play.

one of my favorite MF tropes was when King would go into Bee Gees harmony-land.

still the best

I'm all about "Black Masses"

MF were like one band that could actually convince me to worship SAtan cuz it just sounds so damn fun

God that scream at the end of "A Corpse Without Soul"

SATAN HAS TAKEN HIS TOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

damn great tat neanderthal

^^ excellent work

thx guys. it hurt a lot more than my other 4, but been wanting that one for eons.

so, Mercyful Fate POX time? here's mine...

1) Evil (probably the only band where my #1 song has p much never changed)
2) A Dangerous Meeting
3) The Bell Witch
4) The Oath
5) Nightmare Be Thy Name (this is a late addition - I love Time more than I used to now)
6) Black Funeral
7) Satan's Fall
8) Nightmare
9) Melissa
10) Torture (1629) (this is one from Dead Again, which while not a great album...this is a killer opening track)

Oh god.

Evil
Nuns Have No Fun
Devil Eyes
Melissa
Time
Desecration of Souls
Nightmare
Curse of the Pharoahs
Is That You, Melissa?
Into the Coven

In the Shadows tonight. god I still love this one. helluva comeback album.

Evil*
Nightmare
A Corpse Without Soul
Into the Coven
Time
A Dangerous Meeting
Devil Eyes
Melissa
The Oath
Return of the Vampire

* wanted to put something else at #1, but…

I should have had Corpse Without Soul in mine. So many moments in that song.

Can we all agree that "Welcome Princess of Hell" is a better title than "Welcome Princes of Hell," the correct one?

(Also, Neanderthal, that fucking tattoo is amazing.)

it will always be "princess" to me and I have always thought this

Amen.

princess of hell otm

nothing but respect for MY princess

ALL HAIL SATAN

🙌 and do the 🤘

The Lost in Vegas dudes tackled "Melissa" on the weekend: blown away by the music, tried to figure out what to do with the voice

if they don't announce a US tour for the MF reunion next year, I may fly overseas to catch it.

still bums me the fuck out that whatever issue exists between King and Denner can't be resolved, cos the Denner/Shermann albums ripped, but 2/5ths of Fate is better than 0/5ths of Fate, I guess....plus it's not like Wead is bad.

they also claim to have written new material.

RIP Timi Hansen :(

Very sad. Hansen anchored two of the most ridiculously talented metal bands of our generation, Fate and King Diamond's band circa 1987.

King just posted a very touching tribute message to him on FB.

I went from loving Dead Again to hating it and haven't played it since 1999.

Threw it on today.... it's actually quite good! Not really any all-time classics on it, but mega consistent.

"Banshee" is my fav

cannot stop listening to them lately. I remember loving the last album, 9, when it came out, then later souring on it when I felt it was too 'modernized trend hopping" MF. I listened to it again last night and I don't think that's fair.

there's a LITTLE bit of that in "Sold My Soul", and the song structures are mega-simplified, but they'd even done that on Time with much success. there's definitely some really good material on there, like "Last Rites", "Burn in Hell", "Church of St Anne". some forgettable, but it's listenable!

Into the Unknown is the one I barely know whatsoever. It was actually the album that delayed my MF-dom by 3 years, because I had gotten excited by the MF music I heard them play on Beavis and Butthead....only to hear the opening track be a Satanic invocation ("our father, who art in Hell!"), and me being a Fundamentalist, that snapped the door shut.

I don't think a niche thread is worth it, but what's everybody's POV for Mercyful Fate?

Mine is...

"Evil"
"Bell Witch"
"A Dangerous Meeting"
"The Oath"
"Nightmare Be Thy Name"

Don't Break the Oath MOSTLY works as a continuous album for me, but those two tracks mentioned are ones I can listen standalone.

I do love Melissa a lot but I wanted to be inclusive of other albums.

I WAS BORN ON THE CEMETERY
UNDER THE SIGN OF THE MOOOOOOOOON

Best song ever. I can never grow tired of discussing Fate

yeah I just got the CD reissues from last year and they’re totally kicking my ass.

OH, THEY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN
NOT TO PLAY WITH THE POWERS OF HELL

Quoth some RYM rando:

Half a star lower than it deserves due to insanely evil lyrics, espicially off of "The Oath", which is obviously the worst track off the album cause of the evil lyrics, but still pretty great album overall.

WTF???

Can't believe a metal fan had silly opinions

Ok but you gotta admit that a metal fan docking off a star because the lyrics are too 'insanely evil' is something else.

*half a star

lol the evil lyrics are one of the selling points.

I FORBID THEE ENTRANCE HEREEE, YOU STAND ON HALLOWED GROUNNNNDD

I once saw a RYM reviewer downgrade an album because the lyrics scared him. It wasn't even metal or sinister at all (Cairo - Conflict & Dreams). Review is gone now.

THE DUDE HAS ACTUAL BONES ON HIS MIC STAND YOU GOTTA EMBRACE THE GLORIOUS SATANIC EVIL! HOWL LIKE A WOLF AND A WITCH WILL OPEN THE DOOR!!

This is how the boomers must have felt when people started docking points for too many guitar solos.

This is how the boomers must have felt when people started docking points for too many guitar solos.

excessive guitar solos + micstand bones-level evil = my shit

Eh, I knew Christian kids in the 80s and 90s who loved the sound of Led Zeppelin or Marilyn Manson but were terrified of the occult or Satanic content. There's a reason Christian rock existed. Really don't think it's generational. If anything, I imagine it's less common now.

Lol Marilyn Manson basically tore my church apart. The youth group leader demanded one of our members "break" their Manson CD when she found out she owned one. They did!

One of those rare occasions where I fully stand behind the church.

there's like a live stream going on about the show in Berlin tonight?

https://www.twitch.tv/kingdiamondofficial

They sound great in the new live clips coming out.

Wish I could go to the Norway date (with Candlemass, Tribulation, and Unto Others)

holy fuck the new song whips ASS.

I gotta make it to Vegas to see em dammit

I have to work on the 19th but I had been considering it before that got confirmed

Haha, King's Twitch emotes are awesome

https://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/emoticons/v2/emotesv2_23bbdd5ae02945dba650f08700fd255c/default/dark/2.0

US Tour announced!!!

with KREATOR.

10/25/2022 Dallas, TX – The Factory
10/27/2022 Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
10/29/2022 Inglewood, CA – Youtube Theater
10/30/2022 Wheatland, CA – Hard Rock Live Sacramento
11/01/2022 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
11/03/2022 Gary, IN – Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana
11/04/2022 Cincinnati, OH – The Andrew J. Brady Music Center
11/05/2022 Detroit, MI – Masonic
11/08/2022 Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore Silver Spring
11/10/2022 Brooklyn, NY – Kings Theater
11/11/2022 Laval, QC – Place Bell
11/13/2022 Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall At Fenway
11/14/2022 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Philadelphia
11/16/2022 Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle

DON'T TOUCH
NEVER EVER STEAL

otm

Under 90 minutes til showtime and I can't believe this is finally happening.

My life is complete