Mercyful Fate: Classic or Dud?

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzgfykZ1Wg1qdq5u6.gif

... that guitar break on "Into the Coven" tho

For album cover/opening track awesomeness symmetry, you're hard pressed to top this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/pt/5/5b/Don

and this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWCOqNHzM0k

What a beautiful moment
If you're willing to trade
Then I'll give you a moment of mine

KD, such a softie.

I'm going to splurge some cash on the 2007 Cargo re-issues, unless anyone says that I shouldn't?

vinyl re-issues, BTW

the other day another dad told me my kid's facepaint looked like King Diamond

Yeah, it's King Diamond solo and not Mercyful Fate, but I think this is classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmweKy-RCMI

For some reason, I decided to listen to Don't Break the Oath for the first time a few minutes ago. It's hilarious. I was going to come here and dump all over it, but I see how happy this band makes people, so I'll refrain.

\m/

you kinda just did anyway but w/e

Are you saying King Diamond's voice is hilarious? Because that record is riff city. Even if you might not dig the King (it took me a long time to warm to him), the band is hot fire.

i appreciated Johnny's restraint enough to have a minute's silence as i FP'd him

yeah no shit. I get that King's voice is an acquired taste (I love it) but Shermann/Denner are hard to find fault w/ throughout that album. for god's sake, A Dangerous Meeting!

i respect ppls opinions and all but let's just say any family member who utters a word of disdain towards the King or MF is out of my will and also will be fired upon by firing squad upon my death

No you guys. It's the voice, and I was listening to it and thinking "oh, I've GOT TO shit on this" and then I found the thread and found out the immense joy the band brings you guys and it warmed my heart. Really. We all have our things.

i couldn't stand king diamond's voice for a long time, but for whatever reason it clicked recently. it's not just his voice, the music is great. it's fun, kick ass riffs, and they have this spooky vibe that's more party in the graveyard than burning down churches. guess i had to lighten up a little to appreciate it.

My only exposure to the King is one of the videos that got heavily played on Headbanger's Ball at the end of the 80s—don't remember which one—but he's haunted me since (no pun intended).

the key to enjoying King's voice is realizing that it is ok to think it's simultaneously hilarious and also skullfuckingly awesome.

like I giggle when I hear "granddddmAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" but when he sings "I am the Bell WITTTTTTTTTTTTTTCH" man that shit is just the bee's knees

So great.

sasd to see the KD tour pretty much sold out in minutes :(. stubhub I guess.

it's the next level up from Bruce Dickinson and Rob Halford.

Mercyful Fate to me is like, idk, death opera. Those crazy high notes make you feel all the feels and it's exciting as hell and it fucking RULES.

I WAS BORN OF THE CEMETERY
UNDER THE SIGN OF THE MAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOONNN

otm

See? Pure joy. I can't dump all over that.

but you so want to

the fact that you want to but you don't think you should is bummertown usa

dumping shouldn't even cross your mind

you are in metal heaven

I hated King's voice back when Oath came out. Hated it. Riff-wise, though, those records (and Abigail & Them as well) were so tantalizingly up my alley as a kid. Flamboyant, theatrical, all that, but that voice was always the sticking point. It wasn't until the late-'90s that I finally, finally came around. I don't know what won me over, I just bought into King's awesomeness completely.

The voice was actually part of the initial attraction for me.

yeah i don't get the issue, KD's voice is the essence of Metal imo

i mean I can see where the witchy Bee Gees falsetto might be offputting to some (not me of course), but even then people forget that was only part of his bag of tricks. His low vocals were unique and bellowy and served as a great compliment.

they have this spooky vibe that's more party in the graveyard than burning down churches. guess i had to lighten up a little to appreciate it.
― Spectrum, Wednesday, August 13, 2014 4:33 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I think the key to Mercyful Fate is realizing that it's meant to be fun

*mixed-gender D&D (xp)

His low vocals were unique and bellowy and served as a great compliment.

Hell yes! I love "A Corpse Without Soul" for the interplay between the two styles:

Now I was walking down among the graves
I heard a CRYYYYYYYYYY
My SHADOWWW WAS GONNNEEEE
Emptiness in my body, I felt so alone
SMAAAAALLLLL black wings on my naked BAAAAAAACKKKK

Now guess what I saw on one of the stones
I saw my SSOOUUUULLLL, in a MAAAAGICALLL HAZZEE
It was all dressed up
It was a corpse in a wedding dress
SMAAAALLLLLL black wings on my naked BAAAAACCKKKK-AAGH!

The little extra-high shriek at the very end is so great.

80s mercyful fate & king diamond = some of my favorite shit ever, maybe not a template for metal but certainly an ideal. KD's vocals, lyrics and style are a big part of that, though it did take me quite a while to come around. at the time, i couldn't relate at all, so i can understand why JF might recoil on initial exposure. you just gotta come, come to the sabbath, johnny...

going to put on Melissa in honour of this thread and ROCK OUT

Don't Break the Oath is the absolute best.

listening to Oath on headphones for once and boy were Timi Hansen's bass contributions underrated. everybody goes on about Shermann/Denner (rightfully so) but Timi's pretty monstrous on this album himself

Is there any drawbacks to those Mercyful Fate double packs? They're far cheaper than most of the other options for sure. Not sure why I didn't get the double pack when I went for Don't Break The Oath.

The main two problems with those Two From the Vault deals are 1) no rhyme, reason, or indication as to which mastering you get -- and MF/KD have had some remastering catastrophes over the years, esp. Don't Break the Oath and Abigail; and 2) somewhat related, a lack of complete liner notes. In all cases you do still get a full page of the booklet devoted to the original album cover, but that's about it.

I just deleted two paragraphs of my whining about remasterings haha. Since I'm not at the Hoffman Forums, I'll leave it this: YMMV.

I do have several of those TFTV deals, I should add, just not the MF ones. King Diamond, yes, among a few death metal classics.

Thanks. I'm going for the double packs.

Don't know why King Diamond individual albums are so cheap but not the first run of Mercyful Fate except Don't Break The Oath.

One good thing about the DBTO TFTV is that it comes with Return of the Vampire, the demo comp. Those early versions of the songs are so good, and "Burning the Cross," which never made it onto an album proper, is maybe my favorite Fate song. It's ridiculous that that song isn't up there with their other classics.

yknow what's a little frustrating, there is just no singing along with this dude

― j., Monday, March 17, 2014 7:04 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol man you ain't lived until you've squealed "Grandmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" at a King Diamond show with thousands of other fans

that said, the new Denner/Shermann release is really solid. I pretty much tune out the vocalist cos he's decent but as many may say, he doesn't really fit what they're going for, too power metally.

but this is some of the most inspired, melodic heavy metal riffing I've heard in eons, esp from Denner/Shermann, who had really kinda tapped out of ideas in MF by the late 90s.

now if they can just kick out this vocalist and have auditions for another, I hear this guy Kim Bendix Petersen might be a good replacement.

did anybody else get into these guys solely due to seeing them on Beavis and Butthead btw

If like me you're either disinterested in or disappointed by any of the bands that get tagged with Mercyful Fate comparisons, you might want to look to Norway's Magister Templi. I think one reason I never checked them out was the Candlemass comparison, and I definitely hear that, but there's something in their music that takes me right back to hearing Fate for the first time, little guitar runs here and there, ghostly clanging cymbals, song shifts that catch you by surprise, a production that actually sounds alive. I just burned through several songs on their bandcamp and have bumped their two albums to the top of my ACQUIRE NOW list. (The vox are nothing like King's, though.)

They're on Cruz del Sur.

http://magistertempli.bandcamp.com/

And

did anybody else get into these guys solely due to seeing them on Beavis and Butthead btw

When I saw the "Family Ghost" video in 1987 I knew then and there I was seeing and hearing one of the the most insanely talented heavy metal bands in history. I still believe that. What a lineup, what innovation and flamboyance they brought to the genre.