Mercyful Fate s Best Album - Great satanic metal without being thrash. If you haven t heard King Diamond s voice before, you you may want to listen to it first as his voice ranges from very high pitched falsetto to guttural from one bar to the next. If you don t like falsetto voices then you probably won t like King Diamond. What really makes Mercyful Fate great is the talent of the musicians. In terms or music, great collaboration between Hank Shermann and Michael Denner: two of the most underrated heavy metal soloists in my book. They make me think of Dave Murray and Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden. You essentially have two solo guitarists working together instead of your typical lead and supporting guitarist. Kim Ruzz and Timi Graber also add some astonishing talent on bass and drums for a great final product. Every song on this album is great! Metallica s sorry partial rendition of Curse Of The Pharaohs doesn t do it justice!
mercy,mercy. - in the early 80`s the landscape of metal was constantly evolving,bands all over the metal world were finding themselves and honing their skills,explosions from every corner of heavy music were going off, creating some of the greatist music in history.this is the time when everyone was trying to label all these different kinds of metal,speed,thrash,black metal and a thousand other categories.i guess in retrospect,this was a good thing,even though under the banner of metal,it took all these other categories to describe this new thing called metal,suggesting diversity within the metal movement.mercyful fate were on the cutting edge of this movement,melissa was a definitive album for metal,unique,defying description and original, mercy would go on to influence a generation of would be metal gods,an aquired taste for sure,this album is one of my faves.the first time i heard melissa,i was an instant fan,the opening track(evil)took about 30 seconds to hook me.good advice for this disc is,listen to some samples first,king diamond`s voice isn`t for everyone,if you can get past this your good to go.
Packing List for Eternity - Friends, when I die, at an absolute minimum, please pack among my provisions for the journey, the following tracks from this album: Evil, Curse Of The Pharaohs, Into The Coven.
Do You Think Melissa Is Still With Us? - God I think she is >:P This album is by far a metal classic! It s one of the awesome albums that paved the way lyrically for Black Metal. You have two great guitarists that don t mess around. And everything else about this band and album is totally awesome. My favorite songs are Evil, Curse of the Pharoahs, Satan s Fall, Into the Coven, and Black Funeral. All awesome songs that still rock today, no matter how old they are!!!!! Remember this is a classic and it shall remain that way for all eternity!
would be 5 stars if not for the vox/lyrics - I was there is 1983 when this was brand new...I was doing the whole megaforce records thing...Kill em all, Into Glory Ride, All For One, then this one! Thought it was fast and mean in 1983, blasted it on the boombox, doobage, beer....etc...This devil lyric stuff was very cool in its day, everybody was Doin It, as they say. The music instrumentally is so good, you just cant get enough, the riffs, arrangements, sound of the guitars and the solos, the drummer is slammin , the bass works for me as well. The vocals are just ridiculous. The guy has a good voice in there somewhere but all this falsetto....The content of the lyrics is just goofy and way, WAY, over the top. I must admit, I love Slayer and Venom and dont mind the lyrics at all, but there are 2 phrases on the album that really bug me. Crush The Cross and Forget That Whore. I have an interview with the vocalist on videotape from 1985, he was on the JOE FRANKLIN show on WOR TV. It was a great interview, and he came across as being a soft spoken, well mannered, and quite ordinary! Looks like a cool guy you can have an intelligent conversation with. So I guess a lot of this stuff is razzle dazzle, show biz type of deal. Or at least I hope so...As was the music scene in the mid 80 s, these underground metal albums sold very well without any airplay, no advertising, no major disribution deal. Just pure word of mouth at all the high schools across the USA!You just cannot say enough regarding the quality of the songwriting as craft, the classy instrumentation, and the passion of the 2 guitars and the rythym section. At The Sound Of the demon Bell is by far the best song Black Funeral is the wildest one, be careful not to drive the car though a wall. It was a Black Funeral Home,She was evicted from my apartment.