Mercyful Fate – A Brief Retrospective/Introduction

Mercyful Fate are rightly regarded as one of heavy metal’s most influential and beloved icons. A recognized influence on bands like Metallica and Slayer, the danish group picked up on the thematic obsessions and compositional tendencies of the early metal pioneers like Black Sabbath and took them to a new level of musicianship and realization.

Perhaps the easiest way of explaining the band’s character and appeal to someone who’s never heard of them would be to describe them as the musical equivalent of the classic Hammer films (or their Italian counterparts such as Mario Bava’s “Black Sunday”): gloriously kitsch, excellently executed gothic horror tales that play on all of the genre’s tropes as they are fixed in pop culture consciousness in a way that’s as committed and passionate as it is playful. As with every enterprise of the sort, the result can be as close to genuine enchantment as it is to melodrama and cliché, something that certain listeners never tire to point out with due respect.

It should be noted, however, that the band’s handling of their topics of preference (the paranormal, occult, demonic, satanic) was felt by the very first listeners to be much more powerful, and effectively disquieting, than that of pretty much any other band from the time that casually delved into such themes (case in point: Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast”). Take, for example, Kerry King’s reaction to the (outstanding) title-track of their first album, “Melissa”:

“(…) every time I hear that, it’s such a sad song, it stays with me for like a day. I’ll just sing it in my head.”

… or, less charitably, we could also evoke the inclusion of “Into the Coven” (from the same album) on the infamous Parents Music Resource Center’s “Filthy Fifteen” list of “objectionable” songs due the occult content, though we imagine that it wouldn’t have taken much to impress those fellows…

In any case, independently of the tiredness of the images and themes that populated the band’s universe, and the eventual “disneyfication” they had already undergone in the popular imagination, the aesthetic effect of the world they conjured was sufficiently rapturous to make a profound impact on many of the listeners who felt a resonance with the serious emotional implications at the heart of the music, with some, like the aforementioned Slayer guitarist, going the furthest way – that is, being inspired to the point of embarking on his own creative journey (which, in its own way, would explore some of the same territory as the danish band). In other words, let’s just say that the way Mercyful Fate dealt with these ideas is very distinct from that of a band like Cradle of Filth.

Besides the subject matter, courtesy of frontman King Diamond’s fascination with these dreaded areas of human knowledge and history, Mercyful Fate developed a unique and instantly recognizable style defined by Diamond’s vocal theatrics and range, alternating between a now iconic falsetto and more somber intonations, the intricate guitar work of Hank Shermann and Michael Denner and a knack for intuitive composition that efficiently translated the mysterious and macabre stories of the lyrics into compelling pictures of sound.

The formula would be continued by King Diamond’s subsequent homonymous project, yielding excellent results on albums like “Abigail” and a by all means satisfying outcome on many others, proving to be the very rare case where a winning template manages not to be exhausted or outright corrupted on a very short life-span.

(This retrospective will solely focus on the band’s full-length studio albums)

Melissa (1983)

Armed with considerable technical prowess but above all with a fully-formed vision and the means to bring it to life (the requirement of any great artistic endeavour), Mercyful Fate delivered a nearly unsurpassable classic of the genre with their debut. Besides the immediate aesthetic impression, already beginning with the cover artwork, perhaps the most notable aspect of the music is the tendency for a relatively complex (“progressive”) compositional style that allows for a much greater nuance and more detailed world-building as each song moves through different sections – it’s entirely appropriate to liken them to scenes in a movie – that further develop each of the themes at play and strategically reinstates them as required by the narrative.

This method is perfectly adequate for the band’s storytelling aspirations, as the twists and turns of King Diamond’s tales and their various tones wouldn’t have been properly communicated by the more straightforward (and, in cases like this, limited) verse-chorus structure. This approach to songwriting would prove influential on subsequent heavy-weights like Slayer, whose Kerry King notes: “There was definitely a Mercyful Fate influence on (Slayer’s) Hell Awaits. You can tell by the super long songs with, like, 10,000 riff changes. That was definitely a Mercyful Fate influence.”

The band’s preoccupation with establishing a carefully conceived “mood” in perfect correspondence with the lyrical content is another of the distinguishing factors whose importance can’t be overstated. This recalls, again, the world of classic horror cinema where the elaborate settings (like the baroquely decorated haunted houses or villain lairs) and their associated atmosphere take on a crucial role, often with precedence over the minute details of the plot or characters.

Songs like the title-track approach that oral storytelling mode in which the music is first and foremost treated as an accompaniment or representation of the text, with every note and vocal inflection seemingly chosen in order to align with the sentiment of the lyrics and their changing emotional content.

A massive step forward for metal music at the time, “Melissa” took the genre’s inclination for horror and the occult in a much more expressive and artistically accomplished direction that surprised and bewitched the public of the time, going on to exert a decisive influence on a huge number of musicians, including those working on the genre’s more extreme variants (the band’s resonance with black metal, for example, should be obvious).

Don’t Break the Oath (1984)

Mercyful Fate’s second album delivered another well-crafted batch of what was presented on their debut with the added impact of the ideas that they have been brewing in the meantime. Once again, ambitiously constructed songs make use of a variety of elements, from grooves bordering on hard-rock, more threatening riffs, technically demanding solos and moments hinting at forthcoming developments of metal music, harmonizing them all under the power of the band’s underlying vision.

The focus is on building an immersive, bombastic, blockbuster-type experience of a gothic horror epic, with all of the implications that come with that (including the cheesiness); to that effect, the Mercyful Fate employ all of the privileged tools at their disposal, from King Diamond’s vocals to the noteworthy skills of the guitarists and a series of atmospheric effects that heighten the overall sensation of being thrown into an adventurous ride through forbidden pacts and the realms of mind and nether-worldly labyrinths that they reveal. The confident, almost playful songwriting is as refined as ever, leading to many memorable moments such as the vocal dynamics in the intro to “Welcome, Princes of Hell”, the uber-theatrical finishing line of “Nightmare” or the incredible journey that is the opener “A Dangerous Meeting” with its nearly seamless transitions between the riffs and leads. All in all, we are left with the work of a well-oiled band at the peak of its expressive powers joyfully and passionately delivering something that is clearly close to the hearts of the members.

In the Shadows (1993)

“Into the Shadows” was the band’s first effort after the surprising pause they took at the peak of their fame, roughly a year after the release of “Don’t Break the Oath”; the general impression that the album gives is that of a compacted version of their previous material: all of the key elements are present, including the occasional excursions into more ambitious arrangements, but the degree of enthusiasm and inventiveness is not quite the same as in the preceding albums. With that said, one only needs to listen to tracks like “The Old Oak” or “Is that you, Melissa?” to confirm that the band’s creative vigour and compositional strengths were still in place and providing interesting results; the songs are relatively simpler than in the first two albums, but at no point feel formulaic, and there’s still plenty of room for the band to occasionally take on less conventional paths that contribute to a much richer and more fleshed out palette than what one would expect from the typical band exploring similar musical and thematic territory. The instrumental “Room of Golden Air”, for example, is further proof of the band’s confident command of the elements that have always defined their sound, successfully managing to sustain the listener’s attention even without the precious aid of Diamond’s vocals. The dark heart at the center of Mercyful Fate’s craft still beats unimpeded in the band’s first work after a significant hiatus – a relative feat considering the rate of success of most ventures of this kind in the world of metal or even music in general.

Time (1994)

As with the previous album, “Time” represents a relatively lighter dose of the band’s signature sound; the result, however, is still sufficiently solid to merit recommendation and a place alongside Mercyful Fate’s more accomplished efforts. The conviction with which King Diamond and the rest of the band delve into the habitual thematic ground is evident in the creative energy that pulses through the album, with interesting choices such as the use of harpsichord and ritualistic choruses or the interplay between slower sections and spectral vocal passages for a particularly ghastly effect. As always, these touches, in line with the general directives of the band’s aesthetic, are above all bent on providing an expressive and entrancing musical landscape where the “flashy” and picturesque dark hues are carved into the listener’s mind in a similar way as the luxuriously detailed set-pieces of a campy horror movie (like the castle in Hammer’s “Dracula” with Christopher Lee). “Time” provides enough well-executed ideas and cohesive songs to qualify as classic Mercyful Fate even if, like the previous album, it’s not quite on par with the output from the band’s first phase.

Into the Unknown (1996)

The band’s fifth release presents a further move towards a more straightforward approach; even if the content is not by any means innovative, the quality of the individual songs remains noteworthy and we wouldn’t be mistaken in placing this album above the contemporaneous output of most of the band’s peers. With simpler song structures, entirely reliant on the calculated effect of the verse-chorus dynamic and soloing for the bridges, and a general yielding to the genre’s tropes (such as the intro), it’s almost as if the band is filling up a pre-existent template of conventional heavy metal songwriting with their trademarks (a characteristically MF solo here, a falsetto attack there, etc). The result is thus of a very different impact than that of their earlier albums, although it can be still be considered by most measures a respectable album.

Dead Again (1998)

“Dead Again” accentuates the previous albums’ tendency for a more formulaic form of songwriting increasingly emptied of the unique spark that characterized their early material. Throughout its entirety, a persistent sense of drying inspiration and a resulting lapse into mere convention is felt, with predictable songs that have very little of the adventure and ingeniousness of the band’s classic albums filling up the runtime. The listener can still count on King Diamond’s vocal delivery and some intriguing (and always well-executed) guitar work from Shermann and newcomer Mike Wead (like the intro and lead guitar on the title track), but overall, the magic of Mercyful Fate finds itself severely diminished in this outing.

9 (1999)

For their swan song, Mercyful Fate unfortunately didn’t go out in a grand and explosive final statement, delivering instead what feels like a relatively uninspired fade out. Even the lyrics seem to degrade into low-effort variations on the band’s typical themes; both musically and thematically, it’s as if the filter of the Mercyful Fate aesthetic was applied to an average heavy metal band of the time, with very little of their creativity and power surviving the process. It is thus a pity that such a legendary band had this album as the closing chapter to its distinguished career, although this should in no way trouble the appreciation of their general character and the incredible contributions they have offered us through the years. Plus, as we shall see, it appears this won’t be the final act after all…

The Jackal of Salzburg (new song)

Upon their 2019 reunion, Mercyful Fated announced they’d debut new songs alongside the beloved classics that would make up the setlist of their return to the stages. A new album is in the works and for the time being the only glimpse we’ve gotten at what the band is cooking up has graced their recent concerts under the form of the 8-minute “The Jackal of Salzburg”, about the Magician Jackl from the Salzburg witch trials. The song moves mainly through the tension created by a mournful segment composed of a beautiful guitar passage underscored by Diamond’s vocal lament leading to a thundering faster-paced section with the obligatory intervention of guitar soloing along the way. The song recalls the approach of the band’s first phase – and they have explicitly indicated the much celebrated first two releases are serving as the model for the upcoming songs – while also bearing similarities to King Diamond’s eponymous band. Like in his work on that project, there’s a clear passion for the classic art of storytelling and an attempt at capturing the atmosphere of the time and place in question (which in this case refer to real historical facts) through the grandiose affect and ambitious songwriting. The music is successfully evocative, with the joint spell of the haunting melody and vocals of the slower section conjuring the intended sense of drama and forming a cohesive whole with the song’s further developments until its purposeful reprise for the conclusion. If “The Jackal of Salzburg” is representative of the general quality of the forthcoming album, we can justifiably hold considerable expectations.