Mercyful Fate - Melissa - Reviews (2024)

"Melissa" is Mercyful Fate's very eclectic and satanic heavy metal debut. It's all over the place, but it's good, and sounds like a heavy metal distillate of good 70s rock, balancing its devilish themes with a bright and pleasant sonic atmosphere.

"Melisisa" sounds progressive, and at times weird. It's more impenetrable than "Don't Break The Oath", which is a little more melodic and accessible. It doesn't take much cogitation to figure out that the band had many, and good, influences.

Unlike today's horrible metal bands, most classic metal bands from the 80s listened to a variety of music, not just metal. Their efforts were metal- informed, but not based solely on metal. Hank Shermann has stated a preference for heavier 70's rock like Priest, Sabbath, as well as UFO. Michael Denner, in his interviews, has stated that he and King had big collections of 70s music. His favorite bands include Three Man Army and Tempest, rowdier American rock like Montrose and Mountain, and both he and Shermann have mentioned Captain Beyond as a prime influence. CB bequeathed unto them, and "Melissa", a legacy of bold, groovy riffing, an overall dark sound, and a rare ability among progressive bands to change rhythms and use breaks without destroying the whole song.

The one exception to this is Satan's Fall" - a large, confusticating pile of whatever the hell the guitarists wanted to throw in there, which often uses pauses, instead of passages, between song segments. Somehow I know every riff by heart, and I enjoy the thing, even though King's English is too difficult to understand, so I could never remember the lyrics.

The King himself was clearly influenced by Arthur Brown. The black and white make-up, the satanic subject matter and love of horror and unsettling people, the head voice vocals, are all very telling that King has absorbed a lot of Arthur Brown's strangeness.

A particular moment which I enjoy a lot is the opening to "At The Sound Of The Demon Bell", which I believe is a perfect heavy metal riff. The guitar sound on this record is well-crafted, naturally leaning into the high-mids, squeaky and not overly distorted, and is balanced by a very prominent and clear bass guitar sound. The kick drum and the snare pop wonderfully, courtesy of Kim Ruzz, a somewhat jazzy, creative drummer who is a master of fills and never, ever boring. The album, overall, sounds clear and lucent, and you're never left wondering what exactly you just heard.

"Melissa" is more of an experience than "Don't Break The Oath". It sounds crunchier, though less distorted, so it's more in tune with the band's influences from the previous decade. It's an atmospheric record, which takes you to deep catacombs, old cemeteries, ritual rooms, liminal spaces where your fantasy can turn you from Kim Petersen into King Diamond. Luckily, you will revert to your own self when the record's over, because there can only be one King Diamond.

Ask any man, woman or trans person on the street to name the first heavy metal band to pop in their head; more than likely you'll receive responses ranging from Iron Maiden and Judas Priest to Metallica and Megadeth - a rougher crowd might invoke Pantera or Slayer.

However, none other than Denmark's Mercyful Fate rears its diabolic Jack-The-Ripper mug (gleaned from a reliquian wooden cane recovered by now spectral police) when it comes to pinpointing one of the purely metallic genre's blackened nativities thanks to both the Copenhagen culprit's landmark debuts, 1983's skeletal Melissa and 1984's enflamed, chrome polished and horned follow-up, Don't Break The Oath (please and thank you).

Without delving too far into mechanics, the seven nuanced tracks totaling forty compact, no-non sense minutes of coolly unpredictable and super wizened musicianship capped by King Diamond's theatrically amusing debauches still blows my mind, forty (!) years onwards. A masterful classic from start to finish, every diehard metal fan and proponent of the hard-driven and raw solo and riff owes it, along with said secondary "serment" preserver, a keen baying or so.

Opener "Evil" roars to death with a screeching, flash frozen blast of neurotic riffing sure to tickle auditory synapses to collapse. Frantic, jangle-happy bass and drums also presage King D.'s feral flexes. Combined, the whip meets the flesh once a wildly cryptic chorus pumps away in full gonk glory. The honky-tonk lead and ensuing, prune consumed bass lead of an even crazier mien reaches an explosive apex. Egyptophiles will then exult with rapturous joy at sound of "Curse Of The Pharaohs", a bona fide Arabesque gem rivaled solely by Maiden's Slave Of Power whose malefic funk is too catchy to ignore.

When it comes to "Into The Coven", its daintily Medieval intro is absolved as cracked yellow brick road to further witchy n' wacky slipstream of vocal monkeyshines. Bow as the Regal One lets fly his impossible colors with clash and panache, whilst attaining ubiquitously zany levels of debilitating mayhem reminiscent of Sin After Sin era Priest. Ditto for the wickedly solo strewn and ever (non rainbow) rising "At The Sound Of The Demon Bell". Riff wise, the dudes in Sweden's Wolf concur.

Although Side A rules likes the rushing demonic skull above, Side B keeps MF's shadow cast light flickering like that of a mausoleum's creepy boogie. Although the brief and perfunctory "Black Funeral" remains congruous and displays equally eccentric chops, "Satan's Fall" confirms modern day Finns of distilled \m/-ness sagely bear their name. At eleven minutes, this discography staple never waivers, instead barging ahead as unhinged, Hellbent rollercoaster of fury and doom.

For its tightly bookended part, "Melissa" rubs venomous toads and spiked shoulders with "Evil" - especially after the slow, mellow part, when telltale albeit crippling "X" factor supreme and nocturnal speed return with a vengeance scream.

Effectively, a hot date with Mercyful Fate's Melissa is worth the face melt.

How many times do we write sentences like “they do not reinvent the wheel” or “there’s nothing innovative” in our reviews? And how many times do we avoid to write them, although they would be absolutely true? I think about this questions, because one thing is for sure: “Melissa” reinvented the wheel and was innovative as hell. An extremely creative quintet from the little and previously rather negligible Denmark, an early form of “The New Machine of Liechtenstein”, kicked the global metal community in the ass. I admit that I needed a lot of time to understand their outstanding approach. But now, “only” the incredible time span of 40 years after its release, even my slow-thinking mind is able to give standing ovations for the debut of a band whose name crushed with elemental force into the growing world wide scene: Mercyful Fate.

No album has ever had an opener with a more fitting, more programmatic title. “Evil”, as simple as it is, describes the album perfectly. It is a much more intelligent form of evil than we get in many cases today. Far away from the cruel approach of those hordes that only play their instruments, because they don’t know how to destroy them. “Melissa” is heavy from the beginning to the end, but it does not explore the frontiers of musical savagery. Instead, it delivers a massive dose of progressive structures and can rely on a timeless guitar sound Lucifer would call “wonderful”. Already the first tones of the fantastic “Evil” illustrate the full and crunchy guitar performance. But believe me now or never, it’s not only the instrumental section that make this album to a classic. King’s voice is an essential part of the horror that this debut spreads. I admit that some of his lines still cause me a massive toothache for three seconds, at least the first verse of “At the Sound of the Demon Bell”. Whenever he screams “Halloween”, an inner voice tells me to stop the listening session immediately – but of course I ignore this troublesome idiot in me. And I am also not annoyed that the song almost derails during the solo. From my point of view, it’s the weakest track here, but even this one contributes to the musical concept in a robust way. (By the way, I am also no big fan of the tragic title track, but it’s part of this groundbreaking masterpiece and therefore it is good, haha.)

As far as I can see, there are some vibes of the drug-imbued seventies to find here, but the basic ingredient is pure (then and still modern) metal. The guitar riffs, leads and solos do not lack aggression, even though a few soft parts show up from time to time. Sometimes they appear very abruptly and confuse with their mysterious character, for example in “Satan’s Fall” (the one at 7:50 minutes). One has to get used to it – but everything serves the fascinating overall concept of the debut, inter alia the atmospheric, chamber music compatible introduction of “Into the Coven”. Speaking of this track, it turns into an eerie, inclement mid-tempo killer. Its best detail is the melodic yet terrifying scream of King at the beginning of each line of the chorus, but even the mild part after the second chorus enriches the song.

Despite their progressive tendency, Mercyful Fate were intelligent enough to put at least one more or less conventional song on the album. “Black Funeral”, compact, catchy and full of sinister vitality, made it easy to make a first step into the lightless dimension of the Danes – even for people like me who failed to accept the musical genius immediately. It was an almost schizophrenic situation: I realized that the album’s opus magnum, the multi-layered, challenging, interwoven and simply brilliant “Satan’s Fall”, possessed a special charm or, better still, a proper dose of pure magic. Nevertheless, my narrow-minded mentality did not like each and any part of the song directly. So I was somehow stuck between a rock and a hard place. Today I know that this monument is not just the outstanding piece on the album; it is probably the signature song for the band for all time. So many superb riffs, so many changes in mood, tempo and feeling, so many unexpected twists and turns: those who do not know this track miss an important part of the evolution of today’s metal society.

Needless to say that the lyrics were brilliant as well. King takes us on a trip to Egypt (the awesome “Curse of the Pharao” lets you smell the scent of death) and plays masterly with the occult elements of its culture. Doubtlessly, this was a great idea, to mention but one example. But at the end of the day, everything fits together, not “only” the lyrics, the vocals or the riffs. “Melissa” is among the most influential albums ever, although its style has never left the niche where it was born. (And it’s useless to call their style power metal, black metal or whatever, it was something unique.) But it had and still has a lot of indirect effect, because it shows the diabolic grimace of pure heavy metal. This devilish attitude inspired surely more musicians than the entertainment-Satanism of Venom, even though they did not follow the musical path of Denner, Sherman and the other boys. Not to mention fanboys like The Attic who do a good job as well. However, the original was and is Mercyful Fate and their first two full-lengths are nothing less but true cult.

Beyond the fact the vocals are certainly of the affected kind - who would dare call these natural ? - they're also technically poor. Even while taking into account this is a release from an influential band and from the early 80's (the genesis era for modern metal), when were sh*tty falsettos ever excusable ? They're not only flat-out cheesy on many occasions, they're also low effort and evidently lazy a few times - regularly one can hear his voice break off before his highs have even finished the line. That's inexcusable for a band that prides itself on its vocalist and which entire instrumental setup is often merely background to the lead track that is King Diamond's ill-fated microphone. Stale mid-range wailing, and then Bee-Gees meets hard rock: excellent. This is just a purely inept performance. Which makes a bit of sense too... as this is from the genre's formative years, and amateur performances like this could slide, at least a whole lot more than it would today (Diamond didn't have YouTube tutorial vids or modern metal vocal trainers and what not back then).

Rob Halford's falsetto (and overall performance) sounds easily better on 'Rocka Rolla', and that was Priest's debut record in '74. Much more control, power coming through, and dynamic - as just one example. Dio on those early 80's Black Sabbath records: he makes Diamond here sound like Mickey Mouse - which he sounds like anyways. And let's not even dare compare this to the later trained vocalists. Theatrical vocals, albeit over-the-top theatrical in this case, may be excused if they're so poignant, powerful and so technically flawless and rare that they immediately catch the listener off-guard with emotions unexpected and new. At best, the fan needs to be indulgent here, willing the voice to be as awe-inspiring as they wished it was in their imagination... because, frankly, these vocals are farcical, to not say preposterous. They sound more like a guy on stage having fun at a festival, half inebriated and running on emotion, leaving all pretensions of a credible technical performance at the door and focusing almost entirely on the energy... as one would at a show - only this is a studio record, and we can hear all of it. In excruciating detail. In a general way the emphasis in the songs is put on the show, and less the sheer composition. All motion and no meat, as they say.

Truth be told, on the first track we're given a pretty believable delivery overall, with that heavy verse and its characteristic 80's rock/metal oomph. It's also a track with good drive, put together cleverly enough for the voice to come out sounding optimal. The last track, 'Melissa', is also a step up - although too little too late. For most of the album however, sections will sound like the most bland, generic renditions of early 80's metal, and when it isn't King Diamond's mouse voice claiming the lead, it's drawn out solos that seem like they're not even attempting to be convincing and just wish to fill out the space there. Linear phrasing over the rhythm guitars with redundant patterns from song to song. There are a few nice riffs in typical melodic blues 80's metal, but they are few and far between and plenty of bands were writing similar or better riffs at the time; nothing special whatsoever here; and even these seem to eclipse as soon as they're getting interesting, giving the stage to more of that bland material. Oh... and the thing about 'Melissa' and black metal: do you hear it ? So you do somehow: it's rather faint then, isn't it ? A slightly darker riff here and there, I suppose. Anyways.

Is the instrumental material on here, in any remotely imaginable way, music for the ages ? Would this stuff translate into an incredible spectacle if played in a full orchestra, the way plenty of metal bands have done with music that was fundamentally outstanding, transcending whatever instrumentation was employed ? Are those rhythm sections unique, brilliant pieces of song-writing - or music merely acting out some droll aesthetic ? It certainly can feel like the latter. It's really rather vague, approximate with what it's attempting to depict. The music is broadly melodic but not in any one kind of way (not particularly sorrowful, uplifting, dark...). It's not even that catchy, compared with other stuff that came out around that time. It's also focused on sounding energetic; an energy that feels counter-productive given how repetitive it is. It distinctly sounds like energy that consumes itself by never coming off the beaten path of mundane hard rock/metal commonality. After a few tracks it comes across as lacking enthusiasm, and as if out of puff. A bit cold, nearing apathy, and at times, simply dull. Finally, since this is upheld as classic metal: is there a handful of riffs on this that really stand out, of a caliber close to prime Metallica, Slayer, Pantera or Iron Maiden records ?

First of all I don't come here to criticize the classics because I want to be cool guy with my "out of the box" opinions. When I do a review I do it mainly because I think I have something to say that can contribute about that album or because I want to review it in depth, in this case I wanted to review in depth Melissa by Mercyful Fate, why? Well basically because on a punctual listening I did of the album, I was feeling that maybe the album wasn't as good as I remembered, which made me feel strange and made me want to go deeper into it. I still believe that it has a lot of good aspects to highlight, I will comment on the ones I think are the most interesting, but I certainly think it has some negative points that I think that since it is a classic they go a little more unnoticed and sometimes even deliberately ignored due to its status.

In my opinion there are several moments of dubious musical quality that go unnoticed mainly because of the magnificent interpretation of King Diamond who besides executing his role at a good level, is responsible only with his voice to give much more dynamism and atmosphere to parts of some songs that if they were purely musical could come to appreciate that the album has lower moments than it may seem, some examples of this would be the chorus of King Diamond in "At the Sound of the Demon Bell" when the lyrics says

"Rise... rise... rise... rise... It's Halloween
Rise... rise... The ghost will rise".

If they didn't have those choruses and left only the instrumental part before that part was sung we would find ourselves in a rather poor musical moment and yet it ends up being one of the most memorable moments of the song.

Another example would be the part that serves as a prelude to the guitar solo of "Into the Coven" which is harmonized by the falsettos of King Diamond and without which it would lose strength both that moment and the following one, and I think that this effect can be found in many songs of the album, so in my opinion it is safe to say that they had difficulties when writing transitions.

Is this something to criticize? Shouldn't we value the music as the sum of all the parts? I understand that it seems unfair to criticize something based on "if you remove this element it wouldn't sound so good" and in fact it is totally unfair, however I don't do all this to try to get something negative from where in principle there is none, I think it can serve as a point to compare the musical level and the evolution that would come later with "Dont break the Oath" which is far superior in this aspect with respect to this one.

Even so I think that 90% of the musical work of this album is exceptional, there is a quantity of iconic riffs that is sincerely outstanding and when we find ourselves with the song "Satan's Fall" we are in front of the biggest exception to the rule that we found in this work, if most of the songs were improved by King Diamond's performance, here we find a song that if it was totally instrumental I'm sure it would be just as good, the amount of killer riffs that this song has is immeasurable and could be qualified as the best song of the whole discography of the band perfectly.

Although my doubts about the quality of this classic album have been resolved in a positive way, it is worth remembering that the true value of the music from an artistic aspect is the music itself, of course there are more factors such as the time in which it was released or the influence it had on various genres, but we should never be terrified of reviewing with a critical perspective an album with an already defined status, that is the way for the medium to move forward.

"Cartesian doubt is a systematic process of being skeptical about (or doubting) the truth of one's beliefs."

Melissa is the first full length to ever introduce the phenomenon that is King Diamond to the metal world. Now I know these cats released what I consider to be the greatest EP ever recorded a year prior in 1982, but this here is majority of peoples first taste of the band. This album here is monumental and a evil masterpiece. Everything about this record is perfect from the vocals to the band and the songwriting is through the roof. Every song on this record is full of purpose and is massively influential especially on the thrash scene that was starting to brew up with Metallica and Slayer releasing records also in 1983 both of whom are deeply influenced by Mercyful Fate. some people like to classify this as the first wave of black metal and to be honest that's quite insulting to a record of this calibre. I've always considered Mercyful Fate to be a straight up heavy metal act even though they do have a NWOBHM sound they are from Denmark, but still this is nowhere close to the trash that is black metal.

The Production/mix here is killer and is the classic way albums were recorded and mixed. Everything sounds 1000% percent better than anything released in the modern pro tool times whether others disagree or not this is the way to make a metal album sound wise. Nothing even comes close to these classic productions and i will advocate that till the day I die. Everyone is audible even Timi Hansen who you can hear plain as day groovin' away underneath Shermann and Denner's masterful guitar playing. The guitar sound isn't all that heavy compared to other bands guitar tones at the time but god damn do they make that sh*t sound heavy as all hell on this record.

I wish I had listened to this record sooner than I did. My metal journey discovering bands started around when I was 13 in 2009 and I finally delved into Mercyful Fate/King Diamond at around 19 which isn't too late but I thought my younger mind wouldn't be able to fathom King's theatrical falsetto style at the time but damn do I wish I would have listened to this sh*t sooner as this record has become a massive influence on my guitar playing. I've also had the pleasure of turning most of my friends on to Mercyful Fate/King Diamond as none of them thought they would ever like the vocals but once you listen them enough you understand that it has to be King Diamond singing for this band it just would work without him and his evil presence.

The songs here are all classic and really strong not one of them is bad by no means. The album starts with "Evil" and man this sh*t is some high octane Judas Priest esque sh*t with even crazier guitar solos and a much more evil atmosphere. The song has solo sections like "Hit The Lights" from Metallica with leads coming back after every chorus with one massive solo culminating at the end. "Curse of the Pharaohs" is a mid tempo track that has galloping guitars that lay the groundwork for King's verse lines with Denner and Shermann trading off lead licks in between. "Into The Coven" starts with acoustic guitars laced with a melodic intro solo by Michael Denner which builds up into the classic track that has some really soaring vocals from King. The solos in this one are also grade A Denner and Shermann could do no wrong trading off solos with one another with both having really different but distinctive styles. "At The Sound of The Demon Bell" starts off quite pleasant sounding before kicking off with another memorable solo provided by Denner and then enters King with the trademark soaring falsetto that he's known for. This track has a lot of tempo changes going from slow groovier parts to really fast almost thrash sounding parts. that ends side A of the record.

Side B starts with the shortest track the extremely catchy "Black Funeral" which is the most least complex song structure wise here as most of these tracks have parts that you wouldn't even think go together but they make that sh*t work somehow which shows how talented of songwriters they are and how progressive Mercyful Fate could get if they wanted. "Satan's Fall" is next and man this a 11 minute epic and the most complex song on this record with so many twists and turns, time signature changes, and all these epic parts to create the ultimate Mercyful Fate tune. While "Satan's Fall" isn't my favorite track from the record it is still a progressive masterpiece of a track. there is a part in the beginning where King wails on for like 20 seconds and it is more of a annoyance than a part that fits the song but really it doesn't effect the song at all and over time it becomes less grating than lets say your first listen. Lastly we have the title track "Melissa" an evil ballad that sounds like "Beyond the Realms of Death" clashing with "The Rage" by Judas Priest. The main riff sounds almost dead on the main riff in "The Rage" but it's still killer and with this song you could tell that Judas Priest had a massive impact on this band. A song recorded during this album but didn't make the record was a song titled "Black masses" which is honestly a really badass track in the veins of the rest of the material. Why it didn't make the record is beyond me. I would of stressed that this track needs to be on this album somewhere because it's too damn good.

Each members performance here is just astonishing everyone gets parts to show off throughout this entire record especially Denner and Shermann these 2 shred up and down this record like no other. Denner and Shermann are just as important of a guitar duo as Tipton and Downing and Smith and Murray. King Diamond is simply enthralling here his vocal power going from low growls at times all the way up to 70's Halford high notes is more than impressive. Kim Ruzz and Timi Hansen are a tight rhythm section that keeps the songs on pace despite all the wild changes going on they still keep things locked in together and are underrated as f*ck because most people look at Mercyful Fate for the guitars and vocals but the bass and drums here are amazing. All these tracks are really catchy and super memorable too, it's hard to forget the vocals, riffs, and solos laced throughout the record. Most metalheads I see will say the 3 gods that influenced the heavier subgenres of metal are Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motorhead. No offense to the Motorhead fanatics but Mercyful Fate absolutely destroys Motorhead with ease it's not even a contest. Motorhead can't even hold a candle to Mercyful Fate's musicianship and compositional skill and I'm sure when Mercyful Fate opened for Motorhead in 1984 they blew them off the stage every single night like it was nothing. Motorhead is decent at best, but to put them up with Priest and Maiden is nuts and exclude a band like Mercyful Fate from that bracket. For me it's always been Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Mercyful Fate as the 3 gods of the pre thrash metal days. I do realize Mercyful Fate was a bit later than these bands but they had demos and a EP out before Kill Em' All and their EP eats Motorheads entire catalog alive.

Overall this album is a must have masterpiece and a evil work of perfection. Melissa is a record I think everyone who likes harder music should hear at least once in their lifetime. Melissa is right up there with Don't Break the Oath and it is so damn hard to choose between the 2 but both are purely magical works of metal. I'd recommend this album to anyone into classic metal and even those who were put off by King's vocals in the past. whether you like or dislike the vocals the music here is too damn good to not hear once and I feel like once you hear the band play a few tracks that's it, your hooked. Melissa is a superb record and Mercyful Fate is easily right up there with Priest and Maiden.

Maybe you're going to ask why I have to be such a dick, but I think it's time for Melissa to get a thorough once-over just to prove that she's not the ten out of ten hottie that metal fans all claim. I mean - look at those teeth for starters. But seriously, there are some objective problems with all of Mercyful Fate's early work despite its high quality and influential nature. I have already done my best to turn a critical eye on King Diamond's vocals and the falsity of claiming that Don't Break the Oath is anything approaching black metal (something that TrooperEd very convincingly argues about this album), so for Melissa I turn to other issues, such as song structuring and the issue of guitar styles on some of the songs here.

Admittedly, I didn't like Melissa very much on my first few listens, something that also happened with my experience of Don't Break the Oath, though that was more down to being my first taste of King Diamond and having to get used to his vocals. The reason I struggled with this album is because I found it (and still find it, if anyone's asking) old-fashioned and, in places, plodding. A part of that is down to the production, which is certainly a product of the early '80s, drums thunking about unthreateningly at the bottom of the sound and guitars used gently, with plenty of reverb and not much distortion on a slightly bass-heavy tone. As such, the riffs on this album are a far cry from the "occult" tone that can be attributed to 'The Oath' or 'Nightmare' from the following album, while even sections of 'A Corpse Without Soul' from the debut EP contained more atmosphere than 'Curse of the Pharaohs' or the especially coasting opening of 'Into the Coven'. Compared to influences like Iron Maiden or Angel Witch, there is little to choose in terms of darkness and heaviness, even allowing 'At the Sound of the Demon Bell' hard rock riffing to kick off and a kind of ZZ Top groove at 1:15, which goes awfully together with Diamond's feminine wailing of "Rise...rise...rise...it's Halloween". I don't know about you, but the words "hard rock", "ZZ Top", and "feminine wailing" don't really suggest that this is evil music.

A critique like this would, of course, ignore the other moments when Mercyful Fate definitely were able to sound evil. Generally, the moments when the pace picks up towards the close of 'Evil' and 'At the Sound of the Demon Bell' are much more convincing manifestations of the lyrical aesthetic, not to mention the tense riffing of 'Black Funeral' and 'Satan's Fall'. The slightly unusual scales used at these points do move away from the traditions of contemporary NWOBHM, the former song ending up a much darker Venom-ized version of 'Gypsy' from Don't Break the Oath (though not quite approaching that song's brilliant catchiness), while the latter is Fate's most ambitious epic and certainly the most troubling cut from Melissa. The part that is troubling in the manner of "my mum just shat herself" is the down-tempo atmospheric riffing that begins at 0:47 and renews itself a minute later with Kim Ruzz dropping tense drum fills as Diamond gives his best impression of a soul in peril, which was just about the most chilling metal song ever written until proper extreme metal came along a few years later.

However, the other reasons why I want to discuss 'Satan's Fall' at length are less flattering to Mercyful Fate. Not to discount the quality of any of the sections of the 11 minute song, the classic melodic riffing at 4:20 and the similar solo that follows totally breaks the mood of the innovative haunting guitars, while it's no stretch to call the structure of the song diabolical, though sadly not in the way that you'd be hoping. I count no fewer than nine instances where the band start a new section with the joins showing through and the transition poorly managed, which smells a bit like laziness, especially if they were going to the effort to make an epic with all those atmospheric riffs. Granted, a few of the sudden changes in direction come off well, particularly the storming riff that opens the last section, yet the fact that the song totally restarts at 7:53, then nicks a solo from Iron Maiden (it's 'Strange World', which everyone else steals as well) tarnishes what would otherwise be hands down the best piece of the album.

The other songs are mostly excused from the starkness of transitions, but that doesn't make the structures totally perfect, many of them opening in the gentler "hard rock" style I pinpointed earlier and then developing into (vaguely) occult heavy/speed workouts as they head towards crescendo. That the song 'Evil' is actually relaxed for most of its juncture totally works against the lyrics that Diamond is singing about how his "only pleasure is to hear you cry" and that he "will eat your mind", which makes the presence of a great ballad (the title track) much less of a worry by comparison. Despite the lightness of 'Melissa', the storyline and suitable emotion make it more than just a success - it's a classic. It might also be worth mentioning that 'Curse of the Pharaohs' might well be a neat example of backwards influence, since it starts with a similar riff to '2 Minutes to Midnight' and contains Egyptian themes, which sounds an awful lot like what Iron Maiden were doing...the following year, in 1984. If they heard this in '83, London's finest stand guilty as charged.

What I've been trying to say throughout this critical review is not that Mercyful Fate made a sucky album with Melissa, but more that this definitely doesn't sound like people tell you, which is not really the band's fault, but certainly part of the reason I'm left feeling disappointed. However, it also isn't a consistently great album (as I feel Don't Break the Oath to be), with several poor stylistic choices, some extremely awkward transitions in 'Satan's Fall', and - depending which camp you fall into regarding King Diamond - possibly some annoying vocals. The reality is that Melissa takes form as a slightly more evil and slightly more forward-thinking heavy metal album than the big guns were simultaneously producing, though without some of the editing and production capabilities those larger bands had. I'll end on a positive note though and say that the cover is one of the downright coolest in all of metal and Melissa one of the greatest personages, with a backstory much more interesting than Eddie's.

Heavier than Piece of Mind, and more satanic than Show No Mercy, it’s Melissa! Like with Diamond Head 30 years ago, Metallica covering half the material from this classic has introduced this super evil satanic power metal band to a new generation of fans (even if half of them are too retarded to look up the actual album). The underground success of this album was proof that traditional metal was still relevant outside Maiden, Priest and Ozzy. It's also worth mentioning that "Into The Coven" was on the PMRC's list of filthy fifteen songs that all suburban white kids should go out and buy a zillion copies of. But unlike the hilariously harmless "We're Not Gonna Take It" Into The Coven had lines like "Suck the blood from this unholy knife, say with it after me...my soul BELONGS TO SATAN!" Oh yes, this sh*t was the real f*cking deal!

Also, no, I'm not being ironic by calling this power metal, because that's exactly what this is. NOT early black metal. I honestly think most black and death metal circles try to claim Mercyful Fate is heavier than they actually are just to be assholes. I get that the old heads of black metal are frustrated that kids these days don't like to consider anything before Blaze In The Northern Sky officially black metal, and I agree, it is ignorant as hell. Venom? Black metal. Celtic Frost? Black metal. Early Sodom, Slayer and Destruction? Black metal. But this? Musically, these songs have way more in common with Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne then they do Venom, Slayer or even Motorhead. The album's so called "fastest" moment is probably the last minute or so of Evil, but that's more of a double-time crescendo than it is a straight fast number. Even so, its the speed of Let Us Prey as opposed to Fast As A Shark and Ace of Spades, to say nothing of Black Magic and Metal Militia. Even the common cry of "but the lyrics are Satanic all the way through" doesn't hold up under scrutiny because last time I checked Egypt and the Pharaohs had nothing to do with Hell or satan. So its Judas Priest worship, it has very high vocals, it sings about demons, swords and curses.....it's power metal.

Of course a major point of contention is King Diamond’s terrifying vocals, which are the stuff of legend. You hear about how they piss some metal heads off and that they must be the most powerful, threatening, heavy vocals in metal but instead we get... well something at times that sounds like a goofy ghost cartoon character. But like pre-Gamma Ray Kai Hansen, Diamond’s voice suits Fate’s music perfectly. If there is any flaw with this album and Fate’s sound, it’s the sometimes the guitar players are soloing when there’s also an excellent riff being played by the backing rhythm. Guys, you’re supposed to let the riff breathe and stand out. sh*t like this is why I could never pay attention to Eric Clapton as a lead player, the riffs underneath were too good! That and perhaps I would have switched the running order so that the album ended with the crushing epic Satan’s Fall. Though these days I'm not quite sure if that's the prime cut on here, as it's not exactly the most coherent epic song in metal. It is more coherent than say....Iced Earth's Dante's Inferno but you can kind of tell its a bunch of leftover ideas but together. For what its worth they are paced very well!

If you've heard the Metallica medley and are wondering what you're missing, I suppose I should be a snob and say everything, but vocal delivery aside, I'd say you'd heard 80% Evil, 40% of Into The Coven (can you imagine James in that country voice of his telling listeners to suck the blood from a knife and say with him "My soul belongs to Satan?"), 60% of Curse of The Pharoahs, and 15% of Satan's Fall. Those of you who've no idea what comes after that "Got to succeed if not its Satan's Fall" are in for an unsettling surprise (and probably a few sleepless nights as well)

Mercyful Fate is a band that separates the metal men from the metal boys. Melissa and Don’t Break The Oath are essential!

Recommended tracks:
At The Sound of The Demon Bell
Into The Coven

Yesterday I was walking with my friend's kid and his buddy, who both claim that they are huge metal fans. When I mentioned Mercyful Fate they asked me who the f*ck they are. Now, on the one hand, I'm very proud to be one of those people who were around at the time when this and bunch of other great bands were releasing their masterpieces. Especially 1983, we had Show No Mercy, Kill 'Em All, Peace Of Mind, Court In The Act and the whole load of other, then underground, bands finding themselves a place in the 80's metal scene. And on the other hand, for f*ck's sake, you kids nowadays have whole world under your fingertips, you can download every single album on this world, you have youtube as well... And I know nowadays bands suck, but if you are searching for a good metal band, you are definitely going to find some.

I got this album a bit late, by the end of the 1985 (before even hearing Fate's first EP) and decided that this is the most evil record I listened to, and it stayed till this day. These guys just knew how to make a good album. I bought an album in my local record shop mainly because of cover and by the way, I saw that the tracks have great titles also. And, hell, I wasn't disappointed at all!!! True, the vocals seemed a little strange for me, but I got used to them very quickly and they became my favorite part of the band.

OK, first of all, the song selection is dead on. They haven't put the weaker songs that they had on the demos in the years before this, they have put just great songs on this LP. All of the 7 songs on this album are the stories for themselves. Modern "metal" bands release everything that comes to their mind because they think: "Oh, what the f*ck, we haven't got much to lose! It is better to have 20 mediocre and below average songs than to actually get our sh*t together and release a good album with 7 quality songs on it".

Of course, the vocals. Yeah, King Diamond's vocals are what made the band famous (although this band has a lot of the other qualities) and definitely are the most recognizable in metal music. And he actually is main reason why this band is so evil. Music itself is some good NWOBHM inspired stuff with a lot of influences by Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as well. King's vocals are incredibly evil, and lyrics (most of them written by KD also) are extremely satanic, so take those two out and you have a solid classic metal release.

Riffs, riffs, riffs. And then some riffs. Cooperation between two extraordinary talented guitarists, and, above all, songwriters seems to be the best in metal, just in the class of Glenn and Downing, Dave and Adrian, Kerry and Jeff... Well, you get it. And the best part: these two gentlemen knew how to do solos. Along with Megadeth and Black Sabbath, Mercyful Fate has just the best solos in the metal. Very creative solos, you have the slow, fast, minor, even major ones. From the renaissance styled solo in the beginning of the Into The Coven to the rapid one after the first verse in Evil, every solo is thought-out. Oh, yeah, did I mention how f*cking awesome the riffs are?

Now the rhythm section. Bass is great on this one, not as much as on the following record, but still fantastic job done there. Timi Hansen has done some work with King, after the band split-up, and he just proved that he is great bass player that every band whishes they have. As for the drums... Well it is quite obvious that the drums are nailed on "Melissa". Creative drumming, sometimes following the guitars, with some complicated rhythm patterns, gave great base for the band to do their stuff.

Production is done faithfully and gives space for every instrument to show its potential. The only objection I have is that I think that the album should've been opened with Into The Coven instead of Evil. Anyhow, with the powerful opener Evil, band tells you: "Prepare your ear! There's going to be many great songs like this!". Curse Of The Pharaohs is another song that can easily be find on the most of the band's setlist, with intro that adorably reminds of the riffs used in Swords And Tequila, Welcome To Hell, 2 Minutes To Midnight, Phantoms Of Death, and the list goes on.. That riff is very popular in the metal, and it fits inhere good. Into The Coven, like I said before, good intro, purely evil lyrics and great vocals provided by King Diamond. And then, very strangely underrated At The Sound Of The Demon Bell provides us cool lyrics combined with as always great guitars and rhythm section. B-side of the vinyl starts with Black Funeral. I mean, seriously, isn't this one of the most copied songs in the metal? Many black metal bands use the similar chord progression and Ghost have this song written all over their discography. Even some thrash metal bands used connatural pattern in their pieces of art. Next song is the 11 minutes long Satan's Fall. You see, the intro solo is great example how to start a song with the guitar solo. Song has its faster and slower parts and all of them are topping! And the closer, Melissa. Yeah, King is the fantastic vocalist, but rapid songs like Evil and Doomed By The Living Dead fit him better. Yet, he made it through and gave us one great ballad.

What can I say? This album is masterpiece. Everything on this album works just as it should, making this album highly influential on the subgenres like black, speed, thrash, power, progressive and even doom metal, because this album contains a bit of all mentioned genres. I think this album is one of the most representative in the early eighties. An advice for every metal fan: Go and get it! You can't go wrong with Mercyful Fate!!!

I once dated a girl named Melissa. She was pretty weird and thought this album was about her. She might have been right because she was the goddamn devil.

I honestly don’t think that any band could hail Satan harder than Mercyful Fate. This album is actually almost sweet in the way it does it, too. There are legitimately beautiful guitar parts in just about every song, which is a weird contrast to lyrics praising Lucifer…and lyrics that I’m pretty sure are about necrophilia (“Evil”) (not really radio friendly material here). Add to that the vocals, which are sometimes inexplicable, and you’ve got “Melissa.”

It sounds a little dated, but not in a grating “f*ck, if cocaine and Reaganomics made music with the Cold War, it would be this” kind of way. More in a “did druids write this? Did MF rip off druids?” kind of way. Definitely ‘80s metal, yet sort of classical and timeless.

I don’t usually feel this way about an album, but there is no filler here. All seven songs on this record are excellent, and I have no trouble listening to “Melissa” as a whole without feeling like I’m slogging through half-assed songs here and there. No, these songs were all written with Mercyful Fate’s whole collective ass. Definitely A+ work, fellas. Gold stars all around.

Let’s talk about the vocals, because it is f*cking physically impossible to talk about Mercyful Fate without talking about King Diamond’s imitation of a possessed old woman. Seriously, the body compels it.

Let’s just get this little bit of heresy out of the way: the vocals are hokey. I mean, come the f*ck on, King Diamond. I know you don’t just sing that way. I gotta tell you: if “Melissa” didn’t have that falsetto, it would STILL be an excellent and unique album. The falsetto is done (more or less) judiciously and adds more to set “Melissa” apart from the rest of the herd. As contrived as they are, the vocals do add a layer of eeriness to the music which really increases the atmosphere. So I guess no harm, no foul. Be as hokey as you want as long as you can make it work. Dress up like an asshole, use a mic stand made of bones, and screech like your great-grandmother when she loses her hearing aid…just make sure it makes sense.

I’ve always kinda been scared that King Diamond is actually magic, and now I’m worried that he might curse me for saying he dresses like an asshole, so I’ll end this review with some good vibes: This is definitely one of my favorite metal albums of all time. As strange and off putting as the vocals can be to a first time listener, the music itself is still very accessible and enjoyable.

Don’t curse me, bro.

Mercyful Fate is a heavy metal band from Denmark of all places that gained a huge cult following during the early 1980s, thanks to their dark and incredibly atmospheric sound, virtuoso solos and gothic lyrics that were rather obsessed with the occult. This was their debut album and holy sh*t does it kick some serious ass. This is widely considered to be the band's heaviest album, due to it being more bass driven than their other albums, which I will get to later, but I think that the vocals are also a bit different. However, that's just what my ears hear when I find myself listening to this album. As well-known by the metal community as this is, it is still criminally underrated. This is the band who brought satanic worship to metal (no, not venom). This is a band who made perfect music in their early days. This was a band who deserved the popularity of Slayer or Judas Priest more than any first wave black metal band (as much as I love Bathory).

This is the way that this album starts off: you have absolutely no preparation time in the form of a soft intro. The moment that it starts playing, you hear the main riff to "Evil" and you know that this is gonna be an album with balls. I used to personally find the riff to be a little annoying, but I was too distracted by everything else to care all that much. But once I trained myself to look at this album with fresh eyes, I was completely overwhelmed. The song is thunderous, gothically atmospheric and tops it off with some blazing vocals and a kickass guitar solo. Also, I like how it threw in the "Eye Of The Tyger" riff for sh*ts and giggles. The next song that really stands out to me is "Into The Covin", which starts off with a cool, gloomy intro and then dives into a fist pumping, occult anthem with one of the best solos that I've recently heard. The 11-minute epic, "Satan's Fall" gets a little repetitive but stays cool anyways. My last highlight would have to be the title track. For a ballad, it's pretty heavy and it has some pretty well-structured rhythms and guitar work.

There are two things that stand out to me the most on this album. One is the soloing. Hank Shermann and Michael Denner give us some seriously awesome solos. They are very technical solos, but they have a lot of that soul. That doesn't occur entirely too often. Air guitarists worldwide would rock out to this if it was as well known as an AC/DC album. They sound a bit like a cross between Alex Lifeson and Glenn Tipton, but with a more gothic twist, though not as much as the rest of the music. The guitar riffs are rooted in Judas Priest, as well as what Iron Maiden was at the time, even a bit of Angel Witch. However, there is an atmospheric twist on them. Just listen to the riffs on "Into The Coven" to comprehend it. It has a spectacular sound that was unmatched at the time.

The other highlight would be the vocals. As I said before, the vocals seem a bit different. On the follow-up to this album, "Don't Break The Oath", there were times when it would get a bit nasally. It worked when he did it, but it is a difference worth pointing out. Here, they stay pure and soaring the whole way through. King Diamond has gotten a bit of sh*t, due to his usage of falsetto, however, I quite enjoy it. In my opinion, it does an amazing job of bringing atmosphere to the music. He also has an amazing range. He can go from a low growl to a high-pitched banshee wail in an extraordinarily short amount of time. He can either sound as evil as possible or even angelic. This is the definition of a vocalist with a wide range. Just listen to him tell the story of The Puppet Master in order to fully comprehend it.

Now back to what I said about the bass-heavy sound. It does make this album turn out to be heavier than others, but even still, it isn't quite as down as Shout At The Devil or Welcome to Hell. It can be a bit exaggerated sometimes. I'm not saying that heavier means better, but just say it as it is. However, I will say that it compliments the tone. very raw, yet crisp and suits the melodic guitar work of the album. If you want a Venom clone here in terms of production and tone, prepare to be disappointed. This is better than anything done by that band. Not too much else to say on that really. That's about it.

Overall, this is an monumental debut studio album by a truly talented band. It's difficult to be this mature, musically and professionally when you are this inexperienced in the studio. The record's influence on modern metal, both musically and in some cases, lyrically cannot be denied by anyone. It's blend of gothic heavy metal and what was a prototype of lyrical black metal comes together to make an absolutely splendid release. Pretty much everything in the early career of this band is completely flawless. It was the pinnacle of both their career, as well as the career of King Diamond himself. The melodies are terrific and the lyricism was highly ahead of its time for the genre. They took what Angel Witch started and perfected it, then took it straight to Hell. I didn't like this album as much when I first heard it, but every track has grown on me to the point of praise. I have never seen it do differently for anyone else, therefore I encourage you to give it a listen. Disappointment is completely out of the question. This is one of the greatest metal albums of all time.

The album in front of us is Mercyful Fate's debut. This is one of the greatest metal albums of all time. Every song is at least good, and the instrumentation is much improved from the EP. The production here is also much better than previously, and while both aspects would improve even more on the sophom*ore, this has a few standout aspects of its own.

The atmosphere on this album is to kill for. The production here is more bass heavy than Fate or Diamond would be in the future. This gives it a certain amount of added heaviness that was missing from those albums. On my review of their EP, I commented on this album feeling like it puts you in a darkened cemetery, and I meant it. The atmosphere of this album is that of being alone, or thinking your alone, in a dark graveyard. The bass job is partly responsible for that. The stronger low-end and the occult-type lyrics definitely give this album a darker, foggier vibe than what it would have had otherwise. The production here isn't perfect, but it works to give them probably the best atmosphere these guys ever had.

Sub-genre classifications on this are tricky. A loose definition of first-wave black metal has been used, but honestly it sounds nothing like Frost or Venom. This album has that "Evil" atmosphere, but it accomplishes it differently than Frost. This isn't as naturally heavy as that sound and relies more upon the unnatural vocals and lyrics. While I feel most thrashers could enjoy this and it influenced a ton of it, it is still unlike most thrash, vocally and musically, as it sounds largely untouched by hardcore. Power or prog aren't too far off, but this really doesn't directly resemble any power metal that I've heard. As for prog, I'll get to that in a moment. Usually I just settle on referring to this as early metal, but it's not very clear.

On a sonic level, you would start out with Judas Priest on Stained Class. First, you increase the Led Zeppelin influence at the expense of Black Sabbath. I really hear exceedingly little of them in this music. It's metal, so there is some, but it's very little. The Zep influence shows up in a stronger, groove-oriented rhythm section, which drives the music here far more than it ever did for Priest. Now slow it down a little, yes for coming afterwards, this is a little slower than that album. Lastly, this features Diamond, who functions far differently than any of the previous bands' vocalists. This gives an idea for the sound as a whole. As you can tell, there's a big 70's feel to this music. That is why I don't classify this music as prog, as they just borrow so much from a progressive era as a whole.

To a more instrument-by-instrument look, there really isn't a single star, they're all suns. The guitar duo is on, the Stained Class comparison was not an exaggeration. For two albums, Shermann and Denner were breathing that Tipton and Downing air. Yes, Curse of the Pharaohs has that oft-used riff, but it really is the best song that it's on. As well, the riffs to Satan's Fall, Evil, and the chorus riff to Into the Coven are genius. They're not very technical, but they work outstandingly nonetheless. The neoclassical touches aren't as strong as they would be on future albums, but it still shows up from time to time. The solos here are fine, but the riffs are what you'll remember. I also need to mention how much these songs change. The five minute songs have as many changes as most long epics do. There's plenty of bands who can vary their music in this way, but not to the extent or with the skill that these guys did. Shermann mentioned once in an interview that he wanted to riff like Judas Priest and solo like Schenker and Uli. He had the first one down on this one and the second part by the next.

Ruzz is the groove god of early metal. I'd seen Holland referred to as a good groove drummer, and I thought it was a euphemism to excuse his suck. Then I heard this album. Ruzz doesn't have a ton of technique, but he has more groove than any heavy metal drummer prior, and he is very close to Bonham outside of it. He isn't often mentioned as an elite drummer, but there's not many that I'd take over him. Grabber is a good bass player, and he is audible on most of this album. He doesn't match his idol, Steve Harris, but he's better than Hill or Lemmy. As I mentioned previously, their groove drives much more of the music than expected if you're more used to their later stuff. Considering the way this album is mixed, this is the best chance to hear them. They improved slightly going forward, but not enough to make this less of an example of their playing.

Diamond is definitely a gut-reaction. You will either like him the first time you hear him, or you won't. He isn't a grower. If you like him, it's awesome. If not, it is probably still worth it to hear the music and atmosphere. As I mentioned previously, he varies his voice more on this one than any other. I would liken the variety to that of Screaming for Vengeance, you get a little of every register. I should mention that compared to Halford, Diamond has a naturally lower, more human voice. For whatever reason, Halford can hit notes naturally that most even higher vocalists strain for. Diamond is in fact much lower naturally. He could probably go pretty guttural if he wanted. This means that while his middle and lower lines can be forceful, his high notes are pure falsetto. They aren't head voice like Halford, Dio, Dickinson and most of the rest. Diamond gets this high from the tips of his vocal chords, which is probably the only way for a Baritone to get as high as he can without being a once-in-a-lifetime talent. I mention all of this to note than even a Maiden fan who loves Dickinson's range could hate this. I personally enjoy Diamond's vocals, but quite a few don't.

I hold this album as one of the ten or so greatest metal albums of all time. I feel this qualifies it for a very high score. I do just barely enjoy the follow-up more, but that is splitting hairs. They each have their particular strengths. For a couple of albums, Fate was as good as any metal band has ever been. Honestly, I think every metal fan should hear this to see where their favorites come from. In terms of who I would expect to enjoy this, I would say early, thrash, prog, hard rock, and maybe power metal fans should enjoy this quite well.

Perhaps the only tangible quip I could launch against Mercyful Fate's seminal debut is that, compared to the King's next six full-length records (from both Fate and his solo band), I hold Melissa in somewhat lesser regard, owed largely to the fact that the sum songwriting is marginally less infectious. Just about every stylistic die had been cast here which would serve Kim and his companions for decades hence, but in terms of sheer riffing stickiness and atmosphere, this album just doesn't have the same gallery of chops and leads as its successors. That being said, this album still deserves the forklifts of accolades dumped upon it, because Melissa remains one of the highlights of 1983. One of the better overall European metal records of the earlier 80s outside England. Heck, apart from Don't Break the Oath and the band's more divisive reunion disc In the Shadows (which I happen to favor, others not so much), it's probably the one mandatory purchase in their discography.

Melissa was actually my second exposure to Fate, having first bought the sophom*ore at a young age, and I admit it was underwhelming at first, if only because I had enjoyed the other tape more. But not only does this debut age well, it has managed to never accumulate much dust on its surface in going on thirty f*cking years! Melissa still feels fresh and innovative, a more complex offering than what most of the group's British peers were capable of writing at the time, and also a hallmark of strong production values and deft musicianship. It might have taken time for some to adjust to King's eery and unnerving falsetto shrieks, which he lays on pretty thick throughout this, but there is no debating the amount of effort and professionalism in the compositions. Thomas Holm's cover art is remarkable, a screaming skull that bleeds hellish red light and gives a sense of sheer monument. The lyrics are maniacal blueprints for many themes Diamond would later flesh out in both his bands, with an emphasis on history, archaic horror, and occult topics fundamental to King's later pursuance of LaVeyan Satanism.

Pacing and production are key here, integrating the critical moments of atmosphere with the thundering, primal speed metal melodies and swaggering grooves that would come to define the group's sound as it supported the chilling vocals, which in metal music had simply never gone so 'over the top' without losing the gravity and impact of their subject matter. I realize that many outsiders to the band's sound, or power/heavy metal screamers in general (Halford, Dickinson, etc) must immediately find this vocal inflection comical in nature, but there was never anything remotely 'funny' about Diamond on these old Mercyful Fate records, he was a shrill specter that I took quite seriously even if I had to adjust myself to this timbre as the primary vocal tone. He's got his grittier end, mid range register also, but it's not quite so distinct. I wouldn't say that the melodies he summons up here are nearly so unforgettable as those he'd weave in later to several of the King Diamond concept albums, but for '83 this was pretty damn ambitious even when you placed it up against a record like Piece of Mind, Bark at the Moon or Balls to the Wall.

The instruments also sound stunning, with the better balance and clarity than the band's eponymous 1982 EP. Kim Jensen's drums are loaded, with a nice slap to the snare and some great reverb to the kicks that really measure off well against the guitars, though the cymbals and hi-hat seem a fraction more muffled. The bass lines are enormous and muscular when needed, like the close of "Evil" where the guitars remind me of the primary riff in Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" before that charging power metal finale; but Timi Hansen also slinks along with a creepy class through the record's more atmospheric climes. As for the guitars, they are just beyond compare, with an effectively chunky fiber to them that allows the looser, glimmering leads to wail and writhe above and really stand out. They're also incredibly busy here, constantly twisting and turning into some new 'banger of a riff and really controlling the tempo for King's lyrical tales. The leads are usually quite brief through the album, but none of the notes seem misplaced, and I'd rather a band give me some spikes of emotion and harmony rather than indulge themselves to the detriment of the songwriting.

"Curse of the Pharaohs" is a real bruiser, and one of my all time favorite Mercyful Fate tracks, but I'd have to give "Black Funeral" the pick of the litter, a thundering and frightening piece where King's voice and the triplet rhythm collide in a moonlit, haunted tower. "Satan's Fall" is the most ambitious in terms of its length and construction, with an opening segment that feels like an occult "Immigrant Song", and some grimy and shuffling riffs deeper in which are among Shermann and Denner's most inventive (Jensen also shines here with a few cadences in the bridge). That said, there's nothing here which even hinges on 'bad'. Pieces like "At the Sound of the Demon Bell" and the bluesy "Melissa" itself might not resonate with me as much as "Gypsy", "Night of the Unborn" or "A Dangerous Meeting", but they're all well written and stuffed to the ghastly gills with conscious effort and variation. f*ck, I listen to these songs now in 2012 and they still don't give me any impression of becoming 'dated', though as a huge King Diamond nutter I'm understandably biased.

No, it's not the eeriest record in the Danes' lexicon, but along with the rest of Diamond's works from '84-'90, this is well worth breaking out for another Halloween spin, since it's lyrics and concepts of witches, Satan and the restless dead make a great accompaniment to the aesthetics of the holiday. Granted, there's nothing so obviously cheesy or 'haunted house' here like you'd find on a Cradle of Filth disc, but instead more of a bite out of classic horror antiquity, a spiritual celebration of black/white films with Lugosi and Karloff. Like Dracula, The Wolfman or The Mummy is to nearly a century of film scares, this record serves as an aesthetic monument to its medium. How many heavy, power, speed, thrash, black and doom metal acts owe so very much to Mercyful Fate? The answer would be next to incalculable, so I'll just stick to 'all of them' and you can mark your own exceptions to the rule.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

All these years have passed since this record came out of Denmark and kick started the career of arguably the most iconic singer in the heavy metal world. But aside from all that sh*t, this album simply kicks ass. Independent of the impact it made on the careers of the band members, this album is undeniably a classic. And nothing about it has changed since then. It is just as fresh and influential as ever. Even the badass cover image has aged without a wrinkle, still evil enough to have that chilling vibe but not so much that it looks like it’s trying too hard. To say the same for the tracks that dwell within....

As with the other Danish masterpiece I found perfect, I'd recommend not wasting any more time not having this album in your collection. Seven blissful, head banging, thought-provoking, shredding, scream-your-head off songs that you will LOVE. I honestly doubted I'd ever find albums I loved and thought were as perfect as Burzum's Hviss Lyset Tar Oss, but now two Danish albums have stolen my heart.

Obviously, for completely different reasons then Hviss. Let me start off with the production (but you really should be on Amazon or something right now). I have the 25th anniversary edition luckily enough, and in the in-depth liner notes they mention how they rented the nicest studio they could find, but since it was so pricey, they had to rush and record the whole album in just 11 days! But the sound does not come off as rushed, and you can really hear the quality in the sound. The guitars have enough pop and crunch and reverb all at the right moments. The vocals sound otherworldly, but are perfectly welcome to the bed of swirling riffs and solos. The bass is there for you to enjoy, but will not interrupt the love-making you'll be having with the leads and vocals. He's just there to set the mood. And the drums are not too loud, not too quiet. This album has no production faults in my opinion. Perfect production? Check.

The song arrangements are varying and awesome. The riffs are catchy, memorable, rocking, and groovy, but the guitars are ever a pair, working off of each other’s riffs and solos with plenty of riff changes, making for a very progressive listen. Satan's Fall alone has like 16 different riffs. Just check out riffs on the bridge of Evil, the chorus of Curse of the Pharaohs and At the Sound of the Demon Bell, and the intro of Satan's Fall. You want a simpler list? The riffs that don't amaze. None. We also get some cleaner bits, both quick (Into the Coven) and somber (Melissa). Perfect guitars? Check.

The bass is grooving throughout the album, and though there are no bass solos or anything, I am more than satisfied on the low end. For the majority of the album it will be there following the guitars, but also at times creating an underlying third rhythm, both blistering and groovy. There’s more bass here then on By Inheritance, and that didn’t bother me a bit on that one. Perfect bass? Check.

The drums are excellent as you can imagine. Apparently, Kim Ruzz disappeared from the metal world after the first break up. Why? I have no f*cking clue. He is awesome. Solid beats, killer fills, and great power on the skins. The man is a great drummer, but he just must not have had his heart in it anymore. Shame, but his legacy will live on. Perfect drums? Check

Do I really need to describe King Diamond’s vocals and how they are amazingly great, giving this already awesome album a unique edge? Crazy falsettos and growls and operatic shrieks? Yeah, all those things right when you want them. He IS the King. Let me just say, if you don't like his rather excessive vocal style at first, keep giving it tries until you do like it. Once you get used to it, there really is no singer quite like him. His voice is exactly what this album needed to kick into the unique classic it is. Perfect vocals? Check.

His lyrics didn't hurt, either. The story of the girl who joined the witches only to be sacrificed to Satan is very interesting and entertaining. It goes much further than most metal albums in the lyrical department, plus how awesome is it to hear ALL HAIL SATAN screamed in a high-pitched falsetto? Despite how dark and compelling the lyrics are, they maintain an extreme degree of catchinessand trust me, you will be singing along in no time. And just as the end of the song says, this album will always be with us. Perfect lyrics? Check.

Any faults? No? Any bad songs? NO!? Correct. I love every second of this album. And below in the highlights I am going to mention every track just to really drive that home, but I will rank them in order of my favourites. For simple heavy metal bliss, Melissa gets the three digits that I really don't like giving out, but I cannot deny it. Or a five out of five.
Highlights:
Melissa
Into the Coven
Black Funeral
Curse of the Pharaohs
Evil
Satan's Fall
At the Sound of the Demon Bell

Exploding through speakers like a heavy metal blitzkrieg from hell, Mercyful Fate set turntables on fire with their debut album Melissa. With uncompromising heaviness, impressive musicianship, and shocking satanic imagery, the album became an instant hit with metal fans the world over. The powerful and sinister style the band showcased on Melissa came to define the genre of black metal and exists today as a classic example of old-school 80’s metal.

Featuring the unique vocals their corpse-painted lead singer, the great King Diamond, as well as the rapid, skillfully-executed duel guitar stylings of Hank Shermann and Michael Denner, Melissa scorched like no other and helped push forward the boundaries of extreme metal. The band had already garnered cult status among the underground metal scene with their seminal EP Nuns Have No Fun, which featured a big-titted nun nailed to a burning crucifix on the cover, but it wasn’t until Melissa that the band refined their style and gained significant popularity.

Like an explosion of thunder crashing down from the heavens, the heavy-hitting crunch of Shermann and Denner’s duel guitar assault kick-off the album opener ‘Evil’, a track that more than lives up to its name. King Diamond’s high-pitched scream soars over the opening riff, introducing the listener to his uniquely sinister vocal style in a most epic fashion. ‘Evil’ is a driving metal song that manages to be as heavy and shocking as Venom while maintaining the hard rock groove of Deep Purple. It should also be mentioned that drummer Kim Ruzz offers an absolutely frantic and pounding performance on the song that gives it an extra boost of energy. The more traditional, NWOBHM-inspired song ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’ follows, offering the listener a chance to catch their breath and immerse themselves in an ominous and wicked realm. King Diamond truly shines on this track, showing off his wide-range of vocal prowess.

The following song ‘Into the Coven’ gained notoriety in the mid-80’s when it was included on the PMRC’s hitlist of 15 songs recommended to be banned, cited for its occultism. Honestly, they chose the correct song to go after, because ‘Into the Coven’ is a powerful descent into madness, taking the listener on a ritual to sacrifice their soul to Satan. The band continue their winning streak with two more ferocious slabs of metal in ‘At the Sound of the Demon Bell’ and ‘Black Funeral’, the latter featuring perhaps King Diamond’s greatest ever vocal performance.

The epic ‘Satan’s Fall’ kicks the album up a notch in what can only be described as 11-minutes of pure Armageddon. The musicianship truly shines on this track, Shermann and Denner have a field day serving up their most devastating arsenal of riffs while the rhythm section drive the song forward with a perfect balance of power and groove. The somber and doomy ballad Melissa closes the album in a depressing way. Melissa is technically great featuring outstanding vocal melodies by King Diamond and a complex structure and musicianship, but I feel as though the album deserved a more scorching and high-energy song to close with and that Melissa should have appeared earlier on. Personal opinion aside, ‘Melissa’ is a masterfully composed and performed song by a band in their creative prime and easily holds its own among the other classics on the record.

Mercyful Fate are universally respected in the Metal community from fans across the wide spectrum of sub-genres precisely because their music features so many different elements and cannot be confined to any specific genre besides heavy f*cking metal. Melissa stood out during heavy metal’s most prolific period and established Mercyful Fate as some of the most cutting edge music on the scene. The album still holds up to this day, influencing musicians and recruiting listeners to the allegiance of Satan.

Besides the original vinyl print, I recommend the 2005 Roadrunner Cd set which includes a bonus DVD and several bonus tracks one of which, Black Masses, is good enough to have been on the album itself.

These guys are a legend for a reason! Only recently I've been getting into the works King Diamond and Mercyful Fate, and I really dig what I hear. Frankly I find the Mercyful stuff to be superior if only for the darker and more metal vibe to it than King's solo metal with its hard rockish-vibed stuff. But enough about me, we're here for Mercyful Fate's "Melissa", the band's first full album after their grisly but fun 1982 self-titled EP.

This sucker just flat out rocks. It's dark, oh so evil and maddeningly catchy. First off, what can I say about King Diamond that hasn't been said 666,666 times before? Yep, he's a glorious vocalist, fully capturing all eight octaves on this album, flying from early death growls to 70's Halford-like wailing. Awesome, awesome work! Speaking of 70's, that's the vibe this whole album has despite popping up in the early 80's. From the "fuzzy", chugging guitars to folk-esque acoustic moments and the sometimes snare-heavy drumming, it feels 70's in a good way despite still packing a sonic attack. Michael Denner and Hank Shermann make for a damn solid guitar attack team, with their rushing, catchy solos and thumping semi-technicality. As with most metal albums, the bass gets buried, but Timmi "Grabber" Hansen's manages to shine here and there with it's chugging hardness, especially in songs like "Into The Coven" or "Curse of the Pharaohs". Rounding it off is Kim Ruzz drumming. He's okay. He's got a few fast fills and the like, but he's mostly just keeps the beat steady.

The seven songs on "Melissa" are pretty great in their own ways, filled with crazy good riffa*ge, evil solos, and demonic, dark lyrics. The one-two punch of "Evil" and "Curse of the Pharaohs" start off proper, the former armed with gut-wretching speed and catchy riffa*ge, the latter a bit more mid-paced and armed a variation on THAT riff (the one from "Swords and Tequila, "Flash-Rockin' Man", "2 Minutes to Midnight", etc). "Into The Coven" kicks it in high again with more catchy riffa*ge and one hell of a solo. The solo in "At The Sound of the Demon Bell" is even better, getting pretty aggressive and shreddy later in the song. Quick speeder "Black Funeral" has a pretty good main riff, catchy and bouncy, but is otherwise just okay. Closer "Melissa" is a solid mid-paced masterpiece, with very emotional king vocals, great acoustic moments, and the odd heavier moment. I find the epic "Satan's Fall" to be a bit overrated. It's certainly good, but the riffs stretch on for too long and overall it just feels longer than it needs to be.

Overall, this is, for the most part, the classic people like to call it. King's amazing vox must be heard to be believed, and the catchy, strong performance of the rest of Mercyful Fate is top-notch. Highly recommended for those who dig evil but catchy occult-flavored heavy metal.

It's no secret that Mercyful Fate and specifically, the album "Melissa," are not only influential to countless bands, but also landmarks of the genre. It's inevitable that the same five albums will always appear in every publication's "Top 100 Metal Bands" list, but going beyond those albums and digging a little bit deeper will yield this gem, where nothing similar had appeared before and nothing quite like it has come around since.

The closest comparison that can be made about this album towards any band would be Judas Priest. With all due respect to the Priest, Mercyful Fate took what Priest had done in the 70s and brought it to a whole new level. Not only are the lyrics blatantly Satanic, the music sounds evil as well. The progressive tendencies of earlier Judas Priest have been taken to a whole new level as well. King Diamond is absolutely insane on vocals, going from a lower growl to a piercing falsetto whenever his black little heart desires. I once heard King Diamond's voice described as "sounding like Elmo...if Elmo was evil and going to kill you," but while the high-pitched aspect is there, I cannot help but take them seriously, thanks in part to the accompanying music.

The opener, "Evil" has one of the greatest heavy metal riffs ever written and is most likely the quintessential Mercyful Fate song. Aside from that awesome main riff, the whole song is filled with rhythm guitar parts (most likely influenced by Judas Priest and early Iron Maiden) that serve as a foundation not only for King Diamond's surprisingly infectious vocal lines, but for the plethora of (tremendous) solos that this song contains. On top of all these are lyrics about a zombie who is raised by Satan to kill a woman, and then precedes to engage in necrophilia with her corpse. Not only are these themes years ahead of their time, they're awesome and solid evidence that necrophilia is not only cool, but totally metal.

The Satanic themes show up in five of the six other songs, most strongly in the short but powerful "Black Funeral," which is not only one of the most straightforward songs, but also one of the most hard-hitting. Also particularly blasphemous is "Into the Coven," which was enough to make this album banned in many places for a while. It starts out with a deceptively sweet solo over upbeat and happy acoustic picking before turning into a dark Mercyful Fate song about a young woman being indoctrinated into Satanism.

The underrated "At The Sound of the Demon Bell" does a fine job of alternating between faster and slower parts and the opening scream of "HALLOWEEN!!!" still sends small chills down my spine. Hank Shermann's solo in the middle is arguably his best on the album. "Melissa" deceptively sounds like a ballad in the beginning but goes into several heavier riffs while building up and ends up being one of the most unique songs on this album and serves as a satisfying conclusion.

The monstrously epic (in length) "Satan's Fall" is really just a collection of leftover ideas thrown together, but there are the foundations of at least four really good songs scattered throughout there. It's still worth listening to even if it is a bit incoherent at times and not as essential as the rest of the material. The most well-known song is "Curse of the Pharaohs," where King Diamond sings a line and then raises his voice two octaves just for the hell of it. His range is something to behold and the guitar-work on this song is excellent as well.

There comes a time in every parent's life when their child will look at them with their wide eyes and innocently ask, "Daddy (or mommy)...where do thrash bands come from?" While it may be obvious to talk about Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and maybe the hardcore punk movement, "Melissa" by Mercyful Fate should be mentioned as well. The inclusion of a handful of riffs per song as well as odd time-signatures and unexpected tempo changes were quite influential in the Bay-area sound. Metallica acknowledged their debt to Mercyful Fate through their medley of Mercyful Fate songs on the "Garage Inc." album (which, while decent, doesn't hold a candle to the originals for many obvious reasons).

Unlike so-called contemporaries Venom, Mercyful Fate's members actually had quite a bit of talent and Melissa holds up far better than Venom's output of the time. The Satanic content may not have quite the same effect now that it did back in the early '80s, but it's much more convincing than at least 95% of evil and Satanic-themed songs that have been released since. Not even Slayer in their glory days were able to match the malevolence of the lyrics found here. "Melissa" stands the test of time quite capably. Not owning this album will get you labeled a false, where you will mostly likely be burned and died; you wouldn't want that, would you?

This borders on the fantastic; the supernatural and superstitious. The want for something to be there, hiding and lingering, for that sense of "awe." Whether in your search, you come out a 'new' you, or written down as a lost soul in one of those obscure books you've seldom heard about. This isn't for the strict and rigid minded, the I'll-see-it-when-I-believe-it type. The scientist that yearns for tangible results, no, or even the everyday skeptics, nah, more like for the wishful that wants to see something unexplained that wasn't there before. Essentially an escape from the mundane, and down that darkening path of transient evil, obscurities and ill-placed omens.

Swinging a cape that never ceases to amaze, wearing the face of a Kabuki mask or something ritually painted along the lines of Arthur Brown meets Kiss without the psychedelics or dark-fun, covered in cow-envying amounts of leather, and setting the stage for theatrics are what the front man of Mercyful Fate brings to the altar. King Diamond places his voice at your disposal, in a taunting, I-told-you-so projection, constantly changing and altering itself, like a shape-shifter gone awry and appearing like amorphous shadows: playful, jumpy and tense, laughing.

The music still has that 70's feel, still somewhat unshaken by the presented 80s. Amongst the guitars, a bass that co-pilots itself as musician-friendly, yet finding and uncovering decidedly worthwhile rhythms. This brings about drumming that has technical feats and worthy chops, filling those gaps like something fiendish was going to get through. This is up on solos like any other group wanting to become the next-generation guitar sensation. But finding a particular hair-raising atmosphere from a selective showmenship. That is one of the most important aspects to create mood in music, and can sometimes be missed with how many more notes you can fit into your belt. I feel there was a straying from the norm when Fate was doing them. Sure they were scaled to perfection, running their fingers possibly over the same areas as the next guy, but finding those particular ones in their case that can bring a song into an elevated atmosphere. The dual guitars come together on Melissa to mostly create an ailment of heaviness, with palm mutes and simplistic chords, giving a justifiable cure of paced fist-pumping and medium-headbangs to circulate the bad-blood coursing through your blackening veins. This is music that isn't boldly aggressive, yet it's embracing like an eye-locking, deadly stare. Some of the rhythms will use higher notes on the fretboard, sometimes having similar techniques to Motorhead and Venom at the time, with unintentional sleazy guitar lines. The title track even has clean guitars in some areas, which almost sounds like an adult-lullaby: heard before bed and is in turn nightmarish or potentially sleep-depraving.

'83 was a good year in metal for big first albums: Dio releasing Holy Diver, Metallica's Kill 'Em All, Slayer's Show No Mercy and here Mercyful Fate's Melissa. It must of gave an aspiring metal-head an early stroke from the earthquaking delivery of these releases. These, for the most part, were placed at a refined enough point that it just seemed natural for them to of come out. The line, 'Oh, that was just something we did back then,' is true and untrue in a sense. Here, Mercyful Fate already had a down-pat style on their first output, and you can logically imagine there being leagues of other bands sounding identical to them. However, they were a creative group of characters, teeming with energy and earning their rite to passage with this release due to a fusing of their old selves from previous bands. They definitely, and most importantly, had an angle and were all-around great musicians that were lined-up to have a following even when this first hit shelves and then record players, possibly over and over again at that point till even now.

Containing an evil—not entirely pinned down as just grim, ominous or vaguely dark; being quite possibly scary with a combination—but encompassing evil in the essence and fibers of the word. Yes, this combines music for the time, they find their mediums with song-writing, not coming completely out of the blue. But this delivers music in a decidedly evil and almost persuasive manner. The kind that pricks blood from the end of your finger, transforms on a full moon, and prefers the odd or jaded features of the universe to impose a ritualistic sense.

Even with all of the musicians playing with different personalities, it is music that still comes together as a whole. Mr. Diamond leads and drives forth fermenting, haunting deliveries overtop of the bottomless pit of your miseries. His voice is so unique that it would be a true document if someone could perfectly describe each qualifying note into exactness; each slip and duck; each build or climax. Although that might miss the point of its hidden mysteries through a wrongful unveiling. He attempts the 'thought' impossible with the possible here. Bringing his voice to high-pitched alternating falsettos, a medium melancholy, a deep tone, in ceremonial chorus-like fashion, and many different alternating factions between, around, and right through to create the event-horizon of vocalizing. To travel to places far and in-between with a story to tell about its foreboding journey into unknown parallels. A true testament of the texture of evil, and how it encompasses the peculiar and tainted.

The music on Melissa can speak volumes. This isn't putting it lightly or exaggerating what instruments can project through speakers. It is channeled in an affective way that embraces the responsiveness of your senses. Its creativity, and ultimately its elusiveness, to pin it down as a single part or dividend is the most important aspect here. Repetitious listens could yield varying results. For longevity's sake, that's probably the most rewarding part that a performer or musician could ask for. The kind of effect that brings an identity and a name to the track, instead of an all-too-similarness.

With opening leads to enchant or build a song, piercing high-noted singing to a tapping of alternating notes, bass that snakes and wraps around guitar plucking, drumming that pounds but doesn't project provoking speeds, produces music that is metal in the sense, to a blackened degree. With an aura that gives it dark emotions and rightful moods. It sets the stage with a thematic presentation and grips the audience with engaging music and concept. The King's voice is going to safely be such a unique quality when first heard, that I can imagine it bringing about different reactions from different people. Probably because the related voice to terror, anger, pain, panic, etc. might be viewed a little differently now with a grisly set-tone or a plain-old scream. However, Diamond was intricately painting his voice instead of using a somewhat blunt graffiti. Which both, when done, can still bring about an expression or a statement that someone wants to convey depending on who and how. Although, here, imagine a sort of metal-opera which would evolve with the band even traveling over to King Diamond's self-titled solo project. This should be looked at as in chapters, turned one at a time with anticipation for the next, while not wanting to excuse yourself between aisles for fear of missing something. Melissa is read at the top of the pamphlet in your hand, and, as a precaution, brace yourself for a sense-riddling show.

Mercyful Fate's debut album is generally considered a classic, a milestone in Metal history. Usually I don't attach much value to terms like that. For example, I don't own any Metallica album because I just don't like them. But that "classic album" label was in this case the reason for me to check out the album. From what I understood, this album was a very influential one for many Thrash and Black Metal bands to come. And since I like a lot of those Thrash bands, I decided to give this album a chance.

Even though the band is not British, Mercyful Fate is from Denmark to be exact, basically what you're getting here is the darker side of NWOBHM. Maybe not as dark as Venom, but that's just because Mercyful Fate consists of musicians that are much more capable than Venom's. That very capable musicianship as well as the dark side of the music is portrayed best in the eleven and a half minute epic 'Satan's Fall', in which there is a whole sh*tload of killer riffs with every riff being something darker and more powerful than the one before and every part seemingly entering a new layer of hell. 'Satan's Fall' is a good showcase of the pure genius of this band and of the possibilities of Metal in general. Despite its length, the song is over before you even notice it takes that long. Add the guitar solos that are nothing short of amazing to that and that song alone will already be worth the price you'll pay for this album.

However, there's a downside to this band too, and that downside will be remembered by the name of King Diamond. King is a singer you'll either love or despise and I definitely belong to the latter. The "I can do high pitched screams and I will prove that as much as possible"-vocalist is taking his high pitches to the extreme! He gives the word "ear piercing" a whole new meaning, just check out the second part of the aforementioned 'Satan's Fall', the way he screams "home" makes me want to choke him. And at times he's not screaming and attempting to sing, singing off-key is a rule rather than an exception. It's really too bad, because King Diamond has proven over the years, with Mercyful Fate as well as with his solo band, that he knows how to surround himself with stellar musicians and songwriters. Another minus about this album is also from his hand, and I'm talking about the ridiculous "hail Satan"-lyrics. They're very cheesy to say the least!

But luckily the music on this album is amazing enough to largely compensate for that. In fact, apart from closing title track, which starts out promising, with a clean guitar part and an eye-watering guitar solo which left me thinking "oh my god, the guy's not going to sing over this, is he" (he was...), but kind of keeps on dragging towards the end and has some really weak riffs there, 'Melissa' is as close to musical perfection as it gets. And I don't use that term lightly.

Something I often attach a lot of value to is a good opener and 'Melissa' definitely has that in the form of 'Evil'. It's actually a cool thing that the title of your first song on your first album describes your sound so much. The song is a good display of what is to come too, the song contains a lot of great riffs and changes, giving 'Evil' a certain complexity without even getting that complex, which would become Mercyful Fate's trademark on the many albums to come. A lot of the riffs are quite different from each other, but somehow manage to flow over into each other quite well. Many songwriters at the time as well as today should take an example out of this.

The following 'Curse Of The Pharaohs' is a bit simpler and has King Diamond screaming a lot less, but that doesn't by any means mean that it's a weaker song. On the contrary, 'Curse Of The Pharaohs' is probably my favorite track off the album. The riffs in this song are midtempo and very strong and in total, the song is quite catchy. A special note here is that King Diamond isn't half as annoying as in the other tracks on this one. The song has a distinct Black Sabbath-vibe, the intro strongly reminds me of the title track of 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath', but is unmistakably Mercyful Fate, even without the vocals!

'Into The Coven' starts out a bit odd, with a guitar solo over an acoustic guitar prelude in a much different key and atmosphere than the rest of the album. Shortly after it turns into a strong, typical Mercyful Fate song full of great guitar leads and riffs. This is a song that has an atmosphere that just grabs you by the throat, pulls you into the song and doesn't let you go until it's over. Although the guitar solos on the entire album are great, I think the ones in 'Satan's Fall' and 'Into The Coven' stand out a bit more than the rest.

'At The Sound Of The Demon Bell' and 'Black Funeral' are less memorable than the rest of 'Melissa', but not by any means worse than the rest. 'At The Sound Of The Demon Bell' is a bit more progressive when it comes to rhythms and has a really cool riff right before the guitar solo starts and 'Black Funeral' is more of the standard, gallopping NWOBHM stuff. You won't hear me complain about that.

When you're fortunate enough to get your hands on the CD and DVD digipack remaster by Roadrunner Records, like I was, you're getting a couple of nice bonus tracks with it. The first one is a track called 'Black Masses' which, in my humble opinion, should have been on the album. It's a very cool track which definitely outdoes the title track of the album. Then there's a trio of BBC Radio 1 Sessions, 'Curse Of The Pharaohs', 'Evil' and 'Satan's Fall'. Those songs are, together with 'Into The Coven', the best songs on the album and sound even better in this semi-live setting. Semi-live because King Diamond seems to have done some overdubs, as you hear him twice at some points. Definitely worth checking out. Closing the remaster are the demo versions of 'Curse Of The Pharaohs' and 'Black Funeral'. 'Curse Of The Pharaohs' actually had more riffs on that version, but I think the simplified one that eventually ended up on 'Melissa' is the better one and apparently, the band agrees with me on that.

The DVD portion is an average audience recorded video of Mercyful Fate at the Dynamo club in Eindhoven, Holland. Nothing really special at all and King Diamond's boring commentary, which is optional, doesn't save the DVD portion from being a worthless piece of sh*t. The CD is amazing though!

So here's what you get: a very good, dark Heavy Metal album which will give you some quality listening time, as long as you like King Diamond's vocals or if you can at least tolerate them. Mercyful Fate would never make an album as good as this one again, but it's better to make one near perfect album than never to make a good one at all.

From the howling vocals to the killer riffs and awesome atmosphere, this is the grade-A sh*t I need. While the songs and the production are not up to par with Don't Break the Oath, this is a classic in it's own right and it needs to be owned by every metalhead.

WHAT? You DON'T own this? Something must be seriously wrong with you. Really, you can't come up with a valid excuse to not have this.

OK, so I must stop the ranting and give the album a description, 'cause that's what reviews are for. Let's see.....this starts with the Fate classic "Evil", one of the greatest songs ever made by this band and the only one on ths album that I feel owns every single tune on The Oath. It is composed by a miriad of riffs and changes on direction that makes you feel the song lasts more than it does, not because it is boring, of course. King's vocals own you. "Curse of the Pharaohs" is more of the same, starting rockish and going straight for the throat in the middle. King's vocals own you. The eerie "Into the Coven" (which I think it was censored in certain countries) is more simple but equally killer in the riff work and I think is the one with the most dark atmosphere of the first four tracks. "Sound of the Demon Bell" it's like Sabbath near Sabotage if Hank Shermann shared the guitar duties with Iommi, got Ozzy kicked out of the band in favor of King and replaced the LSD trip sessions with black masses and blood. Nice work with the arrangements, as always. King's vocals own you.

"Black Funeral" is short and to the point. A friend of mine found the singing to be bad and out of tune, but what the hell does he know. Because we all know that King's vocals own him and you. Yes, I said it three more times already, back off, I'm the one reviewing this. "Satan's Fall" is the long epic of the album featuring everything from NWOBHM-ish guitar work to doomy acoustic passages. A f*cking classic in it's own right and well worth to be heard in order to understand Mercyful Fate's skills on the songwriting department. Then the love ballad (I think is about love, in a twisted manner, of course) Melissa starts clean and with a superb emotional guitar solo, then goes to the heavy part and obliterates you in the middle with a nice riff attack.

Of course you need this, read the second paragraph from this review.

King's vocals own you.

f*cking killer album. Get it or die a worthless, pathetic loser.

Too bad I can't leave the review right there, but if I did, that's all you need to know. Back in the VERY early 80s, before genres and demands of 'trueness' or 'brutality' entered the picture, people demanded energy and originality of their metal, and Mercyful Fate was NOT a band that left people disappointed. Their self-titled EP took the underground by storm the year before, bowling people over with a mixture of elements that nobody before or since has ever matched - heavy riffs and amazing solos, adventurous song structures that owe as much to traditional metal as to classic hard-rock (i.e. Rainbow, Deep Purple, etc.), sinister, truly evil lyrics COMPLETELY obsessed with satanism and the occult, and those ever-famous operatic, almost theatrical vocals of King Diamond. The problem with the EP was that it was on a tiny label and very few people actually got to hear it. Someone at Roadrunner did, though, and they wasted no time in signing the group, who themselves wasted no time getting into the studio and recording their debut full-length, Melissa.

The opening song, "Evil", sets the stage for the whole album - It's a whirlwind of mood-tempo changes that manages to stay coherent and focused, based around a core of several great riffs, capped off with some seriously scary, blasphemous vocals and two great, even more scary solo sections. And so on. "Curse of the Pharaohs", "Into the Coven", "At the Sound of the Demon Bell", etc. - you'd almost think Hank Shermann was the man who signed the pact with the devil, because he keeps up an endless stream of tight, aggressive riffing throughout, and his talent for song arrangements keeps you constantly wondering where they're going next. There are only two gripes I have with this album: First, what the hell is up with "Satan's Fall"? Most people see it as an eleven-minute masterpiece of epic proportions; however, for once I think Hank Shermann took the arrangements a bit too far - too many of the changes are just the band stopping while one guitar plays the next riff, then playing on that for a couple of minutes before stopping while one guitar plays the next riff... it comes off as a collection of great riffs rather than an epic song (though it does have an excellent acoustic/clean electric solo section near the end, and the riffs themselves are good - the arrangement is just uncharacteristically amateurish). Second is the production. It's clean, but far too dry - the guitars don't have nearly as much bite as on the previous EP or on the next album, and that limp sound really sapped the energy out of some of these songs (for comparison, compare the versions of "Evil", "Curse...", and "Satan's Fall" here to the live versions on The Beginning, or compare this recording of "Black Funeral" with the version on the Metallic Storm compilation). Still, neither of those gripes undermine the fact that Melissa is a landmark album in the realm of extreme metal, and if it's not in your collection then your collection isn't worth all that much...

(Originally published at LARM (c) 1999)