Style: heavy metal, speed metal, black metal
Year: 1983
Label: Megaforce
Home: Denmark
Members: King Diamond ~ vocals
Hank Shermann, Michael Denner ~ guitars
Timi "Grabber" Hansen ~ bass
Kim Ruzz ~ drums
Perfection. That's really all I need to say about the debut album of Mercyful Fate. A near masterpiece of a black metal occult/Satanic romp from a young band, & it isn't even considered their crowning achievement. The tracks are creative, exciting, raw, fresh, & dynamic from the opening notes to the final screams. It sounds like nothing you've heard before, yet taps into Black Sabbath, Accept, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden & other such bands. To elaborate, Mercyful Fate may have a twin guitar attack like Accept & so many of their peers, but they've made it their own with some neo-classical flourishes & a balance between speed metal fierceness & ear-catching riffs. While the music is full of so many little riffs & pieces that work so intricately together they almost foreshadow the prog metal movement, but yet remain rooted in headbanging over guitar pyrotechnics masturbation. While over the music is the distinctive vocals of King Diamond. He jumps with unpredictable abandon between a growl, to shouts like you might hear in a Black Flag influenced punk band, to his recognizable falsetto wail. Its as dynamic as the music & the two pieces weave through each other & work together for an enthralling experience. At times it almost feels like King Diamond wasn't yet comfortable with his voice & was throwing everything into the mix seeing what worked & what didn't. The mix of music & voice toes the line of being too dynamically witty & proggy for its own good at moments, yet is so raw & full of energy that that the flaws I think can be overlooked. It really feels like these guys were trying to craft more than just speed metal songs, but really wanting to tap into the occult energy they were singing about. These songs have so many intricate parts working together that even upon multiple listens I felt like there was still more to discover. That's a compliment I rarely give. The music is theatrical, memorable, will haunt your ears long after, will inspire you if you're in a black metal band, & will make you long for the early days of metal. What more can you ask for?
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