Mercyful Fate

I listened to some Mercyful Fate awhile back since I hadn't listened to them in forever and holy shit I was blown away by how good some of their songs are.

I never got into King Diamond's solo albums that much although they're pretty good, and the 90's stuff from Mercyful Fate don't really do much for me but man, nothing can fuck with their early 80's albums, that's some of the best shit EVER, even if it is cheesy as hell.

I thought it was interesting that King Diamond never had any intention's of being a singer and never took any vocal lessons or anything, he just wanted to play guitar lol.  That's incredible to me b/c his singing style is so over the top and impossible to replicate lol.

Damn, I love King, but I'm the other way round. I treasure (almost) all his solo records, and I think Mercyful Fate are cool, too. But I never obsessed over them the way I do over him doing his solo things.

Doomchild wrote:

Damn, I love King, but I'm the other way round. I treasure (almost) all his solo records, and I think Mercyful Fate are cool, too. But I never obsessed over them the way I do over him doing his solo things.

Rite on.

I mostly like Mercyful Fate because of the guitar interplay between Hank Shermann and Michael Denner, their guitar melodies on Melissa and Don't Break The Oath are fucking tremendous.

That no one can argue with at all.

I think King Diamond is one of those people who just has a natural knack for becoming good at whatever he sets his mind to. Not many people know this, but prior to becoming involved with music, he was a semi-professional soccer player here in Denmark. So at some point, he had to make the choice between pursuing a pro-career in sports or pursuing his musical dreams. Fortunately for us, he chose to pursue music.

The three album run of Nuns Have No Fun, Melissa and Don't Break The Oath is one of the most impressive runs in metal history, but sadly, information on early Mercyful Fate is severely lacking. No official biographies, no sites that contain nearly as much information as when it comes to other popular, old-school metal bands - and no documentaries.

Although Maiden and Priest are far more popular, it is quite obvious to me that the early incarnation of Mercyful Fate played far more musically challenging material, with their progressive spin on classic heavy metal.

Although it is, in a sense, sad that they've never truly gotten the recognition they deserve, there are advantages to it for the fans:

Michael Denner, for example, runs a record shop in Copenhagen. So if you're a fan, and you're around those parts anyway, you can just drop in and have a chat with him. Many do.

At one point I decided to gather as much information as I could about early Mercyful Fate, so that I could construct my own little biography of the band, to gain a better understanding of where they came from. Just to satisfy my own curiosity as a fan. It is far from finished - and may never be - but here's a little excerpt about King Diamond, and his "pre-Mercyful Fate" days. I haven't gotten to the part that describes his entry into Mercyful Fate yet. Keep in mind this is composed from many fragmented sources and my own research, and I am not a writer (just a regular blue-collar dude) - and my English is far from perfect, but I did the best I could at the time.


King Diamond's (real name: Kim Bendix Petersen) path into musical stardom was certainly not a traditional one. Before getting seriously bitten by the musical bug, King Diamond had already experienced the sweet taste of success as a soccer player. In his home town of Hvidovre, Denmark, King Diamond was known for his great talent as a soccer player, and throughout his youth he occupied a spot on a team consisting of multiple talented players, some of which would later lead his soccer club to win the Danish national championship. And when his team played against the rival club Fremad Amager, King Diamond, as a defender, had to defend his team against the attack of players that would later become international soccer legends and Danish national team legends. Their names were Søren Lerby and Frank Arnesen.

Up until the mid 70's, although having an interest in music, soccer was his main passion, with music being an enjoyable and fun hobby on the side. His first ever concert-experience had been in the form of a Grand Funk Railroad show, with Mott the Hoople as the support act. The concert took place at KB Hallen (Frederiksberg, Denmark) on December 3rd, 1971. This experience made a great impression on the young King Diamond, who would later go on to describe how absurdly loud the Grand Funk Railroad show was, while at the same time highlighting how fantastic he found the band's performance.

The real inspiration behind his path into music, however, was not the Grand Funk Railroad concert, or even singing, as one might assume considering what he later became known for. His initial interest in music was sparked by the first Led Zeppelin album, and more specifically: by Jimmy Page's guitar playing. His inspiration was one that I am sure many musicians can identify with: King Diamond, amazed by the sounds coming out of his speakers, wanted to play the guitar, and he wanted to sound like Jimmy Page. Along with Led Zeppelin, King Diamond was also a big fan of Deep Purple, Genesis, UFO and Uriah Heep, among many others. He would later go on to name David Byron (the singer of Uriah Heep) as his all-time favorite singer, and in what can only be described as the ultimate tribute to David Byron, King Diamond also decided to name his only son "Byron" after the singer.

After having heard Jimmy Page's playing, and deciding that he wanted to learn how to play the guitar, King Diamond decided to save up enough money to buy one. But before being able to buy a guitar, however, he would play along to his favorite music on a homemade "mock-guitar": according to King Diamond, he had constructed a piece of wood with two nails in it, and fixed an elastic band between them. Plucking away on the stretched elastic band would elicit primitive sounds from the instrument. Though the sound of an elastic band can hardly be compared to the sound of playing a real guitar, the mere physical action of plucking the elastic band was apparently similar enough to the real thing to allow the young King Diamond to imagine that he was playing an actual guitar.

Though lacking a "real" instrument, the young King Diamond was not deterred from using advanced methods to record his initial attempts at creating music: By way of a reel-to-reel tape recorder, he recorded himself plucking away on his elastic band mock-guitar. One of the fascinating features of the reel-to-reel tape recorder was it's ability to record multiple tracks, similar to what you would hear on a studio recording. King Diamond's particular reel-to-reel tape recorder had the ability to record four tracks, and this afforded him the ability to also add some primitive percussion to his elastic band recordings. He would, like many people who have been bitten by the percussive bug before having direct access to a set of drums, create and record percussive sounds by banging away on different items at home.

Perhaps through the gift of clarity and wisdom that advanced age eventually grants us all, King Diamond would later, as a 58 year old, propose the theory that the need to tinker with sound was always within him, before he was consciously aware of it. One of the examples he has given takes us back to his early childhood, where he would sit in the corner of his room and record the songs played through his transistor radio. Compared to the technological advances of the new millennium, King Diamond's transistor radio was a rather simple gadget: It sported a single antenna, lacked the ability to reproduce audio in anything but mono, and sported a one-speed mono cassette-deck.  Presumably not satisfied with the volume and projection of the sound coming from his small radio, King Diamond decided to build a small megaphone out of cardboard, in an attempt to remedy the situation.  

When he was finally able to buy a real guitar, he managed to get his hands on a cheap counterfeit guitar. As was probably common at the time, he was completely unaware of the fact that without an amplifier, a speaker cabinet, a distortion pedal (a "fuzz box") and guitar cables, his guitar would be useless in producing any audible sound. At first he was puzzled by the lack of sound, and the inability to replicate the sounds of Jimmy Page. Only after a conversation with acquaintances more knowledgeable on the subject did he become aware of the fact that he needed separate equipment to produce audible sound. King Diamond sought the help of an electronics mechanic, who would go on to buy the necessary components and to build the necessary equipment for him, while a curious King Diamond observed the manufacturing process.

Some of the specific details that King Diamond remembers from the process was the manufacturing of wooden speaker cabinets with twelve-inch speakers in them. He also remembers his amp having two very distinct switches: a red one, which was the on/off switch, and a black one, which was the distortion switch. It was also around this time that King Diamond started his very first band in the form of Brainstorm, where he played rhythm guitar. Brainstorm was a collection of friends getting together to produce music: the band was comprised of King Diamond and a couple of his classmates. Brainstorm played covers of Deep Purple and The Rolling Stones, and would rehearse in a local library. The environment at the time was such that citizens were granted the right to rent rooms at their local library in exchange for a small fee. So for two days a week, the band would rent a room at a local library and rehearse there. The band eventually fell apart, leaving King Diamond in a precarious financial situation after having invested in a guitar and expensive amplification.

In or around 1976, King Diamond spotted an ad in a grocery store. The ad had been placed by a band called Black Rose, and they were looking for a singer. Although never having sung before and only having experience playing the guitar, King Diamond was hopefully optimistic, and decided to take a chance by responding to the ad. He decided to present himself as a singer and a guitar player, in the hopes that he could "sneak" his way into the band under the guise of being able to sing, only to end up playing the guitar, but was told by the band that they had no interest in adding a second guitar player. Their current guitar player was said to be a phenomenal talent, and a big Ritchie Blackmore fan. This meant that he was not particularly interested in sharing the spotlight with a second guitar player, so King Diamond had to relinquish the idea of playing guitar in the band. Instead, he would sing for the band. Later, he would go on to describe it more as screaming rather than singing, as he had no grasp of proper vocal technique in the beginning, and no prior experience with singing. In the beginning, the band would mainly play Rainbow and Deep Purple covers. As the band's number of gigs grew, and as their experience and skills exponentially grew, King Diamond would eventually learn how to use his voice properly, avoiding the dreaded hoarseness that would previously follow every practice session and show. King Diamond never took any vocal lessons, and developed his trademark voice entirely on his own.

Had it not been for the kindhearted encouragement and compliment of a fan, however, we might never have had the pleasure of listening to King Diamond's fantastic and extraordinary falsetto. A fan, enjoying King Diamond's voice, had approached him and actively encouraged him to use his falsetto to a greater extent. King Diamond, initially puzzled by this compliment as he didn't know what the expression "falsetto" meant, asked the fan to explain what it meant. The fan then went on to compliment King Diamond's high vocal register. This single act of kind encouragement on behalf of a fan has often been mentioned by King Diamond as the main motivation behind his conscious decision to develop the trademark falsetto that he would later use in Mercyful Fate and his solo band.

One can only assume that his previous success in the field of sports had taught him valuable lessons about the conscious effort and perseverance that it takes to become great at anything, and that he utilized this knowledge in the process of becoming a great singer as well - either consciously or subconsciously. I say this, because other successful people have revealed the strategies that led to their eventual success. Initially, when you venture into unknown territories (be it sports, playing an instrument, or any other hobby), you always start out with great difficulty. The trick is to not be overcome by frustration, to not expect too much of yourself too soon, and to not become discouraged to the point of quitting. The trick is not to have a big, specific end-goal in mind, but rather to enjoy the every-day process of practicing and to set small, achievable goals for yourself. I have seen it likened to building a brick house - first, you have to lay the foundation, and then, brick by brick, you have to carefully build the house. Eventually, if you do not become discouraged along the way, you will end up with a completed house. The trick is to love the process of laying each single brick, because if you love the process, you will feel motivated to keep laying the next ones. And before you know it, the house will be finished - although, if you genuinely love the process, whether or not the house gets finished is not necessarily that important, because you had fun along the way. In the case of King Diamond, he would scream himself hoarse at every practice, but we must assume that his love for the craft was what propelled him forward despite his suffering. Did he really know that he would one day become the icon that he is today? I sincerely doubt it. But he must have loved and embraced the process, and was eventually rewarded for his perseverance. At any rate, developing proper technique and strengthening his voice would prove to be imperative, as his future would later reveal great musical challenges, requiring an extraordinarily strong voice.

But having a strong voice or being a great guitar player is one thing. Live performances are where rock music and heavy metal really come alive, and as anyone who has ever had the pleasure of witnessing a live concert can probably attest to, the theatrical aspect of a live concert is sometimes as important as the music itself in creating a powerful experience for the concertgoer. King Diamond's biggest inspirations when it came to the art of performing and putting on a show, so to speak, was artists such as Alice Cooper and Peter Gabriel.

King Diamond got his first taste of a thorough theatrical production when he he went to see Genesis live on their "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" tour on February 21st, 1975, at Falkoner Teatret in Frederiksberg, Denmark. He would later go on to describe how, in complete amazement, he watched Peter Gabriel, under the illuminating light of a sharp spotlight, hanging suspended from the ceiling with the help of invisible wires, pretending to walk on air. The wires being invisible must have provoked a great sense of wonder in the puzzled audience, giving the very realistic impression that Peter Gabriel was floating in free air. King Diamond would also go on to describe his excitement at watching Peter Gabriel go through various different costumes as the show progressed. On top of this, the band employed three backdrop screens displaying a multitude of images related to the story-lines contained within the songs, along with laser lights and other practical effects.

King Diamond's second great experience with thorough theatricality came when he went to to see Alice Cooper on September 3rd, 1975, on the Copenhagen stop of his "Welcome To My Nightmare" tour. The experience of seeing Alice Cooper live left a powerful impression on King Diamond, who would later recount that upon getting home and listening to the records again, he would experience visual flashbacks to what he had seen at the concert. Alice Cooper, at the time, had become infamous for his stage antics (both real and imagined), and was quite the master at giving his audience a complete experience. Not merely satisfied with simply standing onstage and delivering the music in a conservative and undramatic fashion, Alice Cooper turned his entire show into a carefully choreographed theatrical show, in what we can only assume was his attempt to turn people's nightmares into reality onstage. His shows at the time featured (among other things) the projection of films, and in his service he would employ four dancers, and use elaborate costumes and sets to get his point across. The show, perhaps comparable to watching an actual horror story unfolding right in front of your very own eyes, would see Alice Cooper in the company of numerous gruesome creatures: Dancing skeletons, a faceless demon, a nine-foot tall cyclops and enormous spiders.

It is no surprise why these experiences left such a powerful experience on King Diamond: as is common knowledge these days, the strength of an experience is directly related to how many of our senses it manages to touch upon at once. An experience that touches several of our senses at once is much more likely to be remembered in greater detail than an experience that only appeals to one, or a few senses. The fascinating thing about this, is that not only is our memory of the external experience better memorized (what we see, hear, smell and physically touch during the show), but our mood, mental state and emotions during the show are also chiselled into memory, creating a very powerful memory capable of evoking very strong emotions within us when recounting the experience, even long after.

Whether or not King Diamond had a conscious knowledge of this phenomenon remains unknown, but what we can with certainty conclude is that he certainly understood it on a subconscious level, as he would later go on to appeal to multiple senses in his own live performances, as a direct result of his own experiences.

The heartfelt musicality that Michael Denner would bring to Mercyful Fate's sound is perhaps not so surprising when you take his family history into consideration. Michael could justifiably claim to have been born into a very musical family: his father was or had been an amateur blues-guitarist, and in his childhood home it was not unusual to hear the records of The Doors and Jimi Hendrix spun on the record player. From early childhood, Michael was instilled with another very musical principle: at family gatherings, it was expected of the participants to take active part in group singing sessions.

Michael's first experiences with playing the guitar came at age nine, when he first started playing the acoustic guitar. Four years later, at age 13, Michael got his first electric guitar.

Michael's first band was formed in 1971, and it was named Lucifer's Airship. Michael had lied about his age in order to be able to join the band, and had claimed to be one year older than he actually was. However, this effort would soon prove to be futile, as he was fired shortly after due to lack of musical ability. According to Michael, the band played a blend of progressive rock inspired by acts such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull and Budgie. Fortunately for us, and for Mercyful Fate, Michael quickly came to terms with his disappointment over being kicked out of the band, and continued to forge ahead on his musical mission. Looking back, perhaps with a typically friendly and Denner-ish smile on his face, he would go on to say that his only positive contribution to the band was the brilliant band name.

Michael's first "real" band was formed in early 1974, under the name "Iron Space". In Iron Space, Michael contributed on multiple fronts: He composed some of the band's material, played the guitar and did some of the drumming as well. But the band never took off, and according to Michael, the band was nothing to write home about. Musically, he considered the band firmly rooted in old-school progressive, psychedelic and heavy rock. The influence of heavy metal only played a smaller part in their sound. As an interesting little tidbit of information, the Mercyful Fate song "Fifteen Men (And a Bottle of Rum)" contains a riff borrowed from Michael's Iron Space days. The song can be found on the Mercyful Fate album, "Into The Unknown", which was also the last Mercyful Fate studio album to feature Michael Denner.

Despite not having had any mainstream success with his previous two acts, Michael was not deterred. He spent his years prior to joining Mercyful Fate on practicing and perfecting his guitar playing, and listening to his favorite music. His biggest inspirations, in the realm of bands, are said to be UFO, Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. In the specific realm of guitar players, Michael is said to be greatly inspired by Uli Jon Roth and Michael Schenker.

Fucking A Sune, put a video to that and release the Rockumentary.

That's a cool idea. I love the Youtube channel Polyphonic. Do it like that!

Hahaha, nice. I've never heard of that channel before. I'll check it out!

I was lucky enough to grab two copies of this Mercyful Fate comic book before it sold out. Don't know if you guys heard about it before, but it's pretty cool:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/markrudolph/satan-is-alive-a-tribute-to-mercyful-fate

Also, this, for the awesome riffage:

And here's a little feature on Michael Denner and his record shop in Copenhagen:

We BADLY need a reunion of the classic Mercyful Fate line-up.

From King's new live release:

I have another little anecdote to add.

In case any of you still don't know what douchebags Manowar are, here's another story to demonstrate their epic douchebaggery:

March 3rd, 1984
"On March 3rd the band (Mercyful Fate) began their UK tour in support of Manowar. Eleven shows were booked in total. But as it turned out, Mercyful Fate were only to play one show. The opening show took place at St. Albans City Hall in Hertfordshire, but when Mercyful Fate's crew arrived at the venue with their equipment, at 2 pm as agreed, they were told by Manowar's tour manager to leave the gear in the street until Manowar were finished with their soundcheck.

At 7:30 pm Mercyful Fate were finally allowed to bring in their equipment. This left them with only 30 minutes to set up their equipment and prepare for the show, before the doors opened at 8:00 pm. When the show began, Mercyful Fate were told that they would only be allowed to perform for 25 minutes, as opposed to the 45 minutes that they had been guaranteed.

Upon entering the stage, the band realized that their sound-engineer was being denied access to the soundboard, naturally resulting in terrible sound. At a certain point in the set, Manowar's sound-engineer began playing around with Mercyful Fate's sound. This was the final straw for Mercyful Fate. They had no option but to demand some drastic changes if the tour was to go on.

Even though Mercyful Fate's demands were backed up by their common record company, Roadrunner Records, Manowar refused to comply. This forced Mercyful Fate to leave the tour prematurely, at a great financial loss, and to the great despair of their British fans."

My theory is that Manowar, for all their macho showmanship, were intimidated by Mercyful Fate, who are the better musicians and the better band. I would be nervous about being blown off stage if I was Manowar as well.

I don't think most people recognize what a force Mercyful Fate was live in the first half of the 80's. As you will see in the show below, they were tight enough to hang with even the most famous heavy metal bands. They are and were excellent musicians. Listen to how powerful King Diamond's voice and screams were back then. Most people feel that he still sounds good, but I notice a clear difference in the strength of his voice compared to the early days of Mercyful Fate. But I suppose that's only to be expected - the guy is 60+ years old now. Also notice how heavy they are compared to other heavy metal bands of the time.

The image quality isn't the best, but it sounds pretty good for what it is. Excellent performance.

Track list:
*Intro
*Doomed By The Living Dead
*Black Funeral
*Curse Of The Pharaohs
*Into The Coven
*Satan's Fall
*Band Introduction
*Walking Back To Hell
*Evil
*At The Sound Of The Demon Bell
*Come To The Sabbath
*A Corpse Without Soul
*Hank Shermann Guitar Solo
*Nuns Have No Fun
*On A Night Of Full Moon
*Devil Eyes *
Second Encore Break
*Black Masses
*Third Encore Break
*Evil (reprise)

Another anecdote to go with the show:

April 1983
"April 1983: In the beginning of April the band performed some shows in Holland. This was set up by the people of Rave-On Records to coincide with the recording of Mercyful Fate's first full-length album (Melissa).

As the band had decided to leave their record label, Rave-On Records (in what we can only assume was the retaliation of a label scorn) announced that the shows had to be cancelled because King Diamond had broken his leg. However, a good friend of the band, who also worked for the "Aardshock" magazine, had taken over the role of promoting these gigs, and subsequently they were able to perform as scheduled. This incident made Rave-On Records look rather ridiculous."

Also, let's give it up for Kim Ruzz. What a brilliant drummer he was.

He gave up music when Mercyful Fate disbanded, and later became a postman for a while. He is incredibly underrated as a drummer.

I know these are King Diamond albums but … do any fellow Mercyful Fate fans think Abigail, Them/Conspiracy, and maybe even The Eye deserve to be a proper "musicals"? with scripts and set direction notes and notated musical scores, etc...

Broadway, off-Broadway, Las Vegas "residency", I don't care where.  As long as they're (1) scary as fuck, (2) as vocally/musically demanding of the cast as appropriate, and (3) published so people will be able to experience live versions of them or perform their own interpretations of the works 500 years from now.

So far I've managed to get a "that might be kind of neat for some people" from the King himself in a brief meet'n'greet about 9 years ago, and mostly either a "Sounds dumb!" or a "Sounds gay!" whenever I suggest this to other fans.  

PS. Damn, Sune, you should be working for a documentary studio or The New York Times or something.

First of all - thank you for the compliment! Let's just say that for a period of time, I was obsessed with everything Mercyful Fate related, and compiled/gathered and researched a lot of information during that time.

With regards to your musical/theater performance idea, I personally think it's a cool idea. Not much metal lends itself to something like that, but being that King Diamond's material has quite a theatrical atmosphere already, and the fact that his albums are concept stories, I think it could definitely be done. It would be cool for sure.

I faintly remember someone on the King Diamond/Mercyful Fate board (I can't find the thread.. It seems like his forum was taken down not long ago) talking about doing a movie based on the Abigail story or something, and actually having received King Diamond's approval of the script and idea. But that thread was from 2011, so maybe it never materialized for one reason or another. Shame.