This is one hell of an evil album, especially for 1984! I mean, just look at the lyrics for "The Oath". There are modern BM bands that don't come close to being as sinister as that.

Written by Got Mayhem? on 19.04.2010 at 08:44

This is one hell of an evil album, especially for 1984! I mean, just look at the lyrics for "The Oath". There are modern BM bands that don't come close to being as sinister as that.

Agreed. King Diamond is fuckin evil as hell, amazing voice too!

I normally steer clear of these 80's Traditional metal releases, but fuck me, this one has some catchy tunes.
It's only a shame that the vocals ruin some sections for me...
"Come to the Sabbath" is just brilliant.

Scares the shit outta me. A Dangerous Meeting is just a haunting track.

Hi voice is kinda for a black metal group.

Written by Guest on 01.01.2012 at 17:51

Hi voice is kinda for a black metal group.

It is not Black Metal. It's traditional Heavy Metal, only darker than usual.
Among the so-called first wave of BM, only Bathory can be considered as BM for today's standards, imo.

Written by RavenKing on 02.01.2012 at 04:48
It is not Black Metal. It's traditional Heavy Metal, only darker than usual.
Among the so-called first wave of BM, only Bathory can be considered as BM for today's standards, imo.

Agreed on both accounts. Maybe back in the day they were extreme enough to be considered black metal, but by today's standards they're nothing more than a heavy metal band with the "black metal image".

Written by Troy Killjoy on 02.01.2012 at 04:52

Written by RavenKing on 02.01.2012 at 04:48
It is not Black Metal. It's traditional Heavy Metal, only darker than usual.
Among the so-called first wave of BM, only Bathory can be considered as BM for today's standards, imo.

Agreed on both accounts. Maybe back in the day they were extreme enough to be considered black metal, but by today's standards they're nothing more than a heavy metal band with the "black metal image".

If we look at the music now, we can say that Bathory stood the test of time, as far as BM goes. I mean, it's not exactly like today's BM and was still obviously rooted in Thrash but, if you want to put a label on Bathory's first 4 albums, the only one you can give is BM. It has everything BM is known for nowadays, except for blastbeats.
We can't say the same about Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost or Venom.

Written by RavenKing on 02.01.2012 at 04:58
We can't say the same about Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost or Venom.

Agreed again.

Written by RavenKing on 02.01.2012 at 04:48

Written by Guest on 01.01.2012 at 17:51

Hi voice is kinda for a black metal group.

It is not Black Metal. It's traditional Heavy Metal, only darker than usual.
Among the so-called first wave of BM, only Bathory can be considered as BM for today's standards, imo.

It is still great, black or not. And Quorthon was the best on what he did...

Wonderful album! Solos are amazing. espacialy on The Oath!

Quote:
If we look at the music now, we can say that Bathory stood the test of time, as far as BM goes. I mean, it's not exactly like today's BM and was still obviously rooted in Thrash but, if you want to put a label on Bathory's first 4 albums, the only one you can give is BM. It has everything BM is known for nowadays, except for blastbeats.
We can't say the same about Mercyful Fate, Celtic Frost or Venom.

I completely agree with you on this, although i feel that Celtic Frost's To Mega Therion album has a lot of BM aspects to it, not as much as Bathory but the BM sound is still there. There are some other less noted first wave bands that had the BM sound similar Bathory; My favorite being Tormentor, but there is also Root, Torr, Bulldozer, and a few others I cant really think of off the top of my head.

I love this album, it's just so fucking perfect

I always liked Mercyful Fate, but listening to "A Dangerous Meeting" again in a while just made me realize how amazing this is...

Very nice album. It's gonna take me a while to get fully into King Diamond's vocal style (no offense to him), but he has moments of sheer brilliance here, especially in songs like The Oath, Gypsy, and Come To The Sabbath and there's tons of great riffs and musical ideas overall. I should check out Melissa as well.

Written by CobiWan1993 on 17.01.2014 at 05:40

Very nice album. It's gonna take me a while to get fully into King Diamond's vocal style (no offense to him), but he has moments of sheer brilliance here, especially in songs like The Oath, Gypsy, and Come To The Sabbath and there's tons of great riffs and musical ideas overall. I should check out Melissa as well.

I was not a huge fan of King's vocals either when I first heard them, but the music was so great, I couldn't help but keep listening. Before long, I had become accustomed to King's vocals, and saw them as amazing. But definitely, the music was the main draw initially, in me discovering more about Mercyful Fate, and King's solo works. The love for the music was immediate, the love for King's vocals came later.

And yes, please check out Melissa too! For me, that one is the best Mercyful Fate album, although this one is also great.

I was immediately drawn to King Diamond's vocals as a young impressionable 14-year-old when I first heard them in January 1983. So eerie, so haunting, so extreme. Of course also immediately liked the music, especially the riffing and soloing by the twin guitars. But those vocals were what initially drew me in.

For me, I neither loved King's vocals right away, or hated them. I found them a bit weird at first, which is why I didn't love them immediately. But even at the beginning, before I came to fully appreciate them, there was something about them I found mesmerizing. Most people either love or hate King's vocals when they first hear them, but I didn't really fall into either category...

Written by Angelic Storm on 17.01.2014 at 16:56

Written by CobiWan1993 on 17.01.2014 at 05:40

Very nice album. It's gonna take me a while to get fully into King Diamond's vocal style (no offense to him), but he has moments of sheer brilliance here, especially in songs like The Oath, Gypsy, and Come To The Sabbath and there's tons of great riffs and musical ideas overall. I should check out Melissa as well.

I was not a huge fan of King's vocals either when I first heard them, but the music was so great, I couldn't help but keep listening. Before long, I had become accustomed to King's vocals, and saw them as amazing. But definitely, the music was the main draw initially, in me discovering more about Mercyful Fate, and King's solo works. The love for the music was immediate, the love for King's vocals came later.

And yes, please check out Melissa too! For me, that one is the best Mercyful Fate album, although this one is also great.

Yeah, I have a feeling I'll get used to King's vocals soon enough. I've always been meaning to get into Mercyful Fate and King Diamond because of the music and the lyrics (especially after hearing Emperor's cover of "Gypsy"). They're all well crafted for sure.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 17.01.2014 at 17:04

I was immediately drawn to King Diamond's vocals as a young impressionable 14-year-old when I first heard them in January 1983. So eerie, so haunting, so extreme. Of course also immediately liked the music, especially the riffing and soloing by the twin guitars. But those vocals were what initially drew me in.

This might be off topic, but what do you think of Metallica's "Mercyful Fate Medley"? Do you think it does the songs justice or do you think it sucks? Just curious, that's all, I think it's alright.

In my top 3 or 4 metal albums of all time. Number one album for the KD/MF releases, which says a lot. I wouldn't call this black metal just traditional metal stepped up a notch or two with black lyrics. It's certainly a ton better than any black metal album I've ever heard though, including Bathory...

When Metal-R**** named this album the best
Well "A Dangerous Meeting" still best extreme metal song of all time

I will kiss the goat!

Written by Sang Dalang Abu on 13.04.2014 at 14:31

When Metal-R**** named this album the best.
Well "A Dangerous Meeting" still best Extreme Metal song of all time

Realistically, this album contains 3 of the best extreme metal songs ever written for me. A Dangerous Meeting, Desecration of Souls, and The Oath...and the rest of the songs rank right up there with the best of King Diamond's career, just a monumental album to be worshiped for eternity. The most perfect of all 10s given.

Written by deadone on 01.05.2014 at 09:33

Every 5 or so years I listen to Mercyful Fate to see if I'll like them. Usually I can't stand King Diamond's vocals....in fact usually I hate them with a passion. The music on the other hand is excellent.

A little bit less hate for the vox this time around - it didn't irritate me as much as in the past. Eventually I might come to actually liking it.

If you don't like the high voice, try an album like Dead Again or the last couple of King Diamond albums. Much less use of the falsetto than the 80s albums.

I'm sorry but an 8.8 overall ranking it way low for this album. The vocals and lyrics aside (which are elite), musically this is arguably the best classic metal album of all time, up there with Stained Class.

Written by pkillerjp on 03.06.2014 at 18:04
I'm sorry but an 8.8 overall ranking it way low for this album.

It's the average overall score based on a collective group of votes by users here. Evidently not everyone thinks as highly of it as you do (different tastes and whatnot), although an 8.8 rating on Metal Storm is good enough to rank it in the top 200 of all-time so there's that.

Better than their last (debut) album

Written by deadone on 01.05.2014 at 09:33

Every 5 or so years I listen to Mercyful Fate to see if I'll like them. Usually I can't stand King Diamond's vocals....in fact usually I hate them with a passion. The music on the other hand is excellent.

A little bit less hate for the vox this time around - it didn't irritate me as much as in the past. Eventually I might come to actually liking it.

Pretty much my experience with this album.
Hearing much praise again and again I tried repeatedly to reap some emotions from it but apart from finding it objectively good (songwriting, vocals, guitars) it is rather kind of laughable (please don't be offended anybody). It aims to be sinister but for example the ending of Nightmare? If some nightmare is yelling at me "you are insane" that way i will say to me "good, i'm clearly the sane one here"
Possessed were the devils of that time to me.

Nightmare is cheesy as all hell, easily the worse song on the album. Except when King goes "YOU'RE ONLY LIVING... ON BORROWED TIME!"