Mercyful Fate

MERCYFUL FATE is a band that occupies a unique place in the history of black metal.  While their lyrical content, overall aesthetic, and--to a lesser degree--their music clearly show the signs of being old-school black metal, the thing for which Mercyful Fate is most known is a clean singing style that is not really part of the black metal tradition at all.  That being said, they clearly fall within the black metal tradition for the reasons listed above.

 Formed in 1981 in Copenhagen, Denmark by Hank Sherman (aka Rene Krolmark) and King Diamond (aka Kim Bendix Petersen), Mercyful Fate became renowned for their horror- and occult-themed music.  Taking inspiration from heavy metal and hard rock acts like Kiss, Deep Purple, and Uriah Heep, as well as late 1970s punk, Mercyful Fate has a metal sound that is both melodic and evil.

"Doomed by the Living Dead" from the self-titled EP

After a series of demos, Mercyful Fate released their self-titled EP in 1982 (sometimes known as the "Nuns Have No Fun" EP).  This showcased the style for which Mercyful Fate has since become known: a classic metal sound, with evil atmosphere and King Diamond's infamous voice.  King was capable of both crisp, clean singing, and dark, sinister growls.

"Evil"--perhaps their most famous song?

In 1983, Mercyful Fate put out the legendary album Melissa.  This continued the sound pioneered on the demos and the self-titled EP.   This album was pretty well-received by the international metal community.  What made Mercyful Fate so unique was their ability to combine the evil, dark aesthetic associated with the emerging metal underground with a traditional, more melodic metal sound.

In 1984 came the epic Don't Break the Oath.  This solidified Mercyful Fate's reputation.  But at the center of the band was the enigmatic King Diamond.  Known for donning corpsepaint, reveling in occultic imagery, all while claiming to be a LaVeyan Satanist, King himself proved to be as much of an influence on future black metallers as his music.


Mercyful Fate went on to break up in 1985, only to reform in the 1990s (only to go on hiatus again later), but their mark had been made.  Later bands would admit to being influenced by the overall dark atmosphere and aesthetic pioneered by King and Mercyful Fate (Emperor and Darkthrone have explicitly said as much).


I have to admit I am not the world's biggest Mercyful Fate fan.  I have enormous respect for what they did, and think they are insanely talented (their current bassist, Sharlee D'Angelo, might be the best bassist in metal), but could never get past the falsetto King frequently employed.

Select Discography

Burning Cross (demo) (1981)

Mercyful Fate EP (1982)

Melissa (full-length) (1983)

Don't Break the Oath (full-length) (1984)

Tomorrow: SODOM (and other extreme thrash bands)