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Mercyful Fate
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1983-1985 After the release of their successful debut-EP, Mercyful Fate signed a record deal with Roadrunner Records from Holland and started recording their first full-length LP called Melissa. That record was a continuation of the musical strength they had shown the year before on Nuns have no fun and featured such classic Fate songs like Evil, Curse of the Pharaohs and Black Funeral, but four of the seven songs of Melissa had already been released before-Black Funeral on the compilation Metallic Storm and Evil, Curse of the Pharaohs and Satan's Fall had all been played at Mercyful Fate's appearance on BBC at the Friday Rock Show. The album was quite successful and Mercyful Fate's unique image heavily increased their popularity. It was even released on the highly influential Megaforce label in the U.S.A., which also released albums from Manowar, Metallica and Anthrax. Later that same year, the band went to Easy Sound Recording studios in Copenhagen again to record their third release, "Don't break the Oath", again with Henrik Lund as producer. That new album was a bit more straight-forward and King increased the amount of high vocals on most songs of the album and the lyrics were kind of toned down, even though they were still heavily satanic, none of the songs was as extreme as Nuns have no fun or Black Funeral. Meanwhile, Fate was getting more and more popular in Europe and the U.S.A. and King became one of the most well-known characters of the metal scene of the early eighties. With masterpieces as Night of the Unborn, The Oath and their most popular song Come to the Sabbath, "Don't break the Oath" was a big success and it almost made it into the U.S. Billboard charts at position 202. This album is still their most important work and it is still one of the most influential metal albums of all time. When the album was released, Fate even went to America to start a tour with Motorhead which was very successful, but during that time, Hank Shermann wanted to do something different and it is said that he had even worn pink sweatsuits on stage. Mercyful Fate were getting more and more popular and there were even rumors that some major labels were interested in signing that band, but all of a sudden, all of Fate's musicians decided to split up the band and Mercyful Fate had died after three well-acclaimed releases and it took them almost 10 years to reunite again.
1985-1990 When Mercyful Fate had split up, all of the band members now had to decide how to continue their career. Hank Shermann joined a band called Fate which was even quite successful, but somehow he left them after the A Matter of Attitude and Fate albums. Kim Ruzz, even though he was one of the best drummers of his time, decided to quit the music business completely and became a postman and Timi Hansen and Michael Denner wanted to continue with that type of music that Fate had played and stayed with King. Some months later, the new band, named after King Diamond, the most important character of the group, had been formed, with Mikkey Dee on the drums and Floyd Constantine as second lead guitarist, but this one was soon replaced as a result of his way of life. The Swedish guitarist Andy LaRocque now joined the group and his great abilities made him a permanent band member for more than 14 years. The first release from this new band was the single No Presents for Christmas, obviously released in December 1985,and the next year, the first album of King Diamond was released. Fatal Portrait was a continuation of the last Fate album Don't break the Oath, but the depart of Hank Shermann and Kim Ruzz resulted in a more melodic and softer approach. The album was also the first King Diamond album without any satanic lyrics which had become his trademark some years earlier. Fatal Portrait featured a whole concept story which spanned over four songs of the album about a haunted candle and portrait. On the whole, this album was really very strong and it sold 100.000 copies in the U.S.A. and the following tour together with Megadeth was very successful and King was back again. Only one year later, Abigail was released, another concept album about an undead girl who puts a young couple to death. Not only the music on that one was excellent, but the story, which King had made up in a dream, showed that King was and still is writing one of the best lyrics in metal, even though he was criticized very much for the stories of the songs on his early Mercyful Fate albums. Abigail is still said to be King's best album and it was also the first King Diamond album to reach the Billboard charts with sales of more than 175.000 in the U.S. alone and The Family Ghost was the first King Diamond song with its own music video and the success even continued with the next album called "Them", which was also the first one without any remaining Mercyful Fate members(except King, of course) because both Michael Denner and Timi Hansen had decided to quit the band. They were replaced by Pete Blakk and Hal Patino on guitars and bass. The story was about Them, some supernatural creatures who manage to take possession of the mind of a young boy named King and his grandmother and who can be summoned by blood filled into a tea bowl. Even though it lacked the atmosphere which made Melissa or Abigail so great, it was still a superb album and it fitted the taste of 1988 very well - it was even more successful than Abigail, selling more than 200.000 albums in the U.S.A. The next album, "Conspiracy", continued the story of Them and the music was also quite similar and so it was also almost as successful as its predecessor, but the story wasn't unique any more. Meanwhile, a band named Kiss decided that King's image and the fact that he was also using make-up might decrease their sales and they decided to take King to court in order to force him to stop wearing make-up on stage, but King had already changed his make-up for Conspiracy and Kiss were criticized in the press, so they decided to put a stop to it. The next album released in 1990 was The Eye. The Eye's story was placed during the time of the French Inquisition and the only horror element was a haunted necklace called The Eye, which links the whole story together. But even though it wasn't as "frightening" as the other King Diamond albums, The Eye is definitely King's most satanic solo release and Christianity and its history were heavily criticized. Musically, it was also kind of back to the roots of Melissa and Don't break the Oath and most of the songs were really good, but all that was overshadowed by the grunge/alternative movement which was started by cheap groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam at that time and such traditional metal bands like King Diamond were soon on their way out. But not only the musical climate was changing, King's label Roadrunner Records also decided to concentrate on more modern bands and now they have become one of the most successful labels since then. So King decided to leave Roadrunner to keep on creating the music he had always been famous for, but nothing much was happening after the depart from that label. They released a live album recorded at the Abigail tour four years earlier and a best-of album named A Dangerous Meeting, after their classic from Don't break the Oath, but it took King more than four years to release another solo album, The Spider's Lullabye in 1995.
1991-1999 As King Diamond became more and more successful, times weren't as good for Hank Shermann and Michael Denner, who started a band called Zozer Mez together, but they didn't get too much recognition outside of the metal underground. But after they had played together for a few months, King Diamond heard of that new band and it didn't take long and Mercyful Fate reunited again and played at the Dynamo in 1993.During the last 9 years, the Roadrunner label released two new albums called The Beginning and Return of the Vampire, the first one included the Nuns have no fun EP and the BBC sessions, the second was mostly a compilation of very old Mercyful Fate recordings which had never before been heard on CD till then, but even though they hadn't released a single studio album in that time, Mercyful Fate were still one of the most important metal bands of that time. Later that year, the first album following the reunion, In the Shadows, was released and it really showed that that band was still the best and Egypt, The Bell Witch and Is that you, Melissa are still big classics. The album received great critics and the reunion tour was a success, the band even decided to release a EP with four live tracks recorded on one of the shows called The Bell Witch, named after the great song from In the Shadows. In late 1994,King and his band members had already finished work for their next album, Time, which showed a more melodic side of the band and which sometimes lacked the heaviness of the other Fate albums, but the songs, like Angel of Light, Castillo del Mortes and The Afterlife were still among the best that King Diamond had ever released, but it still wasn't a traditional metal album and it only received a small amount of acclamation, even though it even featured the masterpiece The Mad Arab, based on H.P. Lovecraft's stories Abdul Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon. The next year saw the release of The Spider's Lullabye, the first King Diamond solo album in 5 years, which was quite similar to Time, but the heaviness had been increased pretty much. The first six songs on The Spider's Lullabye were the first King Diamond songs that weren't linked together through a concept story since the release of Fatal Portrait, ten years ago and songs like Killer and The Poltergeist were King's strongest songs in years, but the quality slightly decreased on the second part of the album featuring the story of Harry and his fear of spiders, who is killed by the mad therapy of a psychiatrist. After the spider's lullaby, the world had to wait more than one year for the next Fate release, Into the Unknown, in early 1996.That one was one of the heaviest Fate albums ever and it was quite well-acclaimed and included such great songs like The Ghost of Change and Under The Spell. The next success was The Graveyard, the King Diamond solo album released later that year. The excellent story about a psychopath who takes revenge on a major who had put him into an lunatic asylum because he had seen how this man molested his daughter and the dark and very sick mood that surrounded it, brought the album really much recognition. The songs weren't too strong on their own, but more concentrated on the whole story, but that didn't decrease its high quality and it showed again that King could still create such great concept albums like Abigail and The Eye. Following the release of The Graveyard, King Diamond started to tour with Mercyful Fate and King Diamond simultaneously, which was quite exhausting for him. After that tour, the time was ready for the release of Dead Again. This new album sounded much more modern and it was very different from the first Mercyful Fate albums, but like every Mercyful Fate recording, it was just excellent and it was the first album featuring the superb guitar work of Mike Wead, one of the best guitarists ever, who had worked with great underground bands like Hexenhaus and Memento Mori. The album also included their longest song ever, the 13-minute epic Dead Again. But Dead Again was again heavily underrated, just like Voodoo, the next King Diamond solo album which was released a few months later. The story was about a couple which inherits an old mansion in the swamps of Louisiana. But as they're making plans to destroy an ancient voodoo cemetery because they are disturbed by the dead who practice their rituals at night, they get punished for their behavior... again a great story and also a great album, but some of the songs were again quite weak on their own. King Diamond toured the U.S.A. and then, in 1999,the next album from Mercyful Fate named 9 was released on May 25th…