Back when I was in high school, I had a friend named Dave Amato.
\nDave and I were not the kinds of kids one would have thought of as
\nheadbangers, but Dave was very much into the scene, trading
\nbootlegs and videos long before I ever thought such a thing was
\npossible.<\/p>\n
Dave also spent countless hours trying to get me interested in
\nthe two artists he absolutely worshipped — Mercyful Fate and King
\nDiamond. I guess this, to Dave, was just what he needed to unwind
\nto after a day in Catholic high school. But I never was interested
\nin either band — and it wasn’t because they spouted Satanic or
\noccult references faster than I can spew foul language. They just
\nnever interested me.<\/p>\n
I don’t know what ever became of Dave; we lost touch when I was
\nin college after he ended up burning me on some videos he promised
\nto copy for me. But he might be interested to hear that I finally
\ndid invest in a few Mercyful Fate tapes (thanks to Chris Carbone
\nand his eBay auction). And after plowing through the band’s 1983
\ndebut
\nMelissa<\/i>… well, I still don’t understand what the big deal
\nwas.<\/p>\n
(I should note, for the record, that my copy of this release is
\nactually the original 1983 version on Megaforce; the disc has since
\nbeen remastered on Roadrunner, and is the one still available
\ncommercially.)<\/p>\n
Mercyful Fate became known for three unique aspects. The first
\nwas vocalist Diamond, whose range could go from a sinister growl to
\na balls-in-a-hydraulic-press scream. Whether you love him or hate
\nhim, Diamond undeniably has one of the most recognizable voices in
\nany genre of music. The second is the strong imagery in the lyrics,
\nmaking sure that
\nMelissa<\/i> – or any of their albums, for that matter – aren’t
\nthings you’d play for the Reverend when he comes by for a visit.
\nSome of the lyrics make artists like Slayer and Danzig appear to be
\ncontemporary Christian material in comparison. The third is the
\ntwo-guitar attack of Hank Shermann and Michael Denner.<\/p>\n
All of this said,
\nMelissa<\/i> falls short in two areas. First, it occasionally is
\ndamned near impossible to decipher what Diamond is singing unless
\nyou have the lyric sheet. This is due to the echo put on his
\nvocals, as well as partially obscuring him in the overall mix.
\nSecond, the songwriting occasionally gets too involved with the
\ninstrumentation – possibly tied to the difficulty of hearing
\nDiamond. (Then again, after reading some of the lyrics, maybe it
\nwas just as well that I didn’t understand. Cripes, Steven King has
\nnothing on these guys.)<\/p>\n
Yet there are some absolutely fabulous moments on
\nMelissa<\/i>. The title cut is the highlight, daring to present
\nMercyful Fate in a gentler sound, building up the momentum without
\nallowing it to rage out of control. Likewise, “Black Funeral” is a
\nshot of adrenalin straight into your heart. Timi Hansen’s bass work
\non this track is absolutely incredible.<\/p>\n
But the bulk of
\nMelissa<\/i> takes itself a little too seriously in both musical
\nand lyrical content. Tracks like “At The Sound Of The Demon Bell,”
\n“Curse Of The Pharoahs” and the 11-minute epic “Satan’s Fall”
\n(WARNING – I’m giving away the ending: God doesn’t win in this
\nstory) all come off a bit pompous – or at least as pompous as a
\nsong can be.<\/p>\n
Yet there is something about
\nMelissa<\/i> that begs the listener for repeat listenings… and
\nit’s not a call to join the occult. I haven’t been able to put my
\nfinger on it just yet, but I tend to think it’s an attempt to find
\nsomething more in the music’s big picture.<\/p>\n
\nMelissa<\/i> put Mercyful Fate on the map, and it has enough
\nintriguing material where those who are curious about the band can
\nmake initial discoveries. But unless you’re someone like my former
\nbuddy Dave, this is an album that’s good mainly for cleaning out
\nthe musical pipes when you need a change of pace, and is not quite
\nworthy of worship status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6343],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36642","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mercyful-fate","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36642"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36642"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}