Review by Felix on October 9, 2023.

The career of Mercyful Fate consists of three different chapters. The first one is, of course, their early period when they released their ultimate classics “Melissa” and “Don’t Break the Oath”. The second period spans “In the Shadows” and “Time” which naturally failed to reach the quality level of the legendary and groundbreaking early works. Nevertheless, both records housed a handful of great and / or extravagant songs like “Egypt”, “The Mad Arab” or “Time”. Finally, phase three brought us three albums that are not bad, but, and this is really surprising, pretty expressionless. The concept of the band came to its end. Repetition or failure were the only alternatives and so they were damned to release albums without a really exciting perspective. “Dead Again” is one of them.

Of course, Mercyful Fate have enough potential to perform some good parts. But the occult aura of their classics is missing completely. From this it follows that King’s falsetto is embedded in another surrounding and it does not often work in this modernly produced album. It seems like the old spirit of Mercyful Fate has left its spooky castle and now it lives in a newly build apartment that King has meagrely decorated with some black wallpapers. This is definitely no promising approach. Yes, songs like “Since Forever” or “The Lady Who Cries” (oops, I thought it’s King?) have musically fine parts, they are not boring and they avoid serious mistakes. But this is not the description anyone would choose for “Evil”, “Satan’s Fall” or “Gipsy”, right?

The lack of atmosphere does not only go hand in hand with the less compelling songwriting. In addition, there is the fact that King’s lyrics were something special in 1983, but 15 years later each and every metal newbie was singing about “Torture in the name of Christ” and comparable topics. As a result, there are not so much positive elements that remain. A couple of riffs and melodies are okay, but on the other hand I am confronted with a downer like “Banshee”, which is just lame and without one iota of the fascination the early albums once spread. And as much as I regret it, this is not the only number that lacks energy. It would be not fair to blame the output for being phlegmatic. Nevertheless, the drive of songs like “Black Funeral” or “Nightmare” does not show up here. Even the respectable closer “Crossroads” cannot piss with these big dogs, nevertheless, this is a surprisingly strong finish.

If I do not think about the necessity of an occult sound environment, “Dead Again” does not suffer from a problematic mix. The guitars have a sharp undertone, the drums do not come off badly and the bass guitar also plays a (little) role. Naturally, King’s voice stands in the centre, but this fact is not at the expense of the other guys’ contribution. Anyway, last but not least let me talk about the excessive title track. One can write a monumental killer like “Satan’s Fall” or one can present a song which is simply as three times as long as the others. “Dead Again” (the song) is immune against dynamic sequences and the level of intensity remains low. There is no part with really exciting vibes, it’s simply a pity. Bite the bullet, Fate fans, but this full-length just makes your collection complete. Be clever and do not have any other expectation when it comes to “Dead Again”.

Rating: 5.2 out of 10