Mercyful Fate - Official Website


Melissa

Denmark Country of Origin: Denmark

1. Evil
2. Curse Of The Pharaohs
3. Into The Coven
4. At The Sound Of The Demon Bell
5. Black Funeral
6. Satan's Fall
7. Melissa


Review by Felix on January 1, 2023.

How many times do we write sentences like “they do reinvent the wheel” or “there’s nothing innovative” in our reviews? And how many times do we avoid to write them, although they would be absolutely true? I think about this questions, because one thing is for sure: “Melissa” reinvented the wheel and was innovative as hell. An extremely creative quintet from the little and previously rather negligible Denmark, an early form of “The New Machine of Liechtenstein”, kicked the global metal community in the ass. I admit that I needed a lot of time to understand their outstanding approach. But now, “only” the incredible time span of 40 years after its release, even my slow-thinking mind is able to give standing ovations for the debut of a band whose name crushed with elemental force into the growing world wide scene: Mercyful Fate.

No album has ever had an opener with a more fitting, more programmatic title. “Evil”, as simple as it is, describes the album perfectly. It is a much more intelligent form of evil than we get in many cases today. Far away from the cruel approach of those hordes that only play their instruments, because they don’t know how to destroy them. “Melissa” is heavy from the beginning to the end, but it does not explore the frontiers of musical savagery. Instead, it delivers a massive dose of progressive structures and can rely on a timeless guitar sound Lucifer would call “wonderful”. Already the first tones of the fantastic “Evil” illustrate the full and crunchy guitar performance. But believe me now or never, it’s not only the instrumental section that make this album to a classic. King’s voice is an essential part of the horror that this debut spreads. I admit that some of his lines still cause me a massive toothache for three seconds, at least the first verse of “At the Sound of the Demon Bell”. Whenever he screams “Halloween”, an inner voice tells me to stop the listening session immediately – but of course I ignore this troublesome idiot in me. And I am also not annoyed that the song almost derails during the solo. From my point of view, it’s the weakest track here, but even this one contributes to the musical concept in a robust way. (By the way, I am also no big fan of the tragic title track, but it’s part of this groundbreaking masterpiece and therefore it is good, haha.)

As far as I can see, there are some vibes of the drug-imbued seventies to find here, but the basic ingredient is pure (then and still modern) metal. The guitar riffs, leads and solos do not lack aggression, even though a few soft parts show up from time to time. Sometimes they appear very abruptly and confuse with their mysterious character, for example in “Satan’s Fall” (the one at 7:50 minutes). One has to get used to it – but everything serves the fascinating overall concept of the debut, inter alia the atmospheric, chamber music compatible introduction of “Into the Coven”. Speaking of this track, it turns into an eerie, inclement mid-tempo killer. Its best detail is the melodic yet terrifying scream of King at the beginning of each line of the chorus, but even the mild part after the second chorus enriches the song.

Despite their progressive tendency, Mercyful Fate were intelligent enough to put at least one more or less conventional song on the album. “Black Funeral”, compact, catchy and full of sinister vitality, made it easy to make a first step into the lightless dimension of the Danes – even for people like me who failed to accept the musical genius immediately. It was an almost schizophrenic situation: I realized that the album’s opus magnum, the multi-layered, challenging, interwoven and simply brilliant “Satan’s Fall”, possessed a special charm or, better still, a proper dose of pure magic. Nevertheless, my narrow-minded mentality did not like each and any part of the song directly. So I was somehow stuck between a rock and a hard place. Today I know that this monument is not just the outstanding piece on the album; it is probably the signature song for the band for all time. So many superb riffs, so many changes in mood, tempo and feeling, so many unexpected twists and turns: those who do not know this track miss an important part of the evolution of today’s metal society.

Needless to say that the lyrics were brilliant as well. King takes us on a trip to Egypt (the awesome “Curse of the Pharao” lets you smell the scent of death) and plays masterly with the occult elements of its culture. Doubtlessly, this was a great idea, to mention but one example. But at the end of the day, everything fits together, not “only” the lyrics, the vocals or the riffs. “Melissa” is among the most influential albums ever, although its style has never left the niche where it was born. (And it’s useless to call their style power metal, black metal or whatever, it was something unique.) But it had and still has a lot of indirect effect, because it shows the diabolic grimace of pure heavy metal. This devilish attitude inspired surely more musicians than the entertainment-Satanism of Venom, even though they did not follow the musical path of Denner, Sherman and the other boys. Not to mention fanboys like The Attic who do a good job as well. However, the original was and is Mercyful Fate and their first two full-lengths are nothing less but true cult.

Rating: 8.7 out of 10

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