Review by Mandeep Arora on June 28, 2025.

Revisiting Melissa is like going back to your plucky old family sedan that's now become a classic with the passage of time. You have great memories of it in your head, with online communities and their fervent discourses continually validating your opinion that it's indeed one of the best. It's got more than decent power, good snob value, proven credibility, and, for its time, cutting-edge technology. Reacquainting yourself with said model, the memories gush in all at once - the familiarity of the controls, the good ol' turbo wooshes, that strong whiff of nostalgia... You like and appreciate the sensations thus far, even struggling a bit to hide that widening smirk while getting acclimatised to these familiar environs. But with melting minutes, things become a bit-only a bit-less favourable. You expect to be floored by the experience, to be completely taken over by this supposed classic, which it does to a good extent too, yet something's amiss. It's not as powerful anymore, the handling's a bit blunt, the electronics, once cutting-edge, now lag, and the then uber-cool all-black interior with its wooden accents, now chintzy. However, as a generalised rule, the more time you spend behind the 'wheel, the more things start falling in place once again; you begin appreciating the old-school sensations, rekindle the same bond you had with it, and realise why you liked it so much in the first place. Some quirks from even back in the day remain, infuriatingly so, but they take a backseat to this unique experience as a whole. You appreciate the originality, adore the analogue feel, and make do with all the dated traits. Flaws and shortcomings notwithstanding, it's a classic indeed.

That's exactly how I felt while listening to 'Melissa' too, after what has been an eternity of traversing in post-metal soundscapes. It felt vibrant, enjoyable, familiar, and only a tad bit disappointing. The fact that I was coming fresh of off some Frank Sinatra and The Doors made things a bit worse, as a sudden plunge into the progressive nature of this album made it seem slightly overwrought, a bit overblown. Which was surprising, for in my head, this has always been a 10/10 album, or a 9.5/10 at the very least. Mind you, it's fantastic all things considered, and we cannot undermine the impact it has had on the booming thrash metal scene from back in the day, serving as a strong inspiration to bands like Metallica and Slayer, as well as kindle the development of later extreme metal thanks to its bold and ambitious approach of embracing an all-evil demeanour. But it's not an album, or some aspects of it at least, that's immune to shortcomings. Forty years on, it holds up very well, but now when I look at it with a fresher perspective, with what I'd call a broader range of taste in all music, some of its weaknesses become glaringly obvious.

King Diamond's vocals, for one, and as usual, are a love or hate affair, especially on this album. This is the earliest incarnation of his piercing falsettos, which kept refining on subsequent releases, but they definitely sound a bit rough here, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes unwanted. Admittedly, what he does with his falsettos, while novel, wasn't entirely new even back in the day because we heard different iterations of it from Rob Halford and David Byron from Uriah Heep, whose style is seemingly a stronger influence on King than Halford's. But what King does is take it one step further with a far more recurrent usage, which makes his version more theatrical and grandiose, and for that reason quite unmistakable and unforgettable. On the other hand, his cleans, while decent and even a bit underrated, are arguably the least memorable aspects of nearly every Mercyful Fate/King Diamond record. Are his vocals for everyone? Absolutely not. But are they good enough? For the most part, I think yes. They sound resolute, almost unfaltering, and truly evil; more evil than most of Norwegian black metal. But there's a strong section of the audience that labels him as "metal's Mickey Mouse" and laments the concept of a comical falsetto that turns them away from the music that's otherwise met with major glee. I honestly don't blame them one bit for harbouring that notion. But to say that he's outright terrible, or that he sucks is harsh and an absolute disservice to one of metal’s most charismatic and unique frontmen.

The original mix, on which I'm basing this review and also the only one I've ever listened to, is another bit that's not aged too well. Sure, it's got that low-fi production typical of the eighties, but it's not quite as characterful or as riveting as 'Don't Break the Oath' or 'Abigail', feeling a bit soulless, a bit weak. The snares especially sound a bit dry, although I'm a fan of Kim Ruzz's style and his dominating presence on the songs. Likewise for Timi Hansen's basslines - momentarily buried under elegant melodies and sprightly drums, but suddenly sprouting mid-section and sounding totally badass in how they're conceived. Being a Mercyful Fate record, it's of course heavy on melodism and the guitar duo of Denner/Shermann is simply unbeatable when in its element. But overindulgence of these melodies means some songs suffer from compositional flaws, with 'Satan's Fall' being the biggest outlier here. It starts off promisingly well, with a wonderful flow and a throng of some very dark and impure riffs, but the moment it starts changing shape, things go awry. It’s like listening to five different songs within one song, which on paper sounds like a tantalising prospect but in practice leaves much to be desired. Mind you, as individual sections, these are really cool and consist of some unique riffs and melodies, but as one collective song, it's a bad riff salad. A reduced length of around six minutes and an additional song with all the residue would have done wonders to the album's flow and instantly raised its eminence. As far as I know, it's their second-longest song on a studio release and kind of proves why overly long and progressive songs aren't their forte, something we again find out fifteen years later on 'Dead Again'.

Yet some moments are truly subliminal - 'Into the Coven', 'At the Sound of the Demon Bell', and the title track are all fantastic songs and absolute Mercyful Fate classics. While the riffing is catchy and badass, it's actually the beautiful melodies that stand out and captivate your senses more. I'm not saying other bands from around that time weren't writing soulful melodies but these guys definitely knocked it out of the park. It's a signature Mercyful Fate/King Diamond trait that makes their music elegant yet at the same time, immoral and haunting; King Diamond the man has always strived for the band to not have a mainstream sound and it shows. Yet ironically, the best song is also the one with the most universal appeal: 'Melissa'. A classic for the ages and my introduction to the band. King's falsettos and the guitar solos sound genuinely exquisite on this song, bleeding into one another at one point, something we see more of on 'Don't Break the Oath'. A common theme of occultism and Satanism pervades the lyrical matter, which is nothing to write home about in 2024, for the themes seem too cheesy and childish, but 'Black Funeral' and 'At the Sound of the Demon Bell' cover some genuinely nasty stuff, with the instrumentation and King's vocals complementing that notion further.

For the three or so days it took me to write this complete review, I had this album playing on loop, for I wanted to be absolutely sure about the bits that weren't as endearing anymore. In my head, before beginning to write, I had it at a near-perfect 95% based on all the nostalgia and the fact that it is actually a fantastic album. But just like your classic old sedan that you revisit after what has been a while, you realise some bits haven't aged too well. You just get on with it and accept the flaws, reasoning with yourself that nothing’s perfect and that music's pretty subjective at the end of the day. And as is the case with everything, the more you spend time with it, the more it grows on you. With 'Melissa', I was already well-acquainted with its quirks from long ago, so getting back into the mix of things wasn't really a challenge. I was just surprised to find a few newer ones that slightly tainted my reacquaintance with it. In my eyes, the collective discography of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond is top notch and many a metalhead's delight, but there's also no disputing that the majority of these albums, while fantastic, have their own exclusive flaws that can impede the listening experience for some. Having said that, nothing can take away the classic status from 'Melissa' and its boundless charisma. It's a substantial part of the vast metal history and impacted the genre such that many bands were manic fanboys and wanted their music to sound like it; a proper baller that shook things up in its era.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Review by Jeger on July 29, 2024.

Iron Maiden? Let’s talk influential heavy metal bands for a minute. The first wave of black metal: Venom, Bathory, Celtic Frost and who? That’s right, Mercyful fucking Fate… Enthusiasts rarely attribute first wave foundation to the latter, but ever listen to Darkthrone? Mercyful Fate not only influenced their fellow heavy metal bands/artists, but their cross-genre influences are what make MF the most important heavy metal band to have ever recorded a note. Pfft… Iron Maiden - a fucking traveling circus. Anyway, Mercyful Fate have also been credited as initiators of the early thrash movement along with the second wave Norwegian black metal scene.

When Mercyful Fate hit the scene with “Melissa” in 1983, it was to the horror of Christians the world over. “The Coven” as the height of all this supposed controversy. Apparently, it’s one of the most detestable-to-holy-ears songs ever written. Jeez… Glad those 80’s - 90’s Bible-thumping days are over. Much of this band’s lyrical delvings into the realm of LaVeyan Satanism were something the world just wasn’t ready for, even though LaVeyan Satanism is in fact the un-Satanic path, as there is nothing spiritual there and there’s a bit more to Satanism than hedonism, fucking every chance you get and thinking you’re smarter than everyone, but I digress… Other more imaginative and influential concepts include Egyptian mythology and romantic Satanism as detailed in tracks from “Melissa” like “Curse of the Pharaohs” and “Satan’s Fall”. These themes would again be more than just perused by the likes of bands such as Metallica in their 1984 “Ride the Lightning” LP with the legendary “Creeping Death”, Slayer’s “Seasons in the Abyss” music video and as far as Satanic concepts are regarded, “Melissa” literally served as the gateway to the universe of Satanic metal. King Diamond accomplishing much for Satanism and for His Infernal Majesty, despite his ultimate position as an atheistic “Satanist”. 

Hank Shermann - co-founding member and lead/rhythm guitarist and Michael Denner - rhythm/lead guitarist both mythically in sync during the aforementioned “Satan’s Fall” as they remain in tight orbit to one another, all the while as they rip out unique solo after unique solo to the intertwining groove of Timi Hansen’s bass guitar parts; pulsating with torque just beneath the surface of it all. Salutations to Him in “Black Funeral” and humble worship of Him before His altar in the closing titular cut. Still trying to figure out what all the fuss over “The Coven” was over when these other tracks dive so much deeper into the pits. King’s oft unspoken falsetto talents behind the mic are ample throughout “Melissa”, and percussion as played by Kim Ruzz serves as little more than the glue that holds everything together, as was the 80’s way before drummers got all fucking uppity.

Above all other superlatives, it’s rhythm guitar that really shines through the mix: those rhythmic chugs and the harmony between both guitarists is simply unparalleled. Just old-school headbanging shit to get that geezer heart of mine pumping all that cholesterol through my dad bod… Like Dio’s “Holy Diver” but souped-up to the point that Dio and his band just sound like something out of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in comparison. Is that a coconut? Arguably the greatest heavy metal album ever written is “Melissa”, and that’s due to dynamic range. Way ahead of their time were all members involved in this project: the flamboyant progressions/time changes, the radical-for-its-era cover art and King’s dual threat style of singing across and along with the melodies as opposed to one-dimensional singers like Ozzy, the above mentioned Dio (late) or John Bush (Armored Saint) who only do or did one or the other. And just the cinematic quality of his every maniacal laugh, siren-like wail or despairing drawl like shit out of a really fun spook house nightmare.

Mercyful Fate are still widely-heralded today. The entirety of Darkthrone’s latest album, “It Beckons Us All…..” is an homage to their great influence over the early Norwegian scene and basically every heavy metal album written post-Melissa has followed similar compositional blueprints and like themes, just not quite as boldly or with as much zeal as Mercyful Fate. The band had some balls back then, and King’s voice as the voice for Satan rang with ominous authority over the outrage of churchgoers. An opus! A huge accomplishment for extreme music and the catalyst to Satan’s ultimate conquest over the gestalt of metal.

A cross-genre hybrid heavy metal band, not just a cheesy NWOBHM band are Mercyful Fate - an active group today, just waiting on that new album, which will be their first new LP release since 1999. King has also been active with his self-titled King Diamond project as a touring band. A new LP out of KD will be their first new full-length since 2007’s “Give Me Your Soul… Please”. The forthcoming LP is titled “The Institute” and is apparently due to drop before year’s end. I’d wager that we probably won’t see anything new out of Mercyful Fate for another year or so. Patience! After all: 

“The Devil is at work in times of slumber…” 

~Infernus (Gorgoroth)

Captivation: 10/10
Concept: 10/10
Cover Art: 10/10
Production: 10/10
Revisitability: 10/10

Final Score: 10/10

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