Personnel:
King Diamond - Vocals
Hank Shermann - Guitars
Michael Denner - Guitars
Timi "Grabber" Hansen - Bass
Kim Ruzz - Drums
In 1983, Denmark's own Mercyful Fate released their debut album Melissa. The band did not have much time to finish the album and the album's producer Henrik Lund had an interesting method of producing the album asking the band to leave the sound room while he edited and worked on the tracks, then called them back in to the studio then asked the band to leave when he needed to make a change to the songs. Mercyful Fate was able to release Melissa and the album was a big success in the metal world, although the album is classic heavy metal, the band's style and sound influenced many bands from multiple genre's such as black metal, and power metal.
There isn't much to say about this album, when it comes to instrumentals Melissa can be compared to bands like Iron Maiden but the vocals are what really allow this album to stand out. Legendary metal vocalist King Diamond brought horror movie theatrics to Melissa, apparently King Diamond brought an altar into the studio when the band was producing the album. Guitarist Hank Shermann compared King Diamond's vocals to Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and it's hard to deny that especially the high notes that Diamond hits on the album, originally Melissa was going to feature a cover version of Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, but that was eventually scrapped.
Mercyful Fate is one of those love or hate fans. The main game breaker will come down to King Diamond's vocals, while I enjoyed his vocals, some will not share this opinion and I can respect that. But if your a fan of that traditional heavy metal sound, I recommend Melissa to all.
Favorite Tracks: Evil, Curse of the Pharaohs, Black Funeral, Satan's Fall
The Verdict: 4.0
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