Mercyful Fate - Melissa (Bonus Dvd) (Aniv) (Reis) (Dig) (CD)

All Music Guide

Mercyful Fate's debut album, Melissa, took Black Sabbath's dark occult obsessions to an extreme, fusing them with the speed and tightened, twinguitar riffing attack of British metal bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. But the band had a distinctive sound of its own, thanks to the neoclassical flourishes of guitarists Hank Shermann and Michael Denner and the unpredictable vocal leaps of King Diamond, who could jump from a deathly growl to an unearthly falsetto wail in the next line. The band was still finding itself, and some of the songs on Melissa have a tendency to move into long, meandering instrumental sections, but the basic components of Mercyful Fate's influential European gothic black metal sound were already in place. [In 2005 Roadrunner Records reissued Melissa to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the label. The deluxe set found the original album remastered and appended with six bonus tracks. Three songs from a BBC Radio 1 session, an outtake from the original Melissa... recording session, "Black Masses," and a rough demo version of "Curse of the Pharaohs" all appeared previously on 1987's The Beginning. The last bonus track, a demo of "Black Funeral," originally appeared on the 1992 rarities collection Return of the Vampire. Longtime fans may have those older collections, which have been in and out of print intermittently since their release, but these tracks make perfect sense included here with the original album. A DVD is also included with three songs recorded live in 1983 at the Dynamo in Eindhoven, Holland, and commentary on the concert from King Diamond himself.] - Steve Huey, All Music Guide Read more Less