Last week, I got a telephone call from my old friend Dave Phillips. He just said: “Guess who just turned up at my door!” I immediately knew, although I still asked, and a couple minutes later, I sat on my bicycle and tried to find my way through dozens of hookers. It was a flashy ride, I tell you. So there he was, after more than 15 years – our old friend, band mate and maître d’art, Reto “Tschösi”.
A couple hours and a few beers later, at around 4 in the morning, when the last johns meet the first working bees, we sat at the kichen table when Dave quickly disappeared into his bedroom to change the record. The fast and chaotic opening sequence of “Corpse without Soul” from MERCYFUL FATE’s first and absolutely, inevitably essential 12″ came upon us like a biblical plague. So picture this, three men in their 40s, all wasted, sitting at the table of a not too middle class kitchen, banging their heads with long, short and no hair, playing air guitar and air drums and singing along the lyrics like there was no tomorrow. Wonderful!!! It was one of the rare moments, in which everything seemed to make sense in not making sense at all, 25 years after initially buying this piece of plastic, scribbling MERCYFUL FATE all over the school books and trying to make plans how to steal a goat from one of the many farms around (we grew up in different parts of rural Switzerland) and raving on on how to ritually slaughter it (not that anybody of us actually believed in the devil – it was and maybe still is just a dull and equally dumb idiosyncratic contempt for all the religious bigotry, nationalism and idiocy).
Pity me I’m somehow missing the parts necessary to remain assured of anything, so in the same moment when a deep and passionate love for music and what it does to us came together with harmless complacency (“after all, the first fourty years weren’t a total disaster”), I already knew that I would post this track here on the blog. Dave had recorded me this before, so I couldn’t leave his flat without borrowing the HENRY KISSINGER WAR CRIMINAL compilation EP, when the birds were chirping and the chum’s cohabitees finally were able to find some sleep of their own.
The rest of the 7″ doesn’t do much for me, but how VzR (whatever / whoever this is) compiled typical song annoucements from MERCYFUL FATE’s King Diamond has got to be heard to be believed. So for those who always hated MERCYFUL FATE or those who always loved them, this is equally fantastic (if you can take a joke, of course – if you can’t, you’re wrong here anyway).
PS: Check out this great post by Dave over at Rocket Science for more of the same. This time, it’s SLAYER showing you no mercy!
25 Comments
Can you see my EEEEYES!
I wonder what VzR was thinking when they did that.
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HAHAHAHAHA LOL LOL. Incredible!!!
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PS: You, Dave and Tschosi …… you guys should get together regular now …… and buy new instruments ……. and reform a particular old band ………
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This is great. I love the way Metal bands in particular create these elaborate introductions to their songs. This post actually jogged my memory a bit and sent me searching for a Slayer cd that I made a few years back where I compiled 14 bits of Tom A introducing various songs in a totally drunken state.
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what a meeting erich! cant believe that! but merciful fate was never one of my favorites!!! cheers!
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Would love to hear that Slayer CD, Dave! I’m not sure where it was, but some blog had a hillarious Venom compilation of Cronos introducing songs – as far as I remember, this made this Mercyful Fate thing here sound like Derrida!
Yeah Marcelo – it was a great surprise!
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I demand a FEAR OF GOD reunion WITH THE ORIGINAL LINE UP NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just pick things up where you left them in 1988 and I’m sure it’s gonna RUUUULLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I hear the Scorpions are going on tour…
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the venom live announcements file can be found here: http://wfmu.org/onthedownload.php/byartist/112 – wild, man, wild!
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Luvely, Dave – thanks much for the link! Mosh hard.
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” I sat on my bicycle and tried to find my way through dozens of hookers. It was a flashy ride…” HA HA HA HASjdhajsdhjkasd LOL. Always loved Mercyful Fate. Anything else to add? Nope. That’s all. Thanks and cheers!
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Hahahahha this was great!!!! Pray for your souls!!
and also, reform FOG N-O-W!!!!
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Erich, glad you enjoyed the slayer that I put up on my blog. As for the Venom stuff. I believe there is a 7″ single out there that contains the venom cuts, and I also believe that it was Thurston Moore from Sonic Youth that did that bootleg or at least that is the story I got from some friends in the know. Thanks for the link DP !
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Man whenever you didn’t post anything new for a couple days I’m worried if you might have quit blogging
Very funny track. Though I love MF this guy King Diamond is such a ludicrous figure.
Reforming Fear Of God? If you do come to the U.S. FINALLY! A lot of ppl would love to see you guys live. Most brutal band ever!
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Easy easy – FEAR OF GOD reunion? Wasn’t the 2003 thing bad enough? Hahaha.
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What on earth?? My introduction to King Diamond was when I bought Don’t Break The Oath mistaking it for another record by a different band. I pretty much only listened to hardcore at the time so when he hit those high notes on the line “Who will be the first to fall in trance” I practically threw the tape out the window of the car. After a few years I learned to quite enjoy Mr. Diamond and have seen him live a few times. I asked the merch guy for one of the opening bands what he was like and he told me he had no idea. They had been on tour with him for 3 weeks and he said that King has his own hotel room, shows up before he’s supposed to go on stage and then disappears when the show is over. I don’t know if that’s true but it makes him even more awesome.
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I never got to see the 03 thing but if you make another go I will fly down Europe and see you guys. It would be so great.
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I wish someone could make a similar thing with Paul Baloffs 80s stuff, the stuff that comes from his mouth on the “And then there were 300″ boot is so great!
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hey erich that 2003 reunion was not that bad man and now it could be much better! do it and come for a brasilian tour!!!!
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“Do you know what that is? It’s a fucking GOEST!”
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“Can you see my eyes? Okay, I know and you know that my eyes are devil eyes. Thank you, good night”.
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Fantastic, Erich! I’ve always loved the over-the-top metal intros, so it’s great to hear this…
We used to regularly quote Slayer and Venom back in ye olde days…
There are some fantastic Punk intros too – Slaughter and the Dogs and the first gig by The Germs spring to mind…
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any chance you could upload the entire Henry Kissinger War Criminal?
have had no luck finding the entire album ripped. been out of print for years, cant imagine it would be looked down upon….
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nice icing in the cake or on it. a million years ago or some other story a friend gave me a nirvana bootleg that had some of the funniest intros i remember. these were good too.
if f.o.g. did do a new demo and or/reunion thing that be intresting the 2003 stuff was cool for wat it was
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Brilliant!…a lot of this brought back memories of Mercyful Fate live bootlegs past. I especially remember that lord’s prayer recited backwards bit.
“Do you want heavy?!”
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