MERCYFUL FATE- s/t 12″EP (Rave-On Records, Holland, 1982)
If Satan was to be evoken through music, it would take MERCYFUL FATE to make him appear. This EP, the band’s first own vinyl appearance, in all those years has never lost its intense grip on me. Something about these four songs is deeply disturbing: The sometimes atypical rhythm (as in “Devil Eyes”), the weird guitar work with its translucency and its bizarre slightly oriental flair – and of course and foremost the incredible voice of King Diamond. The two LPs following this twelve inch are great, extraordinarily great (which one is better, “Melissa” or “Don’t break the Oath”?), but they don’t have the same cutting edge anymore. If you want to hear the Punky beginnings of the band’s main song writers, check out BRATS masterful LP (more BRATS here).
Imagine a 14, 15 years old teenager walking into a record store and seeing this cover on display. A rough sketch, as it seems, crude and graphic: Two inverted crosses (“why these double crosses”, you’d ask yourself , “are these eviler than regular upturned crosses?”); a naked, well hung and hanging woman in the center, with a pentagram where the lustful fantasies culminate and a bunch of hooded zombies or demons standing in circle. Mate – that alone would make this EP an object of desire. Then you’d fetch the thing to check it out on one of the heavily used public record players, impale the vinyl on the turntable, take the headphones and fuck me Jesus, what’s this?!!! The Judas Priest reference was obvious to me right from start on: Twin guitars and the high pitched vocals, but with MERCYFUL FATE, it was like things had become a sickening twist.
Side A (the other side is called “Side 1″; a nice little oddity) starts off with “A Corpse without Soul”. The song lacks the genre typical structure (slow buildup and stuff like that) – instead, it just goes right off. And it goes off a second time, as soon as King Diamond screams his lungs out with the unforgettable line “Listen – I’m a corpse, I’m a corpse, I’m a corpse without soul”. Speed is up, until the slow middle part: “I was walking down among the graves, I heard a cry, my shadow was gone, emptiness in my body, I felt so alone” etc. – crazily intoned by the King’s voice. Some people often take the imaginative, fantastic imagery and lyrics of certain Metal bands and open a normative field with a second, opposing pole, held by the political, socially concerned contents of Punk bands. In this setting, Punk lyrics would appear to be of a “true” function and Metal texts were “false”, “phoney”. If things were only that simple! Have you never let your fantasies go wild, let disturbing pictures arise in front of you, falling into a (often self-destructive) maelstrom of self-transcendence? This is what bands like MERCYFUL FATE are capable of doing to you and this is exactly how I understand satanism of the cleverer sort. It’s a form of self-empowerment, an exercise, a practice of the self.
“Nuns have no Fun” is undeniably my least fave pick of the four. Sure, the refrain is nice and powerful with the pubertal conjuration of the female genitalia (“C.U.N.T.”), but overall, the track misses the other songs enormous urgency. Turn the platter ’round and things will magically escalate in intensity. “Doomed by the living Dead” turns screws in your head, it’s of such intensity. The guitar / vocals continuum is so strong, so seamlessly amalgamated one into another, it is capable of perforating the layer under which music is said to be oscillating (as a reassuring aesthetical concept). Fact is, that with the help of substances and meditative practice, you can alter “reality” to degrees yet unfathomed by many undaring souls. “Flames are rising, can’t you see you’re dying (…), so just say goodbye to all your holy angels”. I had the great bliss to see MERCFUL FATE perform live in Belgium, at the now legendary “Heavy Sound Festival”, in 1984, and I remember how I had tears in my ears when they played this song. Darkness had slowly set in, the night was about to lay its black sheets over the small and soaked ground in the outskirts of Poperinge, a dump of a village that was heavily destroyed in the first world war. The night before the festival, my friend Marco “Dinosaur” Suremann and I had arrived in Poperinge, after continuous hassle from the cops in Brussels. We had been standing there in the heavy rain, when a biker guy turned up after had seen us leaning against the fence, trying to sleep standing in the rain. The good chap let us get some hours of sleep laying on a small table in the ruin of a caravan. We were very thankful for his most mercyful gesture.
Back to the EP, where the intangible climax is yet to be experienced. “Devil Eyes”, as said before, is of greatest force and uniqueness. “I’ll take you to hell, you’re inside my spell. In Lucifer’s mirror and I am his killer, I am his killer, I am devil eye’s (…) oh yeah, I love my eyes, oh yeah, those devil eyes” – eyes of the eyes, so to speak. The lead part starting at 1.38, and I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, has got to be the emotionally most captive moment in the recorded history of music. Take that, Peter, for you still don’t seem to be understanding what you say when you speak of “Heavy Metal solos” (secretly, he’s a big lover of Metal, as I happen to know).
Three pressings of this milestone made. First one had a white border instead of the black one (some sources say there were only a couple hundred made with the white border, but I find that hard to believe, since the copy I bought in late 82 or early 83 had a white border and so did all the other copies of my friends back then). Pictured however is the 2nd pressing, with the black frame. The 3rd press looks alike, but often misses the insert and has a small distribution imprint somewhere on the back. Some nutheads pay big $$$ (often more than what a 2nd press goes for!) for bootlegs on colored vinyl on ebay; there were no colored vinyl variations of this. “Rave-On” was a neat little label from Holland that released only a handful of records up until 1984, but all of them are unique in their own sense. You’ll hear them all, sooner or later. Promise.
A Corpse without Soul.mp3
Nuns have no Fun.mp3
Doomed by the living Dead.mp3
Devil Eyes.mp3
PS: Please make sure, after so much praise, to check out this.
Small is beatiful wrote:
Ha ha I knew it would come. Just love when it back fires the way I anticipated
.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 12:53 pm | Permalink
Small is beatiful wrote:
About the record here. I LOVE and I mean absolutely LOVE Melissa. One of my fave metal albums of all time. Much of the other stuff with Mercyful Fate just don´t do it for me. Like this one. Wanky wanky.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
Pär Arvidsson wrote:
This is the SHIT! I love the complex structure of all the songs and the drumming in Devil Eyes are incredible. Best release of all albums 82.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 12:57 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Yeah, the drummer is incredible!!!!
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 12:59 pm | Permalink
::beatMe:: wrote:
what a way to write about such a dumb band! that’s what I love about your blogs. by taking things seriously you actually let me see aspects I have never seen before like the foucault reference here.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 1:48 pm | Permalink
Helm wrote:
Right on as far as punk ‘reality’ versus HM ‘fantasy’ goes. A lot of people seem to be searching for their punk in their HM and vice versa. Punk desires external change, social reformation, assembled scenes dictating self-organization. Heavy Metal is about an ingressive journey, internal alteration, ancient voices of gods and monsters. From either vantage it’s easy to look at Others and mock them, but it takes bravery to instead fall in head-first and judge from personal experience.
Melissa is my favorite between the two that follow this. Don’t Break the Oath has magical moments, but on Melissa, the spell holds for the whole duration of the record.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
howardx wrote:
great post, great album.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 5:46 pm | Permalink
Frank Mossi wrote:
Fantastico!!! Great text and the music is the best of the best. Thank you for the continue great work in your blog. It’s like a history book.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
Frank Mossi wrote:
PS: You saw MF live??? I HATE YOU
)
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
John Scharpen wrote:
I love the little teddy bear! I remember lying to my parents and going to see Mercyful Fate two hours away on a school night back in 1984. It was like a religious experience. When they played a few days later in San Francisco, they actually had a half-naked woman tied to a cross onstage. Memories…
That said, I haven’t listened to the EP in years. Time to remedy that.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 7:55 pm | Permalink
ellio6t wrote:
de you know how long i’ve been waiting to check this out but never have for some reason? this is the shit! i got into metal before punk so this is like home for me. thank you sooooooooooo much erich now i will get off my fat ass and buy some reissues.
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 8:11 pm | Permalink
Steve wrote:
I remember when Bob Muldowney (Kick Ass zine) referred to him as Queen Rhinestone (instead of King Diamond) due to his “castratto” singing style. I do enjoy some of the riffing on this and some of the others. The “Satanism” hocus pocus always makes a great cure for insomnia. :0
[Reply]
Posted on 24-Jan-10 at 9:49 pm | Permalink
What's the Truth? wrote:
What an epic writeup!
This may sound like blasphemy to some, but Devil Eyes always reminded me of disco music, probably due mostly to the drumming…and I still love that song.
[Reply]
Posted on 25-Jan-10 at 12:03 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Disco – of course! You’re absolutely right. Fuck, I hope you didn’t spoil the song for me with this, haha.
[Reply]
Posted on 25-Jan-10 at 12:16 am | Permalink
Pär Arvidsson wrote:
It´s the disco feeling that does the song!
[Reply]
Posted on 25-Jan-10 at 5:15 pm | Permalink
Clinton Chapman wrote:
I too am so happy to see the teddy bear’s return. Thank you Erich. I just sold my copy of this to a mate who I feel was more deserved of it, as he has been metal since birth. I came late to the game in some regards, though I was raised by a family who attend AC/DC concerts as a family unit, where Buffalo, Blackfeather, Geeza, Kahvus Jute etc were played during my upbringing.
All that crap aside, thanks for the post-now I can enjoy the tunes.
[Reply]
Posted on 26-Jan-10 at 2:38 am | Permalink
Teddy wrote:
It’s the GREATEST!!!They did disco better than Abba! : )
[Reply]
Posted on 26-Jan-10 at 3:47 am | Permalink
Somebody who doesn't want his name here wrote:
Not for publication.
Did you see this?
http://killthepose.blogspot.com/2010/01/attention.html
Greetings!
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 12:26 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Oh my, some evil punkers want to kill me again? Haha.
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 8:30 am | Permalink
bubba wrote:
what’s the shit on this blog, are you motherfucker?
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 3:41 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Actually, I’m a fatherfucker, Bubba.
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 4:20 pm | Permalink
Frank Mossi wrote:
Who is this asshole and his blog??? FUCK THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 7:11 pm | Permalink
the rager wrote:
I love your writing Erich…. we probably boougfht the record the same day…me in Paris and you in Zurich haha….. it was such a shock back then…. but the biggest shock came with “Melissa” as far as I’m concerned…. it was just over the top…the weird structures were pushed over the top…leads going on non stop and shit….. no bands in the past had done that prior to M.F.!!!!
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 8:31 pm | Permalink
Manu wrote:
This guy wants to kill you cuz you said his blog shit? what a fuckin nazi. I bet its a 14 yrs old crybaby.
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 9:35 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Yeah, some people seem to be very insecure about what they do (running shit consumerblogs, decorated with stupid sloganeering, that is).
@ The Rager: I se what you mean, but in the end, I found “Melissa” a little, tiny bit disappointing and I still wonder why (after all these years).
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 9:37 pm | Permalink
You NEED an iPad wrote:
I think these “punks” would be happier if they bought an iPad. That way they would stop crying and get something to cool and awesome to play with. Maybe they even would invent a new slogan:”Buy Apple not War”
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 9:46 pm | Permalink
Lars Wounders wrote:
Totally respect you and Peter from KBD for being two of the most outspoken and critical bloggers. Screw this guy!
Never been much of a metalhead but I have to admit that MF is kinda rad. Spooky stuff!
[Reply]
Posted on 27-Jan-10 at 11:27 pm | Permalink
elliott wrote:
what a cocksucker. i read that post and just laughed. i respect erich far to much to kill him. if someone said my blog sucks i would just say well that’s fine. i don’t really care. these people probly don’t want to face the fact that the little blog they run is shit and doesn’t matter. i already know that about my blog so i don’t really care what you say. erich has a great blog and was my main inspiration to start a blog myself. actually erich is one of the nicest guys i’ve seen and when he says a blog is shit you know it’s shit. erich is great!
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 1:28 am | Permalink
Steve wrote:
The guy is probably more Bolshevik than nazi! ; )
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 3:39 am | Permalink
Filthy Chris wrote:
thanks for this. i’ve never given the good king D enough credit. i’m going to have to re-listen to his stuff.
also: you should start a hardcore youth crew to rough up the people that threaten you on the internet.
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 8:41 am | Permalink
Thomas Pfluger wrote:
Erich, are YOU going to kill ME for saying that King Diamond’s voice sucks? Anyway, thx for the links to the song annoucements by KD, Slayer, Venom. Fantastic.
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 4:15 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
YES, I FUCKING AM CAUSE I’M PUNX AND AS SOON AS WE’RE A HUNDRED THOUSAND, WE’RE GONNA START A REWOLUTHION AND MAKE EVERYBODY GO VEGANISTIC, WEAR DREAD LOCKS (“SAUSAGEHAIR”) AND LIVE IN A TOTAL ANARCHY TYPE OF PLACE WHERE THERE’S NO POLICE EXCEPT FOR US, THE VOLKSWÄCHTER.
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 4:28 pm | Permalink
the rager wrote:
Now I’m just waiting that you post your stories about the MASSACRE/ MORBID ANGEL rehearsals you’ve seen back in early July 1986!!!!!!!
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 7:49 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Will tell these stories soon, Rager – including photos and complete audio! Stay tuned.
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 8:01 pm | Permalink
F. wrote:
tomorrow’s past: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/107/272128821_4fb2348991.jpg?v=0
[Reply]
Posted on 28-Jan-10 at 10:33 pm | Permalink
howardx wrote:
all this mercyful discussion made me dig out “melissa” i noticed a definite UFO influence i hadnt heard before now.
[Reply]
Posted on 29-Jan-10 at 3:10 am | Permalink
dewey.decimal wrote:
God damn me to hell I love that Doomed by the Living Dead track.
[Reply]
Posted on 04-Feb-10 at 5:26 am | Permalink
malfeitor wrote:
This record is absolutely great. It is an objective fact that has been established scientifically. Not only that, it transcends the genre because people who don’t even like metal love King Diamond/Mercyful Fate. That’s just the way it is. My wife actually passed out when King Diamond played Welcome Home live. Perhaps it was the 9 hour drive and lack of food but to this day I still tell her that it was because there was “just too much magic”.
[Reply]
Posted on 12-Feb-10 at 12:32 am | Permalink
Pugz wrote:
I love the teddybear in the picture of the record. Another amazing posting! King Diamond is the S#!T
[Reply]
Posted on 19-Feb-10 at 5:58 am | Permalink