Sure, it only has 4 songs but these are 4 KICKASS songs. I mean, it’s Mercyful Fate! Early MF to be exact, which is the best era of the band. King and the boys have always been different, not being speed or thrash, but not being glam either. A lot like Iron Maiden, with satanic lyrical content to a higher degree. I mean, just one song on this EP makes ‘Number Of The Beast’ seem holy! (which also came out this year). Neo-classical riffage, some unique drumming delivered by Kim Ruzz (why the fuck would he become a postman?!?!) and screechy, banshee like vocals in the vein of Judas Priest.
Doomed By The Living Dead – Raw, mean, and evil, this song holds up the finger to christianity. Pretty aggressive, I could just imagine what people thought about it at this time in 1982. There isn’t much more to say about this one, other than this is heavy fuckin’ metal, in your face, raw and untamed. Gotta love the last line
“So just say goodbye, to all your fuckin’ angels!”
A Corpse Without Soul – King proved to the metal scene with this one that he was no average singer. It’s like his message with this song was “Rob Halford can’t touch this!” (er… the vox, if you were thinking anything else, then I love your way of thinking). The falsettos here are so extreme they would cause any average person to lose their breath in an instant. The aggression in this song is just about on the same level as ‘Doomed By The Living Dead’, with better guitar work and FAR better vocal work. Purely breathless!
Nuns Have No Fun – What a fun song this is! Gotta love the lyrical content, ESPECIALLY the chorus
“C.U.N.T., that’s what you are!”
Raw, heavy and catchy, nothing more, nothing less. Now one thing that would have just absolutely KILLED, would be if a music video was produced for this song. Imagine that…
Devil Eyes – Breathless! How the fuck does he do that with his voice?! On the later MF albums and the solo material, his vocals are more controlled, but they are purely intense on the first 2 releases, especially this one. Non-stop, not changing tones, just high as fuck falsettos through the entire song. If you really wanna annoy the fuck out of someone who despises high vocals, then crank this one up, and drive them mad.
Great mini EP. If you already own ‘The Begining’, then this is no longer essential, though it is a rare collector item for die hard KD/MF fans.
EPs have always existed in music in some form or fashion, but to my knowledge this is the earliest example of an EP with all original material in heavy metal that would never be re-recorded. Just a standalone package. This is noteworthy of course because quite a few other metal bands (mostly European) would put out EPs in the 80s, presumably to keep the momentum of the first album’s success going or to create hype for the upcoming debut. Personally, I’m glad these songs weren’t re-recorded for Melissa because I always found Melissa’s production to be rather muffling especially when you compare it to this. Go ahead, play the first minute or so of Corpse Without Soul and compare it with the first minute of Evil. The former sounds like the band is screaming right there, painting hexes and pentagrams in your face, whereas Melissa sounds like you are listening to them next door. Both are enjoyable, but it’s not quite the same.
We have four songs here, and just about all of them could have been a highlight had they been on either of the first two albums, and would have stood head and shoulders above all else In The Shadows. I imagine most people have heard A Corpse Without Soul, or at least the 30 seconds that Metallica covered in that little medley of theirs (you’d think they’ve have preferred to do the breakdown sections that are somewhat within James’s range), and King Diamond’s vocal range will be the one thing most people are not expecting. But those people need to hear the actual near 7 minutes themselves, as they feature of wide cavalcade of riffs, harmonies and unholy screams. This EP features King’s rawest and fiercest vocal performances. The scream around 6:43 is particularly shocking and high-pierced.
Doomed By The Living Dead is another Priest style scorcher, but it’s Devil Eyes that blows the roof off the joint for my money. People are going to either love this song, or hate it, simply because of the chorus and the King’s unholy screaming. Hell I was turned off from it for a while, but what brought me back was Hank and Michael’s brilliant guitar work (I dare you to not break your neck around 4:44). Devil Eyes is also a career highlight for drummer Kim Ruzz. The intro fill is of course killer, but the way he holds that pocket while maintaining the songs heaviness (with hi-hat sixteenth notes, no less) is probably the most underrated drumming performance in metal.
Hey…. why does that nun have a pentagram on her panties, anyway?
In 1982, the notion of occult or Satanic themed heavy metal was a joke. Very few people were likely to really believe that the members of heavy metal bands were scholars of the religious esoteric, and those that did were usually either the victims of economic fleecing by theatrical preachers and/or bored suburban teens with too much time and LSD on their hands. Even Venom, who’d recently made themselves seem more like bona fide Luciferian subversives than any previous band, were still regarded by the savvy as a bunch of louts using evil imagery to blaze an easy trail to the bank. And while it’s true that more serious purveyors of occult traditions did exist in rock music, they tended to be more towards the odd progressive rock and folk scenes (Black Widow, Coven, etc.) than to visit metal’s chapel of amplification.
But unto this scene came Denmark’s Mercyful Fate, and one Kim Bendix Petersen, otherwise known vocalist/composer and dedicated Satanist (note the capitalization…we’re talking the official Church Of Satan here) King Diamond. One of the more unique characters to ever exist in the world of heavy metal, this enigmatic persona wrote complex and heady compositions that were lyrically personal in their embracing of the unknown, as well as adorning his face with greasepaint featuring an inverted cross right in the middle of his forehead. Add to this a debut EP featuring a cartoon-ish but effective sketch of a nubile girl being crucified while hooded beings look on for it’s sleeve illustration, and Mercyful Fate simply could not be ignored or easily explained away.
What is equally inexplicable is how the band’s compositions already had lengthy and fully formed personalities for a debut, as if they’d taken the Goth and grandeur of Judas Priest and their Sad Wings Of Destiny opus into further and more mysterious uncharted waters. Thus tracks like “Doomed By The Living Dead” and “A Corpse Without Soul” are marked by shifting tempos, ominous riffs, and above it all, Diamond’s acrobatic voice, capable of both hitch pitched falsetto wails and deep growls, with both ends of his range being arrived at with striking (apparent) ease. And as for the subtle “Nuns Have No Fun,” what can be said about a song armed with an unforgettable riff and lyrics about a Satanist tormenting ladies of the cloth? And in 1982!
Go ahead and compare this to other heavy metal releases from 1982 and tell me that this isn’t a step ahead both in terms of ideas and execution, such as the audacious vocals, the mysterious tone of the riffs, and the darkness of the lyrics, not to mention the glory of the leads.
Essentially, Mercyful Fate was a release that took everything just a step or two further than the likes of Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, and Satan, who were a little safe in comparison to this bunch of Danes. That is empirically evident from the intense screeching of King Diamond’s vocals on the opening song, the dirtier riffing on ‘Doomed by the Living Dead’, plus the excess of the concepts and themes. The four songs on this EP range from good to great, with ‘A Corpse Without Soul’ probably taking the pick due to its excellent structuring and irresistible riffing, while ‘Nuns Have No Fun’ is the weakest effort, not attaining the same distinctive character as the others.
One of the issues with Mercyful Fate as a historical entity is that they have been associated with the rise of black metal. While it’s true that their prominence has advanced the instances of Satanism in metal and King Diamond’s facepaint rubbed off on the Norwegians, there is much more to tie this release in with power metal or even hard rock.
rafazardly 