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MERCYFULL FATE and KING DIAMOND (father of black)

http://www.covenworldwide.org/

Mercyful Fate is an influential Danish heavy metal group who are often cited among the influences in the black metal, thrash metal, power metal, and progressive metal genres. They are also credited as a pioneering band of the first wave of black metal.

1982 Nuns Have No Fun
1983 Melissa
1984 Don't Break the Oath
1987 The Beginning
1993 In the Shadows
1994 The Bell Witch
1994 Time
1996 Into the Unknown
1998 Dead Again
1999 9

Career
The band was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1980 from the remaining members of Hank Shermann's band Brats and King Diamond's band Black Rose. In early 1981 they helped out Michael Denner with demos for his band Danger Zone. Soon, Shermann, Denner, Diamond, and Denner's bass player Timi Grabber realized their potential as a unit and started performing as Mercyful Fate. The band experienced the usual member changes for a new band, as Denner left (and later returned). In addition, the drummer position was a revolving door, but Kim Ruzz finally established himself as the drummer.

In early 1982, the band contributed to the Ebony Records sampler Metallic Storm. Later on in the year, Mercyful Fate recorded their first material, Nuns Have No Fun, on vinyl for the Dutch label Rave On. The release included heavy and evil material that would later inspire the black metal genre (although Venom are as equally considered as the forefathers of black metal).

Following the EP, the band released Melissa in 1983 and Don't Break the Oath in 1984, which are now considered by many to be classics in both the power metal and black metal genres. Following the tour (which saw them play in the United States for the first time) in support of Don't Break the Oath, Diamond split ways with Mercyful Fate in April 1985 as a result of frustration over creative differences with Hank Shermann. With him, Diamond brought band mates Hansen and Denner to pursue a solo career under his own name. Diamond's solo venture continued the tradition of Mercyful Fate, but with a more progressive, conceptual twist to it. In response, Hank Shermann formed the band Fate, which pursued a more AOR direction.

Reunion
In July of 1992, the band reformed and signed a contract with Brian Slagel's Metal Blade Records. All the original members without Kim Ruzz (replaced by Morten Nielsen) reformed and released In the Shadows in 1993. The album featured a re-recording of "Return of the Vampire", with Metallica drummer and Mercyful Fate enthusiast Lars Ulrich playing on the track. In the years since, the band have released four more albums, with the last being 9. Similar to the band's first run, members have left and been replaced; Michael Denner left and was replaced by Mike Wead, Drummer Nielsen was later replaced by Snowy Shaw who was then replaced by Bjarne Holm, Bassist Timi Hansen left quickly and was replaced by Sharlee D'Angelo. Following the release of 9, King Diamond disbanded Mercyful Fate and continued his solo career. Following the split, Shermann, Denner, Holm and (King Diamond Bass player) Hal Patino formed Force of Evil, which incorporates many of the themes of the original Mercyful Fate.

In an interview with Metal Israel in 2005, King Diamond elaborated on the band's split and the possibility of a new album, claiming that "it's impossible for me to live off Mercyful Fate... I can still live from King Diamond." Diamond claims that Mercyful Fate still has a contract and could record another record, but it would have to be done only as a hobby and when he is not touring, because he cannot make any money off the Mercyful Fate record and has to support himself through his solo venture.

Melissa
"Melissa" is the name of a skull King Diamond used to carry on stage, and also a fictional deceased witch that appears in three songs. Before the recordings of the album Melissa, King Diamond had acquired a human skeleton that he named "Melissa". He used the femur bones to make his trademark microphone handle. The skull was apparently stolen during a show in the Netherlands.

The skull was inspiration behind the album Melissa, and the title track of the album is very different from the rest of the album, as it is much slower than the other songs (which are speedier and more aggressive). The lyrics tell of a male protagonist (usually identified as King Diamond himself by fans) who lost the love of his life, who was a witch who was burnt at the stake by a Catholic Priest. The story builds itself up around the emotions of the protagonist, who first feels sadness and uncertainty, hope for her to still be alive, and then rage over his loss. He swears revenge on the priest who burnt her, proclaiming that he must die in the name of hell. The song ends with a whisper that hints Melissa's spirit is still with the protagonist.

The second song Melissa appears on is on the album Don't Break the Oath in the song "Come to the Sabbath", once again at the climax of the album. The lyrics tell about a satanic coven holding a sabbath, in which the protagonist emerges to perform a ritual to "put an evil curse on the priest who took the life of Melissa". Though she is not the focus of the lyrics this time, because of her mention the song is known as a "Melissa song". Additionally, one of the main characters on the King Diamond's album Them was named "Missy", which is a common diminutive of Melissa.

The final song Melissa appears in is on Mercyful Fate's reunion album In the Shadows on the song "Is That You, Melissa?". The lyrics tell of the protagonist once again in sorrow about the loss of his love. He begins to hear her voice and goes to the coven to have them perform a ritual to speak with her ghost. The coven objects, saying that it is against the rules. The protagonist is visited by Melissa's spirit who shares a kiss with the protagonist. The subject of the song is argued by some; one side says the lyrics are not a continuation of the Melissa story but a tribute by the band to their past, while the other side sees it as the end of the Melissa story. It is widely accepted that she is the girl on the album cover of "In the Shadows" facing the old oak tree. After In the Shadows, Melissa has not been mentioned any more in both lyrics and artwork.

Members

Current members
King Diamond (Kim Bendix Petersen) - vocals, keyboard
Mike Wead (Mikael Wikström) - guitar
Hank Shermann (Rene Krolmark) - guitar, bass guitar
Bjarne T. Holm (Bob Lance) - drums
Sharlee D'Angelo (Charles Peter Andreason) - bass guitar

Former members
Carsten Van Der Volsing - guitar,bass
Souris - guitar
Michael Denner - guitar
Timi 'Grabber' Hansen - bass guitar
Kim Ruzz - drums
Snowy Shaw (Tommy Helgesson) - drums
"Old" Nick Smith - drums
Morten Nielsen - drums
Jan Mulsen - drums
Johnny Marshall - keyboards

Session members
Lars Ulrich - drums

_________________________________________________

King Diamond

With his solo act, King often uses the lyrics and music to create characters and tell stories in the form of concept albums. Albums meld together as one story (features present already in the Fatal Portrait album), but carry to more intricate levels (with the albums, Abigail, "Them" , and The Eye) to the dramatic story (Conspiracy). Typical of both the Abigail and Conspiracy tours was how King Diamond re-enacted much of the scenarios on stage, using special effects in the show much in the style of metal-musician Alice Cooper, of whom Diamond is a fan. King Diamond albums also often feature dueling guitar solos. On the CD inserts, the performer of each solo is credited, often using a symbol.

In 2001, King Diamond worked out a deal with the band Usurper to sing backup vocals on the song "Necronemesis" in exchange for them shifting their recording schedule around to accommodate the recording of Abigail II: The Revenge. In 2004, King Diamond contributed vocals to "Sweet Dreams", which was the final track on the album of Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project Probot. In late 2005, King Diamond appeared on the Roadrunner United - The All-Star Sessions album, contributing vocals to the song "In the Fire", which featured multiple Roadrunner Records musicians (past and present) working together to create individual songs. King Diamond also guested on the Cradle of Filth song "Devil Woman" in late 2005.

In April 2006 King reunited with old friend Mikkey Dee (current Motörhead drummer) at a sold-out gig at Kåren in Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2001 King referred to Dee as "one of the best [drummers of all time and that's something that has bothered us since he left."

King Diamond released his new album, Give Me Your Soul...Please, on June 26, 2007. Following the release in December the band received a Grammy nomination in the "Best Metal Performance" category for the track "Never Ending Hill". He was forced to cancel an upcoming United States tour due to severe back pain, which puts him in intense pain with only walking". He attributes the problem to the long stressful hours spent working on the album.

Stage Presence
On stage, Diamond uses a trademark microphone handle consisting of two femur bones in the shape of a cross. A live trademark was also Melissa, a full human skeleton which Diamond would sing to. In the mid-1980s Melissa's skull was stolen after a performance in the Netherlands. It was claimed to have been finally returned in 2006.; however, this was denied by King Diamond himself. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons claims to have sent Diamond a cease-and-desist letter over Diamond's makeup design, which Diamond complied with.

Diamond has changed the design of his make-up often over the years. With Conspiracy, he wore a mesh of black and white line war paint, with some red "blood" made to look like a wound coming out of his forehead. With his album The Puppet Master, he used very little white and mainly had black inverted crosses going up and down his face.

His visual appearance was likely inspired by an image of Baron Samedi.[citation needed

Satanism
Despite numerous claims otherwise, Peter H. Gilmore, The High Priest in The Church Of Satan, has confirmed in an interview on the news show "The Hour" that King Diamond is in fact a member of the Church (LaVeyan Satanism is an atheistic religion influenced by Nietzsche and other individualist philosophers, and should not be confused with Theistic Satanism and/or Devil Worship).

Many familiar with Fate's mid-1980s period will recall a spring 1984 interview with British heavy metal magazine Kerrang! correspondent Dave Dickson, who, after some introductory remarks and questions about the then-current Fate album Don't Break The Oath, took Diamond to task regarding his Satanic beliefs.[citation needed Dickson made frequent references to infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, by whom Diamond denied being influenced. Diamond expressed his admiration of Anton Szandor LaVey (founder of The Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966) in the interview, which has been cited by some as influential in the demise of Mercyful Fate (although Diamond has always denied this). In the same interview he claimed to have cursed Manowar, as Fate had briefly toured as a support act to Manowar in the UK, and there were personality conflicts between the two bands.

He adorns himself with inverted crosses, the sigil of Baphomet (from the LaVeyan perspective) and has written lyrics openly hostile to Christianity (as evidenced in "The Oath" with lyrics including "I deny Jesus Christ, The Deceiver, and I abjure the Christian faith holding in contempt the whole of its works"). However, with the albums released under his own name, he has downplayed the overt Satanism in favour of a "horror movie" approach, though he still wears inverted crosses as jewelery and makeup.

In an interview from 2006, King Diamond reveals that he does not follow any specific religion, and expresses concern that religion has led so many people to kill and destroy each other. According to himself, he has problems comprehending why religion has caused so much death and destruction, when it is logically impossible to prove the presence or absence of any god. He reveals that he has reached a point in his life where he has completely given up believing in anything religious and that he simply does not know what to answer when asked whether he is a Satanist or not.0

Fatal Portrait (1986)
Abigail (1987)
"Them" (1988)
Conspiracy (1989)
The Eye (1990)
The Spider's Lullabye (1995)
The Graveyard (1996)
Voodoo (1998)
House of God (2000)
Abigail II: The Revenge (2002)
The Puppet Master (2003)
Give Me Your Soul... Please (2007

Article ajouté le 2007-12-31 , consulté 17 fois

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