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Rating: The year was 1982 when the legendary Mercyful Fate burst onto the global metal scene directly from Denmark (would anyone have bet a penny on this land at the time?) with their first EP, shocking everyone.
The lineup included two former members of Brats (a punk-rock band that had already gained some notoriety in their home country) Hank Sherman and Michael Denner, bassist Timi Grabber, drummer Kim Ruzz, and the mysterious singer King Diamond, with facial makeup reminiscent of Kiss and Alice Cooper. What Mercyful Fate dared more than anyone else was to openly embrace satanic themes more explicitly than ever before and to openly align with darkness!
Musically, this first effort is still unripe. The group's style, rich in cutting riffs and tempo changes, is already characteristic, but still too indebted to hard-rock and Judas Priest. The album opens with "Doomed by the Living Dead." What surprises the most upon first listening is King’s voice, very different from the usual (is it his "real" voice?), alongside his signature falsettos. The song flows quickly, both in its fast parts and in the slower, more rhythmic ones, reaching its climax when King exclaims: "So just say goodbye to all your fucking angels!!!". It is followed by "A Corpse Without Soul", one of the absolute pinnacles of MF's career, next to "Satan's Fall" and "The Oath". After the long initial solo and the main riff, we hear King's nearly possessed vocals: "Listen, I'm a corpse, I'm a corpse, I'm a corpse without soul. A slower, almost nightmarish section follows, in which King recounts his "misadventure" in the cemetery, and other solos, each one faster and more satisfying than the last, before what I consider the most inhuman and extreme scream ever attempted by King.
The title track, introduced by the drums, is an unhealthy and solid mid-tempo where the bass, instead of following the guitars, creates its own riffs. The lyrics are scandalous: let's say King describes what he would do if he found a nun in his hands... It closes with "Devil Eyes", perhaps the least inspired track, a real vocal exercise for King.
In conclusion, an EP not exactly essential, but a great performance by a great band.
SCORE = 7.5
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