The Best of Mercyful Fate

the uber glory of classic power metal.:
First of all, I don't consider this black metal because it doesn't sound as weird as say Emperor, or as crudely anti-christian violent as say Darkthrone. Mercyful fate sounded more like Iron Maiden than anything else. The satanic lyrics may have been offensive in the early 70's, but these guys are actually post-maiden, and were mid-late eighties contemporaries of Metallica! I guess they were dated even back in the day. Fortunately, Fate had some excellent guitar epics and a great squelly falsetto singer named King Diamond. I highly recommend this if you are a fan of Iron Maiden, Metallica's "Kill Em' All", or Rush's albums from "A Caress of Steel" to "A Farewell to Kings".

Truly the best band from the 80's.:
As a person born in 85', I have a strong love for the heavy metal of that decade. But after having my fill of Metallica and the likes, I needed something new and exciting. I found Mercyful Fate, something that instantly appealed to me at first listen. Many people will claim several things about early Mercyful Fate. One of those claims is that their sound was pretty derivative of bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. That may be true, but they went beyond the riff-by-number style of those bands and brought something totally new to the table. Instead of focusing on the sex,drugs and rock and roll attitude of all the carbon copy metal bands of the 80's, Mercyful Fate brought a dark side to the genre that surpasses what Black Sabbath was known for. Taking the obsessions of horror and the occult to a new level, the band introduced an eccentric but unique character , King Diamond. Early works would show the raw power and emotion that King has. Being able to scream like a banshee, howl like a wolf, or carry a low register vocal tune quickly displayed the immense range that would only progress through the next 20+ years. Not only did King Diamond display a wide variety of powerful vocal styles, but the musicianship of his fellow band members is not very easily rivaled. Hank Shermann slammed out the raw and heavy powerhouse riffs, while Michael Denner played insanely unreal neo-classical flavored solos that made your head spin. Timi Hansen pounded away with a brooding bass drive, while Kim Ruzz slammed the drums like no other. Together, the quintet produced a unique sound that influenced bands, and still in fact inspires bands to follow in their lead. To sum up a Best of Album for Mercyful Fate is pretty hard to decide, and there are surely songs missing from this record that should be included. Every song on here is nothing but pure brilliance. The songs themselves in theme are quite formulaic ( ie, the dead, Satan, black arts) but that's the general appeal to people who have a certain interest in those themes like myself. If nothing else, Mercyful Fate is a testament to true metal, and that's the simple philosophy of doing what you love and your fans love, and not selling out or changing style to suit the ever changing music community. That's why Mercyful Fate and King Diamond's solo carrer will always carry more of a cult following than mainstream recognition, which is depressing in ways because both efforts deserve much more props than they've ever recieved. If you sit down and listen to this album from beginning to end, you'll come out from this experience mesmerized. Your ears will be assaulted by pure raw energy that never lets up long enough to catch a breather. While there are slower songs, each one carries it's own unique atmospheric quality that truly allows you to appreciate it more each time you listen to it. I can't list any stand out tracks here beacause they're all amazing songs in their own respect. A lot of thought and effort was put into this music, and it shows greatly. This is a great place to start, but if you can find the individual albums that make up this compilation, it would be wize to just buy them seperately. I highly recommend this band, I higly recommend this album. Stay Heavy, Stay Metal......

"Don't Break the Melissa":
This sounds like a great compilation of the tunes that I listened to day in and day out all thru my late teens to early/mid twenties. These songs taught me how to play guitar. (along with Sabbath and Maiden) I haven't even heard this, but I already know this to be a great showcase of Mercyful Fate for those who don't already know that they were one of the greatest Heavy bands of all time...

Metallica does MF better than they do themselves:
Just listen to the Mercyful Fate medley on the Garage Inc. album. It's better than these original versions.

"Satan has taken my....SOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUL!":
This pretty much has all my favorite Mercyful Fate songs. I'd recommend Don't Break the Oath and Melissa in addition to this.