Melissa (album)
| Melissa | ||||
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| Studio album by Mercyful Fate | ||||
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Publication |
November 26, 1983 |
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| Label (s) | Megaforce Records , Roadrunner Records , Roadracer Records, Caroline Records , Attic Records Limited, Music for Nations | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD, MC, Picture Disc |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
39:09 |
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| occupation |
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Henrik Lund |
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Melissa is the debut album by the Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate .
History of origin
prehistory
The material on the album came partly from the demo recordings of the previous band Brats ; Curse of the Pharaohs was called Night Riders as the Brats demo title , but was renamed after King Diamond changed the text; the original lyrics came from the Brats bassist. Love Criminals , the first song written by Mercyful Fate, became Into the Coven , which was originally intended to be the title of the album.
First versions of the songs Curse of the Pharaohs , Evil and Satan's Fall were recorded on March 19, 1983 during a live session for the Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 within 8 hours at The Maida Vale Studios and later by the BBC sound engineer Tony Wilson mixed and produced. The piece Satan's Fall was composed by guitarist Hank Shermann . During the recording the song grew steadily and became the longest track of the band with a length of over 11 minutes until Dead Again was released.
In April 1983 the band traveled to the Netherlands to give some concerts. A planned simultaneous release of the debut album did not take place, however, as Mercyful Fate left their label Rave-On Records and looked for a new one in order to enable better funding and better recording conditions for an album.
The BBC recordings were broadcast on April 22, 1983 and repeated due to numerous requests. Through these recordings the Dutch label Roadrunner Records became aware of Mercyful Fate, and contacted the band in May 1983. As a result, a contract for 6 albums was concluded.
Recordings
On July 18, 1983, Mercyful Fate began recording at Easy Sounds Studios in Copenhagen. The band asked Henrik Lund, co-owner of the studio, to produce the album, for which the label paid him $ 1,000. Although the band had more time than they did with their EP Mercyful Fate , they had to divide up their time as they had less than two weeks to record and produce.
Lund produced alone and did not allow the musicians to be present while mixing; when he was done, he let her hear the mix and ask for changes. After that the band had to go outside again and wait for the next mix. The band found this way of working irritating, but Shermann says in retrospect that too many people in the room are counterproductive. When the lead vocals were due to be recorded, it was an unusual experience for Lund, as Diamond had brought a small altar and red lights into the studio to create a certain atmosphere. Lund was also initially confused about Diamond's texts.
The label wanted Mercyful Fate to do a cover version, so the band tried to play Led Zeppelin's Immigrant song . However, the band discarded this as they felt it wasn't working well. According to Shermann, Diamond's vocals came so close to Robert Plant's that people could be led to believe it was really Led Zeppelin.
publication
The album was released on November 26, 1983. While the EP was a sought-after import in the United States and the BBC recording was only available on bootleg cassettes, Melissa was the first Mercyful Fate release to be officially released in the United States.
The name of the album comes from a human skull that Diamond was given and that the band used at that time for performances and which can also be seen on the record cover . Various damage to the skull also inspired Diamond for the title song of the album. The skull was stolen from a performance on January 21, 1984 at The Paradiso Theater in Amsterdam due to inattentive security guards.
The album was initially distributed in the USA (licensed by Roadrunner Records) via Megaforce Records , later directly via Roadrunner Records. When the album was re-released, new vocal tracks were found over a certain passage of the title song. In addition, the first version had a very dense reverberation over the voice, while the voice of the second version had no such effects. Diamond couldn't explain these differences. In his opinion it is physically impossible to add anything to the vocal tracks because the label does not have the 24-track master; only the band owns that. Some fans also believe that at the point where Diamond sings "Satan's cross upon the wall" , they hear the backward message "What message is this?" Diamond himself denies having ever inserted backward messages in his songs. All messages can be heard in normal playback and are dark enough that it is not necessary to add hidden messages.
In December 1983 the song Black Funeral was also released as a single ; the B-side Black Masses was recorded with the album, but removed from it.
Track list
The music was written by Hank Shermann, the lyrics by King Diamond.
- Evil - 4:45
- Curse of the Pharaohs - 3:57
- Into the Coven - 5:11
- At the Sound of the Demon Bell - 5:23
- Black Funeral - 2:50
- Satan's Fall - 11:23
- Melissa - 6:40
Style and texts
Due to the influences from the epic hard rock of the 1970s, the guitars in the first song Evil are "based more on Thin Lizzy than on Iron Maiden , and the riffing still shows cross-references specifically to British institutions". The intro to Into the Coven "flirts with classic melodies". The progressive-rock- heavy Satan's Fall , the longest track by Mercyful Fate until the release of Dead Again , contains around 16 different riffs and is lyrically inspired by Diamond's discovery of the Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey .
reception
The album was positively received by fans and critics and quickly became a best seller. The editors of Rock Hard took it in 2007 in their best list of 500 titles in 34th place. Frank Albrecht called Melissa an absolute “milestone in heavy metal history” and particularly highlighted “brilliant songs” like Evil or Satan's Fall .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. Melissa. Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on August 30, 2012 (English).
- ^ A b Andy Allen: The complete biography of King Diamond. Mercyful Fate. Coven Worldwide, archived from the original on September 19, 2010 ; accessed on August 30, 2012 (English).
- ^ Transcript of a video interview with King Diamond , undated
- ↑ Interview with King Diamond ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , undated
- ↑ Björn Thorsten Jaschinski: Dissecting table . In: Rock Hard , No. 282, November 2010, p. 28.
- ↑ Satan Stole My Teddybear music reviews - Mercyful Fate .
- ↑ Rock Hard (Ed.): Best of Rock and Metal, Heel-Verlag, Königswinter 2007, ISBN 3-89880-517-4 , p. 212f.
