Mercyful Fate and King Diamond

Since in the Now Playing thread I got into a discussion with Prog Sothoth about music career of the only Danish Satanist most people can name, I wager that would warrant a thread of its own.

I really like the King's tenure up from the earliest Mercyful Fate records up to and including his 2nd solo album Abigail, but after guitarist Michael Denner left and the style began moving away from MF's signature sound I found KD's albums to get less interesting. MF's reunion albums I found okay if nowhere in the league as that truly magical run of albums, but that constitutes a pair of pretty damn big shoes to fill.

Actually, it's a very long time ago that I listened to anything the King recorded after Abigail so I wonder how much I'm missing and whether the later albums aren't really better or worse just different. If it's any reliable indication it shows the King to probably have a better grasp on the whole "Rock Opera" concept album thing than a lot of capital P-prog groups (e. g. Queensrÿche), the man apparently took notes from David Bowie and Alice Cooper in other departments than stage theatrics! There seems to be a vocal minority of people who consider The Eye his best album or at least in the running, around RateYourMusic and those parts. The entire historical theme around the witch hunts and persecution of Cathar Gnostics certainly sounds interesting, with the Cathars having inspired quite a few black metal artists in newer times. (Arckanum and Watain to be specific)

I've been in the same room as Michael Denner, as he runs a specialty record store in Copenhagen not so far away from the city's biggest public library. Chatted with him once about the legal limbo affecting a good chunk of Captain Beefheart's discography.

As I mentioned in the "What have you been listening..." thread, Mercyful Fate were my gateway band to truly dark metal. Before them it was Sabbath, Priest and Iron Maiden. I bought Melissa due to the evil sounding song titles, but was actually expecting something along the lines of early Sabbath lyrics, so when I played "Black Funeral" (I checked out side 2 first), I was pretty shocked at the brazen nature of the lyrics and the cavernous atmosphere. It was freaky, and King's shrieky falsetto of "All Hail Satan!" really made an impact. One thing neat about the album though was that there was still a reasonable amount of 70's hard rock influences, particularly the bluesy riffs adorning some of these tracks.

Out of curiosity, can anyone recommend some newer (as in 2nd wave and later) black metal that's strongly influenced by MF/KD? Emperor's entire "classy black metal in glorious Technicolour" approach is obviously inspired by MF but I frankly find most of their music to have aged very badly. Usually it's the Greek black metal scene that's recommended as such, though while I can hear where the comparisons are coming from I get a very different feel from them. (more "ancient civilization" than "gothic horror", again I like that stuff but it's not quite the right prescription)

The group that's come the closest to what I'm looking for is the Swiss band Samael on their first 3 LPs.

The few songs I've heard from Mortuary Drape reminded me more of early Sepultura if they played black instead of death metal, kinda Sepultura's countrymen Mystifier. I'm told MD would go in a more progressive and theatrical direction later though, they'd later share a drummer with Janvs who are included on PA as they combine 2nd wave BM with classic Rock Progressivo Italiano which seems to confirm that.

I'm already liking their "Satanic Vatican" visual aesthetic, though, it's funny how in black metal individual artists seem to reflect their national origin's idiosyncrasies and cultural stereotypes to an extent you only otherwise see in folk and classical.

Toaster Mantis wrote: The few songs I've heard from Mortuary Drape reminded me more of early Sepultura if they played black instead of death metal, kinda Sepultura's countrymen Mystifier. I'm told MD would go in a more progressive and theatrical direction later though, they'd later share a drummer with Janvs who are included on PA as they combine 2nd wave BM with classic Rock Progressivo Italiano which seems to confirm that. I'm already liking their "Satanic Vatican" visual aesthetic, though, it's funny how in black metal individual artists seem to reflect their national origin's idiosyncrasies and cultural stereotypes to an extent you only otherwise see in folk and classical.