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Metal Monday, thou hast not been forsaken… Mercyful Fate - “Nuns Have No Fun”:

Mercyful Fate, is one of the greatest of all time. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. As far as pre-thrash power metal goes, their brief reign, before vocalist King Diamond went solo, is unmatched. They nailed 2 perfect lps in the early 80’s, Mellisa, and Don’t Break The Oath, each full of mom-scaring Satanic sing-alongs, wild guitar duels, and spooky fx. But before either they also had a small indie release, a 4 song MLP called Nuns Have No Fun, and while Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath are 2 of my all time metal favs, I think my number one Fate song is actually the lead off track on the b-side of Nuns: Doomed By A Living Dead.

Nevermind the odd wording in the title, they’re from Denmark after all, but just listen to this song open up. Starting with a powerful galloping riff courtesy of Hank Sherman (one of the greatest metal players ever to walk the earth) a few cymbal crashes later you’ll find your self in a neo classical spin cycle of a solo. When the King’s unmistakable vocals kick in it’s in his soulful mid-range, but only for a few lines, because he’s soon working his creepy ear splitting falsetto. It’s not as refined as he was able to get later on, with some some straining and cracking audible, but I don’t think that takes away from anything, sometimes imperfections can make things better after all.

What really takes this song all the way for me though, is that million dollar chorus.

“No way, to suuuurvive this evil nighh-ight. If the dead won’t leave you aloooo-oone.”

The first time I heard this song the chorus stuck in my head for weeks. It’s perfectly crafted multi-layered, and touched by none, and between this one and the next one you get an unbeatable (except maybe by Tipton/Downing) duel axe workout from the aforementioned Hank Sherman, and the equally talented Micheal Denner.

The other 3 songs are almost every bit as good. The title track has a slow grinding riff and total shock rock lyrics that must have driven more than a few moms to throw the record in the trash and ground their deviant sons. Corpse Without A Soul and Devils Eyes both shred and screech with the best of them. All of these tracks were studied the world over by hundreds of metal maniacs looking to start their own tasteless, but technically proficient Satan worshiping rock bands, not the least of these maniacs was of course the original Metallica (no relation to the one that made the best comedy album of 2008), but there are hundreds more that owe a lot to the King and his men here.

Back cover pictured because this is a family blog: