Mercyful Fate
Don't Break the Oath
[RoadRacer/RoadRunner]
Not much can be said about this album, so I'll get right down to it. I love
this album more than mortal words could ever describe. A lot of "hardcore"
people must hate this once brilliant band because of King Diamonds falsetto
vocals, but if they gave it half a chance, I think it would grow on them.
Everything on here is simply fucking brilliant...the guitars, vocals, drums,
lyrics. Everything fits together perfectly to create of on the darkest &
most unsettling musical experiences of all time. One thing about this album
that you have to understand is that when it came out, it was like a total
shock to everyone. Everyone was already used to Venom & their blasphemy,
but they were nothing more than a bunch of beer drinking metal heads. When
Don't Break the Oath was unleashed, many people found it very scary &
disturbing how someone could be THIS MUCH into the occult...and a lot of
people thought that Mercyful Fate was taking this whole thing a little bit
too far. No, I wasn't really old enough to be listening to this when it
came out, but everyone I know who bought it back then says the same thing:
this is one album that they were actually SCARED to listen to. How many
bands can we say that about today? A handful at best.
On with the music. The structures of the songs are, for the most part, extremely complex & epic. No set structures....verse, chorus, verse chorus, bridge, verse, chorus. The vocals can only be described as "haunting". The mournful, painful cries of King Diamond's voice on tracks such as "A Dangerous Meeting" and "Welcome Princess of Hell" to the chilling, shrieking cries in songs such as "Night of the Unborn". It all comes together to make one of the best metal albums of the 80's...and one of the best albums of all time. And another thing that I have always respected about Mercyful Fate/King Diamond is that he has NEVER changed his beliefs & said what he did back then was "childish" or for "shock value" like so many other bands have (i.e. Venom, Bathory, Sodom, Destruction). So, if you don't have this album yet, do yourself a favor & purchase one of the greatest opus' ever to come out of the Underground!
© 1998 atrox666
On with the music. The structures of the songs are, for the most part, extremely complex & epic. No set structures....verse, chorus, verse chorus, bridge, verse, chorus. The vocals can only be described as "haunting". The mournful, painful cries of King Diamond's voice on tracks such as "A Dangerous Meeting" and "Welcome Princess of Hell" to the chilling, shrieking cries in songs such as "Night of the Unborn". It all comes together to make one of the best metal albums of the 80's...and one of the best albums of all time. And another thing that I have always respected about Mercyful Fate/King Diamond is that he has NEVER changed his beliefs & said what he did back then was "childish" or for "shock value" like so many other bands have (i.e. Venom, Bathory, Sodom, Destruction). So, if you don't have this album yet, do yourself a favor & purchase one of the greatest opus' ever to come out of the Underground!
© 1998 atrox666