Mercyful Fate – Melissa – 1983

Melissa is the first album by Danish Heavy Metal band Mercyful Fate. They were in the foreground of the movement which would later be Black Metal—at least lyric-wise. If you compare this to the Norwegian Black Metal scene, Mercyful Fate seems pretty “un-extreme”. On the other hand, there’s no sound philosophy the same as that of Norwegian bands. Bot that Melissa sounds good, it’s not a well-produced album when you listen to it today. But I don’t believe they went for a bad sound as the Norwegian bands did in the early days. But don’t misunderstand me, the sound is not horrible compared to other records made in the same time period.

I haven’t actually listened a whole lot to Mercyful Fate in the past and I think this is my first time hearing Melissa even though it’s a classic album. I have listened a bit more to King Diamond though and I’m well aware of his singing technique. It’s very special, to say the least. I don’t think that Mercyful Fate would have gone down in history as such an influential band without it. Comparing Melissa with other early Metal pioneers like Venom or Bathory there’s a whole different sound. It’s not as extreme as Bathory was in the beginning. It’s not as catchy as some of the Venom songs. But it’s well written, both musically and lyrically.

With that said, I can’t really accept the production quality. If I heard this when it first came out in the 80s maybe I could have a nostalgic approach to it. But I would love to hear a refreshed production and maybe a remix, just to make the sound quality better. To be honest, I enjoyed it a bit more already when I listened to it the second time.