June 2022 Feature Release – The Guardians Edition

This month’s feature release for The Guardians, nominated by me, is Mercyful Fate’s 1993 comeback album In The Shadows. While I’m sure that most are familiar with it, I was never personally invested in Mercyful Fate when it came to Heavy Metal, despite their notoriety and influence. I only recently listened to Don’t Break the Oath and while I can see the appeal and consider it to be an incredibly solid album, I wouldn’t consider it to be an instant classic for me. So, naturally, I was curious to see how they followed up one of the most pioneering Metal albums of the early era almost ten years later.

https://metal.academy/releases/402

I've always had time for "In The Shadows" since purchasing it on cassette at around the time of release. It's certainly not on the same level as records like "Melissa" & or the self-titled E.P. but I don't find it to be too far behind "Don't Break The Oath" in terms of overall appeal if I'm being honest. It's not often talked about in the same terms as those three records but I'd be surprised if any fans of Fate's classics don't find it to be a really enjoyable experience. I have to admit that I've found everything the band have done after that to be thoroughly underwhelming though.

For fans of King Diamond, In Solitude & Portrait.

3.5/5

Mercyful Fate, despite being held in high regard by many heavy metal fans are an inordinately divisive band. Or, to be more accurate, singer King Diamond with his falsetto histrionics is able to elicit singularly strong negative reactions in some. Personally I don't have a problem with him, sure sometimes I wish he would reign it in, but generally I don't have a problem with his vocal style, but I can definitely hear why others might. One thing we will never know is whether the band would have had as much success as they have without Diamond's unique vocal approach to set them apart. Personally I believe the songs and riffs are strong enough to have ensured a considerable following, but you just never know do you - the music business is a notoriously capricious beast.

Anyway, the good news for both the King Diamond pro and con camps is that on this first reunion release KD seems to have toned down his more outlandish vocal tendencies and utilises them more effectively by confining them to passages to which they seem to be more suited (of course, alternatively, this may just annoy both camps equally). Personally I think In the Shadows (ironically) allows the rest of the band to emerge from King's shadow and to shine on their own terms with the lead guitar work especially benefitting from this curtailing of vocal excess. As on their early releases there are plenty of memorable riffs present, the opening brace of Egypt and Bell Witch in particular having brilliant main riffs, as does the following track, The Old Oak, but this track does give in to some songwriting excess and becomes a bit cheesy in the middle section despite some excellent soloing. Room of Golden Air even features a riff that sounds a lot like Dave Mustaine on Hangar 18. For me the riffs and the solos are the real strength of this album and I found that it succeeded in spades where both these aspects are concerned, axemen Shermann and Denner deserving great praise for their work here. Lyrically it's a bit silly at times and KD will always present a problem for some listeners, but as I mentioned earlier he has reined it in a bit, although he does try to break free occasionally - Thirteen Invitations for example - and I found these to be the less enjoyable parts.

I had not listened to In the Shadows before this month's feature, although I was familiar with a couple of tracks and whilst it isn't quite up there with the band's earlier material it is still a strong heavy metal release and certainly shouldn't disappointed anyone who is already a Mercyful Fate fan.

4/5