Reviews list for Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath (1984)

Ok, I am done. I have been listening to this off and on for a few weeks being saved in my library and I have had problems listening to this every time. I just finished the album in it's entirely as of starting to write this review. I could not figure out why this album was so difficult for me to put on and listen to until I turned it on today and with no distractions while I cleaned my place and took it all in. I do not have a problem with King Diamonds vocals, I think they are a unique and powerful tool for this band and I think for the most part the instrumentation accompanies it well. The guitars and drumming on this album can be absolutely supreme with some of the best riffs I've heard of the early years and with King Diamond's succinct screams they can be mesmerizing. However, my problem with this album that I never noticed before is the abrupt tone changes. They happen so frequently, I first noticed in Nightmare when I was really enjoying one passage then the drums suddenly slowed down but then one of the guitars stayed it's same pace while the other did a mini solo for about 20 seconds then it would subtly go back to a resemblance of the same melody I was enjoying before but I was already snapped out of it again. I call it the anti-breakdown, because there were plenty of times where a solid breakdown could've taken the place of these frustrating moments for me and it would've done nicely. Now I understand that a breakdown was not something that was really a thing in '84 but whatever you call what they were doing didn't work for me and it made for a very difficult listen. I couldn't just put this on and want to listen to it, even before I noticed what was happening when I would have it in the background over the years. I always debated that I think King Diamond is revolutionary to show different vocal styles that work but I still had it in the back of my mind was that he really didn't fit, but all these listens later and I can't just take the whiplash that these songs give me. It's hard to continue to like something I get really invested in and headbang to and it transitions out of it so unexpectedly then I just get angry cause I won't more of that. I lose my interest and I don't think I will listen to this again.

2-star because I can't deny that when it is really good, it's great in the small doses before the changes in song but I almost think that is too high for me but that's where I stand.

It's amazing what a good riff can do.

That's a solid piece of groundwork of heavy metal music (and a number of other forms too), and in Don't Break the Oath, Mercyful Fate demonstrate a masterful understanding of this idea, and how to combine those riffs with absolute conviction in what they're doing to craft something special.

Much like Melissa before it, Oath isn't strictly black metal, even in its earliest form, but it's a clear influence on the emerging style. Despite the ever-present cheese, the album is unrelentingly focused on the dark side of metal music, on the satanic, the devilish, the wicked and demonic. Like Venom or Sodom, they played a role in this new branch of metal music, and this gives the album a great identity of its own. Gone are the glorious charges into battle or the fantastical adventures. This is an album of blasphemy, devil worship and gleeful sacrilege.

This crystal clear intention gives the whole thing a great sense of focus, and the band's wonderful sense of showmanship is what truly sells it. Like King's wailing falsetto, the whole thing is certainly an acquired taste, and can seem silly, but it's all such diabolical fun to just go along with it. Everything is done with such confidence and poise, it's impossible to resist, especially when coupled with the obvious skill on show in the quality riffs and memorable songs. "Come to the Sabbath" is a call to attend the ritual that cannot be turned down, "A Dangerous Meeting" tells a dark tale you can't stop listening to, and there are few songs as theatrically brilliant as "The Oath": every element of it, the insanely good riffs, King's epic cries, the rising darkness of the intro, it's all put together like a dark twin of Dio's "Holy Diver".

Yes, Don't Break the Oath is cheesy and over-the-top, and no good metalhead cares, because this is what it's all about.

Choice cuts: A Dangerous Meeting, Night of the Unborn, The Oath, Come to the Sabbath