Mercyful Fate - An Artist I Never Thought I’d Listen To

[@supermineday]

Such an amazing feeling when music suprises u, never tought i would listen too any form of metal yet here i am

[@adambloodfist3368]

One of my favourite bands of all time. Some of the most incredible riffs of all time, just so great musically.

[@andreaslundell7807]

Agree in a LOT of what you're saying.. I've had the same "problems" with that band. Anyway great albums musically. Also love the album cover of "Don't break the oath".

[@enriquesoto6534]

Hello hello hello! I’m thrilled to hear that, Branden. MF are legends and therefore have influenced a lot of consummate artists and bands!! Glad to find you discovered them!!

[@skulldawg]

I can relate 100%! I'm going back and listings to cds that came out 30 to 40 yrs ago and loving them. The beauty and power of music!

[@christophwegener9939]

Mercyful Fate are Legends/Gods. Their first 2 Albums are Monoliths of Metal.Never will be beaten. 🤘🤘🤘🤘

[@benedictdonald4338]

Been a fan since ‘85. First exposure to the band was through the debut EP (commonly referred to as “Nuns Have No Fun”. Was blown away more by the progressive nature of the music more so than King’s vocals. If you like Judas Priest, you’ll like these albums.

[@stephenfeltner3258]

Welcome to the Coven, Brendon!! Now, remember....Dont Break The Oath!!🤘🤘🤘🤘😁

[@libermetallicus]

Brendon I’m genuinely so happy for you. Those first two Mercyful Fate albums are cornerstones of European Metal and influenced so much of what came later. Brilliant albums, but in my honest opinion the first three King Diamond albums are even better! Abigail is great but Them is an absolute masterpiece. 🤘🙂

[@66TGE]

OMG Abigail is one of the best metal albums ever. Mikkeys druming is the best druming on a metal album. It is absolutly fantastic.

[@Rmesick-hm6yq]

So true. Abigail was my introduction to King Diamond and then I went back to find Mercyful Fate.

[@Raven69686]

One of my favorite band's of all time. \m/

[@vinylrden]

Hi Brendon, Becky Baldwin is actually a member of a band called Fury not Whitesnake. I'm glad you're digging Melissa and Don't Break The Oath, imho two of the greatest metal albums ever recorded. Thanks man. Love your show!

[@jonjackson5372]

It’s great that you found a new appreciation for Mercyful Fate. I’ve loved MF and King Diamond since 1985, when I first got into metal. Check out Return of the Vampire by MF. It has an amazing early version of Desecration of Souls called On a Night of Full Moon. It’s awe inspiring! 😈

[@RamblingWolfman]

The first band that comes to mind that I never thought I'd be into but now like would be Morgul.

[@OctoberLibrary]

I'll have to check these albums out again as I tried them before and couldn't get into them. Same thing happened to me too, Brendon. Their was this one band that, Ryan from, Hudson Valley Squares would bring up a lot stating it was his favorite, Crystal Logic by Manilla Road. When I first listen to the album, I couldn't get behind the singer's voice. But after a while I gave it another try and grown to like it. Same thing with, Meat Loaf's debut album, Bat Out Hell. At first I found it too late and was annoyed it wasn't heavy, but after a few more tries it grew on me. And that's a badass, Slayer shirt Brendon! My favorite band of all time!

[@Mark-bi5dk]

Don't break the oath is a masterpiece in my opinion. And king diamond conspiracy from 89 is also...in my opinion

[@JeanAlainXavier-ze9jc]

The Eye is so good also

[@neilbeigie4045]

I was the same for a long time but eventually King’s vocals clicked with me and I’ve been a huge fan ever since (both MF & KD solo). My cats favorite band, I put a King album on and she pops out of nowhere and hangs. MF & KD solo are different animals, his solo stuff is mostly concept albums, where he uses the different voices generally portray different characters…once that clicked with me I enjoyed them much more.

[@lonewolf1843]

Mercyful Fate "Burning the Cross" demo to KING DIAMOND "The Eye" are perfection. I love everything he's done, but that decade of music is untouchable.

[@SpackleTab]

What?! Classic albums!!

[@MatthewSwanson-f5v]

I’m just like you with those two records. Never thought I would dig them based on KD’s vocals, but those first two Fate albums I play like crazy now. They’re flawless.

[@benedictdonald4338]

Totally flawless masterpieces.

[@jasonellsworth1972]

Good video Brendon! I feel like I'm one of the rare people that prefers King Diamond over Mercyful Fate. The reason why is because of the guitarist Andy LaRoque. My favorite King Diamond albums are Them from 1988 in Conspiracy from 1989.

[@HeelsandQuads]

I went from King Diamond to Mercyful Fate. Took me awhile to get it as well. Been a huge fan now about 2.5 years. Waiting on my 2025 repress of Melissa that comes out this Friday. We interviewed Andy LaRocque on our channel, super nice guy! Great video, Brendon.

[@juankongo9415]

Wait a minute, you re telling me that a Slayer fan, with over 13.000 CDs has not a single death/black metal one?

[@BrendonSnyder]

Yeah man it’s the truth. I can’t do it. Those Cookie Monster vocals don’t work for me. Musically some of it is really good though.

[@miketheyunggod2534]

Pungent Stench, Cannibal Corpse, Winter, Dissecting Table.

[@rabarebra]

@@BrendonSnyder It's not Cookie Monster vocals

[@BrendonSnyder]

Death Metal? Yes it’s got Cookie Monster vocals. If it doesn’t it’s not Death Metal. Call it what you want, it’s not for me.

[@danielwolski873]

Wow! Returning a Mercyful Fate album to the store, that's crazy😲

[@BrendonSnyder]

😂😂😂 I was young and money mattered. Didn’t want to waste an album on something that I couldn’t get into. Obviously this was before streaming and you couldn’t really check things out prior to purchase. Lots of chances taken. Most I lived with but at the time, I couldn’t take King’s vocals. Now they’re really growing on me.

[@GGfunhouse]

Brendon I do that with artist all the time. Could not get into them and now like them. A few below are some examples Jimmy Buffet Rob Zombie Bolt Thrower 100 Gecs Any 90's alt band that got radio airplay like Goo Good Dolls, Better Than Ezra, Counting Crows. Anyways, I have been watching your channel for a while and I appreciate what you do. Your passion for music is noticed. Good job!

[@gellargod]

That is crazy. I have been a fan of King Diamond since the 80s. Love him and Mercyful fate. Must have King Diamond albums are The Eye, Abigail, Them, Conspiracy, House of God and The Puppet Master.

[@JeanAlainXavier-ze9jc]

Th Eye great for me

[@carlosabad6596]

Great !! Enjoy Mercyful Fate. It happened to me w/ Rush while in high school back in the 80s. Around 1991 , or '92, I started pay attention closely. Since then I love them.

[@thehellion9992]

Got to see Mercyful Fate back in 1984 supporting Manowar. I don't know the story but they ended up doing only one night on that tour. I thought there was a bit of Judas Priest in Mercyful Fate probably the screaming vocals. King's Abigale and Them albums are classics. Great mention for "FATE" never heard anyone mention them before. The 1986 album "A matter of Attitude" is exactly as you described and those that that type of music will not be disappointed. Bands whos name or image didn't match how they sounded so never listened or heard them back in the day. There was no way to hear the music unless you bought it. ie Slaughter to me sounds as if it will be a Thrash band and Demon looked like it Black Metal. But these are bands I would have loved but only much much later have gained a greater awareness.

[@THRASHORBETHRASHED851]

If you like Fate check out Attic ,Portrait

[@smallspacearcade8158]

I will have to have a look at this.

[@dragstar4407]

Absolutely agree, same thing with me!!! Great stuff 👏 if I see any king diamond, I'll be picking them up aswell!

[@blackeddy65]

Mercyful Fate I did get into as soon as I heard " A Corpse Without Soul" in the early 80's. I also thought, that the high falsetto vocals would put me off, but for some reason it never did and the guitar duo Shemann/Denner would have won me over anyway! 😄So good!

[@BrendonSnyder]

I think if I had first heard Mercyful Fate in the 80’s things would have been different. I didn’t first become aware of the band until the early 90’s when all of what Mercyful Fate and King Diamond stood for was way out of fashion. I find it harder to get into a band when it’s after their heyday. When a band is in the public eye with people talking about them and hearing the band on radio/tv it’s more easy to slip into what the band is doing.

[@JeanAlainXavier-ze9jc]

​@@BrendonSnydercheck the Denner's inferno, clip Fountain of grace, just discovered it, quite good

[@AmyBeachRocker]

Hey Brendon, do you have any original Slaughter CDS 💿?

[@zachary1966]

Nice!😎Been MF fan since 1984 and have all their albums on vinyl. Really unique & great metal band🤘Cheers from Finland!🇫🇮

[@SteveMulready]

Listening to the 1981 MF demos, i hear a lot of Rob Halford coming through

[@roberthachtel1833]

Try to find The Beginning. It has the debut EP Nun's have no fun and 4 alternate versions songs from the Melissa release.

[@BrendonSnyder]

I know a store that has it in stock.

[@dannymartin1702]

Right On Both of his bands are Amazing in concert and studio recordings Don’t break the Oath and Fatal portrait are my favorites but you really can’t go wrong with either bands albums

[@ScarletKnightAGK]

The extent of my King Diamond tolerance: I fell for all the promotional hype leading up to the release of "Them". Bought the cassette and pushed play and the music actually had me interested, then King Diamond started singing. GRANDMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't hit stop fast enough. End of King Diamond phase of life. The End.

[@johnsteffes1092]

Brendan, There is a big record show coming up in Orlando Fl at the central Florida fairgrounds from 31 Jan - 02 Feb.

[@d.christophertatum2936]

Check out “Black Horsemen” on King Diamond’s “Abigail.” That’s the song that got me to appreciate what Diamond was doing. His live show is the most heavy metal thing I’ve ever witnessed.

[@brichards989]

Melissa, Don't Break the Oath, and King Diamond's Abigail are three of the BEST metal albums of all time.

[@HaakonOdinsson]

I just watched the colab with Phil Aston, sea of tranquility, etc you are in, where you mentioned that you couldn’t get into them especially with his voice. I am with you on that. I liked the riffage etc, but his voice grated on me for a long time….loved the Metallica covers of them. BUT, I am now into them and working my way through the discography. To me, the vocals are really important. Basically, I understand what you meant

[@AdrianJeffreys-fj2fv]

Early Queensryche before operation sellout Fates Warning Mercyful Fate Were the class of 80 s Gothic metal

[@krujones]

Everything King Diamond does is S tier

[@Metalfan81-q6t]

MF are one of the greatest bands ever. Very underrated. Kings solo stuff is great too.

[@BrendonSnyder]

I just got my first King Diamond album yesterday. King’s first Fatal Portrait. Good but not quite up to par with the first 2 Mercyful Fate albums. But I’ve got to give it some time like the others.

[@Metalfan81-q6t]

I agree. His solo albums aren't musically as good as MF but still worth having. They're just good metal. Overall I think he's a talented guy.

[@Bill-pz2vk]

Hi Brendon, the part about Becky Baldwin being in Whitesnake is untrue. The bassist of Whitesnake is named Tanya O'Callaghan, who is now the bass player for Bruce Dickinson's solo band.

[@BrendonSnyder]

Ah…I see the confusion.

[@RVALMAT]

I was a huge fan of MF and KD. Back in the day I used to listen to their albums all the time. But now I'm having problems with the lyrics and the imagery, all this satanic stuff, which now I consider silly and yes, ridiculous. I still have all their discography but rarely come back to it. Very interesting video. I could say that my journey has been the opposite to yours, ha, ha, ha. Greetings!

[@alexandruarnautuvraciu]

Great band for Horror Metal. In the shadows, Don't break the oath, Time and Into the unknown are my favorite albums.

[@garyjoyce2160]

Nice job. Saw you on SOT last night ( you mentioned this). I own entire. King DIAMOND & Mercyful FATE discography. A legend imo. Always had phenomenal guitarist as well. IMO. Brendon. Thanks for your time👍💯

[@mikaelbodin9178]

I remember the release of the Melissa album. It was a bit scary for a youngster 😅 Coincidentally I also re bought it a few months ago.

[@ericmiller1881]

I do the same thing with multiple genres. Never say never, something happens 👍

[@tapanim6576]

😎👍

[@Patellsworth1]

I love into the unknown album

[@gregpolard5684]

The new single released was a King Diamond song, not Fate. New KD album this year though.

[@BrendonSnyder]

I stand corrected 👍

[@jasonstatham3703]

🤘😎🤘🎸🔥🎧

[@MetalAsylumNJ]

Love love Mercy, especially Melissa and Oath. But In the Shadows is equally brilliant. The music is a perfect blend of melodic and aggressive metal, traditional and progressive, King's voice complimentary haunting. Also check out 9, Into the Unknown, and Time.

[@Swullmark]

Hey man! I'm more of a King Diamond solo fan than a Mercyful Fate fan myself, and I'd HIGHLY suggest Abigail, Them, and Conspiracy (fhe holy trinity for him). They all differ slightly from each other, with Conspircy leaning toward a thrashy style and being my personal favorite. I'd say the opening track "At the Graves" is the greatest Thrash song of all time! As for new material for Fate and the KD band... it's been years of rumours, statements, and Chinese Democracy levels of nonsense. King's said the album was coming out "this year" for about five years, with Andy LaRocque (KD band guitarist ans legendary riffmaster) stating they only have a few songs written. Now they're saying they are supposed to be THREE King Diamond band albums, all in a trilogy of a storyline, and a Mercyful Fate album in between (originally it was ONE KD album, ONE Fate album, and then ONE more KD album... not a clue how it's all gonna work out in reality until it,'s out there)

[@billymuellerTikTok]

I was in same boat as you with Mercyful Fate for many years, my first exposure was in late 80's early 90's and thought King Diamond was just a guy with an annoying voice in bad KISS makeup, I guess over time I finally got over the vocals

[@billymuellerTikTok]

same thing happened when I tried to get into jazz - Miles Davis sounded like a car horn & I couldn't get into it until if finally clicked by forcing myself to listening to it over an over again while I was painting & also reading a lot of the beatnik literature that came out during the same time period... BTW, I would NOT recommend getting into jazz as it is a VERY expensive rabbit hole to go down

[@jeffnawrot8411]

The 2 greatest metal albums of all time. Don’t break the oath is number 1 though. Go to Abagail by king diamond next. It’s better than fatal portrait.

[@billymuellerTikTok]

I don't think I've ever had the gall to return an album - even when I hated it

[@JotaCreativamente]

THe story is pretty much the same as mine. I love the metallica medley and because of that I wanted to listen to the original stuff, but ufff that high pitch thing was always something I despised, I don't even like metal bands with vocalists who sing high, that happens in power metal bands for the most part. Musically, it's engaging but king diamond's thing is not an easy pill to swallow. I can't think much of a band for this topic.. I think.. rush.. but it can be also black metal, I used to dislike that subgenre. and then I clicked and it was like I needed that music to process certain things in my personal life. But outside the metal world, I'm still surprised how much I like certain artists or music styles I didn't like before.

[@srf6161]

I couldnt stand Mercyful Fate in the day....Got the first 2 albums maybe 5 years ago....Get them all ...they are all decent 👍🏻

[@ivostoyanov4850]

30 years ago i tried to listen Jethro Tull and i dont like them at all , now its one of my favorite band

[@antonnee]

Cannot think of a single band, off the top of my head, that I didn't like then but do now. However, I can think of three music styles/genres that would fit in this category, mainly death metal, black metal and metalcore. I've learned to listen to death metal for a short amount of time, about an hour at a time; more than that and I have to switch to something else. Black metal, however, for me is still beyond my grasp; cannot deal with the vocal style, continuous blast beats and overall sound. On the other hand, I do like some atmospheric black metal mostly because singing is kept to a minimum, and the emphasis seems to be more on atmosphere, duh, and a slower pace. Metalcore, I do like some bands plying in this genre but the continuous screamed vocals just become tiresome after about 30 minutes, and have to turn it off.

[@allchokedup7927]

Next you’ll be listening to some good fast thrash metal 🤘🏻

[@BrendonSnyder]

I already listen to Thrash…hence the Slayer shirt 🤘

[@Necromass-q8s]

@@BrendonSnyder You just need to get into the golden age of Death Metal 1985 - 1996.

[@metalmikep]

only took you like 40 years to realize they are good?

[@BrendonSnyder]

No it took 36 years

[@vbassone]

Ok, this doesn't make any sense and here's why... Forget the music for a second... At the beginning of this video you mentioned that nonmusical factors of this band and lead singer bothered you, specifically the imagery and lyric content. Again, leaving the actual music out of it; if the imagery and lyric content put you off this music, as you said you "couldn't get behind it," then why doesn't the imagery and lyric content bother you now? They/he hasn't changed his underlying image or philosophy which is still expressed in his current/recent music. Simply put, if you couldn't get behind it then, then you shouldn't get behind it now, again based on the non-music factors of imagery and lyrics. If they made the greatest record in the world musically, the imagery and lyrics should STILL bother you.

[@N2Uhtive]

Becky Baldwin has had no involvement with Whitesnake. This needs to be corrected.

[@BrendonSnyder]

My mistake, but can’t correct a video after it’s posted. Gotta live with it. Mistakes happen.

[@N2Uhtive]

@BrendonSnyder, sorry, I just meant that I was correcting it with my comment.

[@BrendonSnyder]

Cool 👍

[@kowalsolosolo]

Just as Christian artists are serious about their faith, King is 100% serious about Satanism. For me-the greatest band on Earth.

[@BrendonSnyder]

That’s been one of the turn offs. I was finally able to get into Ghost once I found out the whole shtick was an act. Much easy for me to get behind that than if it’s their actually belief system. But that’s ok, I can’t really understand what he is saying half the time anyway 😂

[@samisaarela74]

​​@@BrendonSnyder Anyone who has read he's interviews knows that he does not believe Satan as being real thing. This is just a few years ago : My religious beliefs, my spiritual beliefs, are different from everyone. I've not found what I believe in any book, but I can totally relate to Satanism as a life philosophy as described in Anton LeVey's Bible. It has nothing to do with spirituality, it's more a book of logic.18.11.2023

[@victorsvorinich1595]

I think King Diamond is an acquired taste. You don’t have to like his music if you don’t want to.

[@Lazerrus]

LoL!😂

[@MarcDurain]

... Britney Spears. 😊

[@toddtipton2857]

Like them and Kings music. His voice can be annoying at times

[@miketheyunggod2534]

King Diamond makes those non talent bums Kiss look like legends.

[@BrendonSnyder]

Hey hey hey….i like this non talent bums

[@citizenVader]

Acquired taste i guess

[@BrendonSnyder]

Totally!

[@vistalite]

I saw Mercyful Fate open for Motörhead in 1984 (along with the awesome Exciter). I liked their records quite a lot and could tolerate the falsetto when sung sparingly. I thought Fatal Portrait was an exellent record, but KD seemed to use the falsetto 95% of the time. Subsequent records were “concepts” or “story telling which totally turned me off, though I’d see KD live when coming through town since 86. I still listen to the Mercyful Fate records and Fatal Portrait… and the Gypsy video someone made on YT that has He-Man is hilarious.

[@Unleashedraider1985]

Fate has the best riffs in metal