Don't Break Melissa's Oath

I loved collecting the silver label Megaforce and green label Combat records. I've knocked off a number of the bigger ones, but Mercyful Fate has always felt a bit intimidating to chase. Having the chance to pick of both of them from Tim's collection was too good to pass up.

The first Mercyful Fate album, Melissa, was originally released on Roadrunner over in Europe, but got a US release through Megaforce here in the States. It was the third Megaforce album release and has those great and collectible silver labels. I now have the the first eight Megaforce albums with the silver labels, which includes some heavy hitters like Anthrax, Exciter, Raven and the first two Metallica albums... so I'm feeling really good about adding this Mercyful Fate record to the collection.

I sometimes forget, or overlook, these Mercyful Fate records. I love King Diamond's vocals here, but I tend to reach for bands that are a bit more gritty in their sound when I want to listen to that early 80's thrash sound. Picking up these two records has reminded me just how great they are.

The second Mercyful Fate album, Don't Break The Oath, also saw a Roadrunner release over in Europe, but this time Combat handled the US pressing. Combat didn't really have an impressive track record up to this point, with releases from Oz, TKO and Helstar, so I imagine getting the rights to release this Mercyful Fate record was a huge win for the label, and maybe helped them land bands like Megadeth and Slayer soon after.

Now that I have these two albums, it kind of makes me want to finally put up the money it would take to grab the first Mercyful Fate EP. That's going to be an expensive move, so we will see when I can pull that off.

Back From The Dead

Mercyful Fate released Time in 1994. At the time of it's release, I had pretty much distanced myself from anything Metal. I was getting pretty immersed into the Ebulliton Records scene of politics and political correctness. Music was serious business for me at the time, and the theatrics of a band like Mercyful Fate were ridiculous. While I would still catch the occasional show by Strife or Mouthpiece, for the most part I was going to see shows by scruffy hardcore punk bands in an empty room behind a health food store in Alston, Massachusetts. It was a great way to distance myself from the tough-guy bullshit that was going on in the hardcore scene at the time. These shows were pretty small, roughly only 50 people at the most, and there was no dancing what so ever. Slamdancing was seriously frowned upon in the scene, and therefore we all stood there with our arms crossed, bobbing our heads to the music and watching the band. I saw a lot of really cool bands during this time...like Shotmaker, Bleed, Weston, Rye and Cable, but to be honest, the whole thing was pretty pretentious and way too serious (except for those early Weston shows which were always great fun). Over the next couple of years, the Youth Crew revival kicked in and reminded me how much fun hardcore could be with stagedives and sing alongs. What is the point of music if it can't be fun...and damn it, Metal is fun. Time was re-issued through Night of the Vinyl Dead early in 2008 on white splatter vinyl. Mine is number 309 of 500 pressed.

When I started checking out the back catalog of Night of the Vinyl Dead, I saw that they had released a couple of Sodom albums on vinyl. I hadn't heard this band since I bought Agent Orange in 1989. Code Red was released 10 years after that, and in looking into their discography I was surprised to see that they were still around and releasing albums. I downloaded the albums that the Vinyl Dead had to offer and holy shit, I had forgotten how much fun Metal could be. Sodom are great, and here they are still true to their roots and blasting out some totally ripping German thrash. Code Red just blew me away, and I started searching eBay for the vinyl. Released on red vinyl, and mine is numbered 310 of 500 pressed.

I Love The Dead

I've recently become very interested in a record label out of Italy called Night of the Vinyl Dead. The mission of the record label is to re-issue Metal records that never got a proper vinyl release. Each record is released in limited quantities, and is hand numbered. I remember when they released their first record, the War is My Shepard 12 inch single from Exodus, back in 2006. A friend of mine had told me about the label, but at the time wasn't really into collecting Metal records, and since the price was around $35 for the single I quickly passed on buying it. A year and a half later, and here I am looking to expand my Heavy Metal collection. I checked out the Night of the Vinyl Dead site, and was surprised at how many awesome pieces of vinyl the label had released while I wasn't paying attention. All of a sudden I had a desperate need to own something from this label. I hit ebay and started to search. I was able to pick up two of their newer releases, both of them from overseas ebay sellers. Shipping cost was a bitch, but I did not want to miss out on getting these two records.

Both of these records were new to me, as they were both originally released when I was totally immersed in hardcore and had no interest in the Metal scene. Mercyful Fate, Into the Unknown, is a really cool record. Sure it is a step or two removed from the classics of Melissa and Don't Break the Oath, but it is still some great Fate. The vinyl is pressed on "sunset" vinyl, and just looks sick...matching the album cover nicely. My copy was numbered 367 out of 500. The King Diamond record is a "Collectors Edition" EP. Originally released on CD in 1999, it features songs off of a couple of King's latter day records. I'm really having a good time discovering these albums that I missed the first time around. Fun stuff. The King Diamond record is pressed on white vinyl and comes in a cool PVC cover. Mine is numbered 271 out of 500 made. I can't wait to get more from the Night of the Vinyl Dead catalog.