Mercyful Fate Don't Break The Oath

Personnel: King Diamond (vocals, background vocals); Hank Shermann, Michael Denner (guitar); Kim Ruzz (drums).
Recording information: Easy Sound Recording, Copenhagen, Denmark.
On their sophomore album, which was to be their last before an eight-year hiatus and the final one with their classic lineup, Mercyful Fate expanded their signature sound with the creative use of atmospheric keyboards, slicker production values, and slightly less progressive song construction. But the music was not any more mainstream than their debut, and it turned out to be another metal masterpiece for their devoted fans. It just missed cracking the Billboard Top 200, too. Like Slayer, Mercyful Fate conjured some truly evil-sounding riffs, most notably on the gothic rocker "Desecration of Souls" (refreshingly free of King Diamond's falsetto) and the faster-paced "Night of the Unborn," while Diamond's tales of phantasms, supernatural encounters, and Satanic rituals fit the music better this time. The early years of Mercyful Fate may have been all too brief, but Don't Break the Oath is one of the '80s best metal albums, and proved to be highly influential in the black metal underworld. The Roadrunner reissue includes an early, more aggressive version of the album-opener "A Dangerous Meeting" called "Death Kiss."

• Format: CD
• Genre: Heavy Metal