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Mercyful Fate > Evil 2009 > Reviews
Mercyful Fate - Evil 2009

You can't improve upon perfection - 50%

autothrall, November 14th, 2009

After a decade of silence, Mercyful Fate has re-recorded a pair of tracks from their debut full-length Melissa, in concordance with their appearance in the Guitar Hero: Metallica game. If you don't have the game, the tracks are available as a digital download on ITunes.

Whereas I tend to shun many re-recordings of classic metal tracks, it's hard to fault what Fate have done here. The songs sound much like the originals, just clearer and cleaner through the marvels of modern production. King Diamond still sounds fantastic on the vocals, and Sherman and Denner provide their classic axework. With the EP, you get "Evil" and "Curse of the Pharaohs". The tracks are mastered by Andy LaRocque, unlike the Activision versions in the game.

This is really not worth more than a couple bucks, but if you're some n00b who has never heard Mercyful Fate, it's time to man the fuck up. Now is your chance, slackoffs. I don't play Guitar Hero or Rockband or any of these games very often, nor do I karaoke. I'd rather write my own music. However, if I WERE to suddenly establish the desire to play these games, I'd be honored to have Mercyful Fate tracks available rather than the radio lite shit that chokes up so many of them. Actually, skip this and just track down Melissa or Don't Break the Oath.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Mercyful Fate - Evil (single) - 70%

metalarch, September 8th, 2009

Because of the making of the Guitar Hero video game, Mercyful Fate was asked if they were interested in putting some of their world famous songs in it. Of course these would have to be songs from their debut album Melissa. And while everyone is bashing these guys for rerecording two songs, that in their new versions are much inferior to the old recordings, im sitting here wondering why these people, including the previous reviewer on this page, are doing so. They obviously don't know the reason for rerecording these songs.

And that my dear metal loving friends is because the old master tapes were nowhere to be found! Not because they wanted to draw attention to themselves once more by making these lesser new recordings. Not because they wanted to make themselves look rediculous by trying to catch up on old glory.

I once read an interview with King Diamond on this topic and he stated that it probably wasn't going to hapen because he only wanted to go through with it if some of the old band members would join in on it.

And well, it may not be the best versions of these two songs (Evil and Curse Of The Pharao's) but it's for a good cause, so give the poor king a break, he may not be able to hit the same notes as in his prime moments but at least the song gets to be in the game!

The rest of the instruments were, by the way, played almost flawlessly. In that respect there is little to be complained about. I do personally miss the "ambient" or the "evil atmosphere" of the original recordings but I suppose thats what you get with todays production quality and the financial funds that are now available to the band.

Going through the motions - 66%

MercyfulSatyr, August 3rd, 2009

After a decade of inactivity and subsequent speculation, Mercyful Fate has finally put out something new. Well, sort of. The two songs appearing here are both over twenty-five years old, making their debut on the band’s first album. Granted, these are two of the best off Melissa, but it’s really unnecessary to rerecord such old songs when, first of all, King Diamond doesn’t possess his former vocal range on display therein now that he’s gotten older, and when long-expectant fans could have been satiated with something new instead.

The musicians here have obviously become more proficient with time, and could probably play both of these songs in their sleep at this point. That, however, is no excuse for creating near-exact replicas of classic Mercyful Fate tracks. Nearly everything on both “Evil” and “Curse of the Pharaohs” sounds precisely the same as before, with the notable exception of King Diamond. The man is getting old, and attempting to replicate the energy and strength of his past performances is therefore futile. The immortal falsetto-screeched lines on “Evil” now sound as if King were struggling to produce them, instead manifesting in a tired-sounding, uncomfortably warm tone. This isn’t the King Diamond we all fondly remember.

“I was born in the cemetery
Under the sign of the moon…”

Sorry, King, I’m just not buying it. The warnings of ancient mummy curses on the following track are similarly non-threatening, lacking the harsh undertones the original possessed. Really, I’m more tempted to go grave robbing in Egypt than afraid of it. Each instrumentalist, in contrast to King, easily goes through both songs without any noticeable mistakes whatsoever. But there’s one key ingredient missing from the formula – passion. Every beat, riff, and solo simply mechanically echoes times past, implying that the musicians felt they had better things to do than record songs for Guitar Hero. At least pretend you’re trying!

These songs are inherently good, and in turn any coherently done redo of said songs would at least be somewhat entertaining. However, mechanically precise replication is not the way to go about rerecording a song, and these tracks would definitely have benefited from some deviation from the original structures. Despite the disappointment delivered by Mercyful Fate’s latest single, a new album still would potentially be awesome. Just try not to strain yourself too much, King.