Hi, hi,

I was wondering if any of you chaps and lasses could help me with a question. I have recently been looking for a physical copy of Melissa by Mercyful Fate as it would be nice to have it in physical form (CD preferably, so it can be uploaded to my phone). Now, I am unsure if I have heard the original master or not but it apparently has a slightly different vocal track to the later version sof this album but I am having a hard time finding this, even a digital version. So I had a cheeky peak on Amazon and I found a Japanese 2005 version with some saucy extras, this one to be exact. Which was around 50 quid on amazon and I was wondering if any of you have this and can confirm if it is or isn't, please? Before I part with that amount of money.

I am also looking for original copies of Powerslave, Somewhere in Time and Killers. The first two, I sadly had to give back to my dad a few years back when I last saw him, but I stupidly forgot to back up my PC before a HDD crash happened. These were original mixes and I loved those to bits. All I can seem to find is remastered versions but these appear to have negative views, in regards to compression and overall sound which would definitely have a negative impact for me. As these, too, seem to be hard to track down.

Thank you,

Dave.

Old used Iron Maiden CDs should be easy to find on Ebay or Amazon. As for that Japanese version of Melissa, it's almost certainly remastered. The actual recording is exactly the same but they definitely re-EQ'd the sound of both this and Don't Break The Oath, so the different EQ and added compression may give the impression of a different vocal track. It's the exact same recording though. If you want the original master just look for an old pressing, but don't expect it to be cheap. There is an original Japanese pressing on Ebay though, for less than 50 quid.

Note that it's from 1990, which was the first time the album was released in Japan on CD. Oddly enough the first ever Roadrunner CD release from 1985 was manufactured in Japan but only released in Europe.

That's Roadrunner's 2005 reissue tracklisting. It was released in several countries (US, Japan, Germany, Brazil, etc)

http://www.discogs.com/Mercyful-Fate-Me ... ase/948003

Thanks for the help, you two. I'll see to making an Ebay account later and purchasing. I'll have a more thorough search on Amazon for the Iron Maiden ones as all I found said 1997 original recording, remastered.

Yeah Amazon is a bit patchy, Ebay is generally the way to go. A quick search and look what I found:

Powerslave

Killers

Killers with bonus disc

Somewhere In Time

I don't know about the cd your are looking at here, but I wanted to let you know I have the original LP from the 80's, and the first press of the CD also from the 80's. Later I picked up a remastered Melissa in the 90's or early 2000's and found that the song Mellisa does indeed have extra vocals added to the mix. Recording sound is identical to the original tracking so I assume this was a remix of the original tracks. I HATE this version having grown up with the original mix. The solo going on in the song is brilliant and the vocals completely detract from the solo. Might have been ok if they were mixed very low as an ambient effect or something, but the way it is on this disc is terrible compared to the original. Seek out the original!

I've only heard the album on vinyl and remastered CD. Trouble is, I had quite a gap between one and the other so I never made that close of a comparison, but the remaster definitely sounds weird. I still have A Dangerous Meeting which has the original masters of some songs, but not "Melissa".