Melissa

Revisiting 'Melissa' is like going back to your plucky old family sedan that's now become a classic with the passage of time. You have great memories of it in your head, with online communities and their fervent discourses continually validating your opinion that it's indeed one of the best. It's got more than decent power, good snob value, proven credibility, and, for its time, cutting-edge technology. Reacquainting yourself with said model, the memories gush in all at once - the familiarity of the controls, the good ol' turbo wooshes, that strong whiff of nostalgia... You like and appreciate the sensations thus far, even struggling a bit to hide that widening smirk while getting acclimatised to these familiar environs. But with melting minutes, things become a bit - only a bit - less favourable. You expect to be floored by the experience, to be completely taken over by this supposed classic, which it does to a good extent too, yet something's amiss. It's not as powerful anymore, the handling's a bit blunt, the electronics, once cutting-edge, now lag, and the then uber-cool all-black interior with its wooden accents, now chintzy. However, as a generalised rule, the more time you spend behind the 'wheel, the more things start falling in place once again; you begin appreciating the old-school sensations, rekindle the same bond you had with it, and realise why you liked it so much in the first place. Some quirks from even back in the day remain, infuriatingly so, but they take a backseat to this unique experience as a whole. You appreciate the originality, adore the analogue feel, and make do with all the dated traits. Flaws and shortcomings notwithstanding, it's a classic indeed.

That's exactly how I felt while listening to 'Melissa' too, after what has been an eternity of traversing in post-metal soundscapes. It felt vibrant, enjoyable, familiar, and only a tad bit disappointing. The fact that I was coming fresh of off some Frank Sinatra and The Doors made things a bit worse, as a sudden plunge into the progressive nature of this album made it seem slightly overwrought, a bit overblown. Which was surprising, for in my head, this has always been a 10/10 album, or a 9.5/10 at the very least. Mind you, it's fantastic all things considered, and we cannot undermine the impact it has had on the booming thrash metal scene from back in the day, serving as a strong inspiration to bands like Metallica and Slayer, as well as kindle the development of later extreme metal thanks to its bold and ambitious approach of embracing an all-evil demeanour. But it's not an album, or some aspects of it at least, that's immune to shortcomings. Forty years on, it holds up very well, but now when I look at it with a fresher perspective, with what I'd call a broader range of taste in all music, some of its weaknesses become glaringly obvious.

King Diamond's vocals, for one, and as usual, are a love or hate affair especially on this album. This is the earliest incarnation of his piercing falsettos, which kept refining on subsequent releases, but they definitely sound a bit rough here, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes unwanted. Admittedly, what he does with his falsettos, while novel, wasn't entirely new even back in the day because we heard different inerations of it from Rob Halford and David Byron from Uriah Heep, whose style is seemingly a stronger influence on King than Halford's. But what King does is take it one step further with a far more recurrent usage, which makes his version more theatrical and grandiose, and for that reason quite unmistakable and unforgettable. On the other hand, his cleans, while decent and even a bit underrated, are arguably the least memorable aspects of nearly every Mercyful Fate/King Diamond record. Are his vocals for everyone? Absolutely not. But are they good enough? For the most part, I think yes. They sound resolute, almost unfaltering, and truly evil; more evil than most of Norwegian black metal. But there's a strong section of the audience that labels him as "metal's Mickey Mouse" and laments the concept of a comical falsetto that turns them away from the music that's otherwise met with major glee. I honestly don't blame them one bit for harbouring that notion. But to say that he's outright terrible, or that he sucks is harsh and an absolute disservice to one of metal’s most charismatic and unique frontmen.

The original mix, on which I'm basing this review and also the only one I've ever listened to, is another bit that's not aged too well. Sure, it's got that low-fi production typical of the eighties, but it's not quite as characterful or as riveting as 'Don't Break the Oath' or 'Abigail', feeling a bit soulless, a bit weak. The snares especially sound a bit dry, although I'm a fan of Kim Ruzz's style and his dominating presence on the songs. Likewise for Timi Hansen's basslines - momentarily buried under elegant melodies and sprightly drums, but suddenly sprouting mid-section and sounding totally badass in how they're conceived. Being a Mercyful Fate record, it's of course heavy on melodism and the guitar duo of Denner/Shermann is simply unbeatable when in its element. But overindulgence of these melodies means some songs suffer from compositional flaws, with 'Satan's Fall' being the biggest outlier here. It starts off promisingly well, with a wonderful flow and a throng of some very dark and impure riffs, but the moment it starts changing shape, things go awry. It’s like listening to five different songs within one song, which on paper sounds like a tantalising prospect but in practice leaves much to be desired. Mind you, as individual sections, these are really cool and consist of some unique riffs and melodies, but as one collective song, it's a bad riff salad. A reduced length of around six minutes and an additional song with all the residue would have done wonders to the album's flow and instantly raised its eminence. As far as I know, it's their second-longest song on a studio release and kind of proves why overly long and progressive songs aren't their forte, something we again find out fifteen years later on 'Dead Again'.

Yet some moments are truly subliminal - 'Into the Coven', 'At the Sound of the Demon Bell', and the title track are all fantastic songs and absolute Mercyful Fate classics. While the riffing is catchy and badass, it's actually the beautiful melodies that stand out and captivate your senses more. I'm not saying other bands from around that time weren't writing soulful melodies but these guys definitely knocked it out of the park. It's a signature Mercyful Fate/King Diamond trait that makes their music elegant yet at the same time, immoral and haunting; King Diamond the man has always strived for the band to not have a mainstream sound and it shows. Yet ironically, the best song is also the one with the most universal appeal: 'Melissa'. A classic for the ages and my introduction to the band. King's falsettos and the guitar solos sound genuinely exquisite on this song, bleeding into one another at one point, something we see more of on 'Don't Break the Oath'. A common theme of occultism and Satanism pervades the lyrical matter, which is nothing to write home about in 2024, for the themes seem too cheesy and childish, but 'Black Funeral' and 'At the Sound of the Demon Bell' cover some genuinely nasty stuff, with the instrumentation and King's vocals complementing that notion further.

For the three or so days it took me to write this complete review, I had this album playing on loop, for I wanted to be absolutely sure about the bits that weren't as endearing anymore. In my head, before beginning to write, I had it at a near-perfect 95% based on all the nostalgia and the fact that it is actually a fantastic album. But just like your classic old sedan that you revisit after what has been a while, you realise some bits haven't aged too well. You just get on with it and accept the flaws, reasoning with yourself that nothing’s perfect and that music's pretty subjective at the end of the day. And as is the case with everything, the more you spend time with it, the more it grows on you. With 'Melissa', I was already well-acquainted with its quirks from long ago, so getting back into the mix of things wasn't really a challenge. I was just surprised to find a few newer ones that slightly tainted my reacquaintce with it. In my eyes, the collective discography of Mercyful Fate/King Diamond is top notch and many a metalhead's delight, but there's also no disputing that majority of these albums, while fantastic, have their own exclusive flaws that can impede the listening experience for some. Having said that, nothing can take away the classic status from 'Melissa' and its boundless charisma. It's a substantial part of the vast metal history and impacted the genre such that many bands were manic fanboys and wanted their music to sound like it; a proper baller that shook things up in its era.