Mercyful Fate and King Diamond have been among the most famous and influential bands of the metal scene for more than 17 years now,and they still continue to release some of the greatest albums ever.It all began in 1981, when King Diamond,a singer of an unknown Danish band called Black Rose, met Hank Shermann the guitarist of the quite successful punk band The Brats,who had even released one album. They decided to start their own band and wrote some songs,but sometime later they were asked to help out on a demo of Michael Denner a former guitarist of The Brats. It didn't take long till they all formed a new band called Mercyful Fate.

After some touring, they were asked by the the Dutch label Rave On Records to record an EP and in September 1982, it was finished and the ep, titled Mercyful Fate, but it is also known under the name Nuns have no fun, got quite successful in the underground. Mercyful Fate were even asked to record another three songs: Evil, Curse of the Pharaohs and Satan's Fall for the Friday Rock Show on the BBC radio. The band also recorded two songs for the underground metal compilation Metallic Storm, which was one of the first of its kind and finally the recording for Melissa began...

After the release of their successful debut-ep, Mercyful Fate signed a record deal with Roadrunner Records from Holland and started recording their first full-length lp called Melissa.That record was a continuation of the musical strength they had shown the year before on "Nuns have no fun" and featured such classic Fate songs like "Evil", "Curse of the Pharaohs" and "Black Funeral", but four of the seven songs of Melissa had already been released before. The album was quite successful and Mercyful Fate's unique image heavily increased their popularity. It was even released on the highly influential Megaforce label in the U.S.A. which also released albums from "Manowar", "Metallica" and "Anthrax". Later that same year, the band went to Easy Sound Recording studios in Copenhagen again to record their third release "Don't break the Oath".

Again with Henrik Lund as producer. The new album was a bit more straight-forward and King increased the amount of high vocals on most songs of the album and the lyrics were kind of toned down, even though they were still heavily satanic, none of the songs was as extreme as "Nuns have no fun" or "Black Funeral". Meanwhile, Fate was getting more and more popular in Europe and the U.S.A. and King became one of the most well-known characters of the metal scene of the early eighties.

With masterpieces as "Night of the Unborn", "The Oath" and their most popular song "Come to the Sabbath", "Don't break the Oath" was a big success and it almost made it into the U.S. Billboard charts at position 202.This album is still their most important work and it is still one of the most influential metal albums of all time. When the album was released, Fate even went to America to start a tour with Motorhead which was very successful, but during that time Hank Shermann wanted to do something different and it is said that he had even weared pink sweatsuits on stage.

Mercyful Fate were getting more and more popular and there were even rumours that some major labels were interested in signing that band, but all of a sudden, all of Fate's musicians decided to split up the band and Mercyful Fate had died after three well-acclaimed releases and it took them almost 10 years to reunite again.

When Mercyful Fate had split up. Hank Shermann joined a band called Fate which was even quite successful, but somehow he left them after the A Matter of Attitude and Fate albums. Kim Ruzz even though he was one of the best drummers of his time, decided to quit the music business completely and became a postman. Timi Hansen and Michael Denner wanted to continue with that type of music that Fate had played and stayed with King.

Some months later the new band named after King Diamond, the most important character of the group had been formed with Mikkey Dee on the drums and Floyd Constantine as second lead guitarist, but this one was soon replaced as a result of his way of life. The Swedish guitarist Andy LaRocque now joined the group and his great abilities made him a permanent band member for more than 14 years. The first release from this new band was the single "No Presents for Christmas" obviously released in December 1985 and the next year the first album of King Diamond was released. "Fatal Portrait" was a continuation of the last Fate album "Don't break the Oath" . The album was also the first King Diamond album without any satanic lyrics which had become his trademark some years earlier.

"Fatal Portrait" featured a whole concept story which spanned over four songs of the album about a haunted candle and portrait. This album was really very strong and it sold 100.000 copies in the U.S.A. and the following tour together with Megadeth was very successful and King was back again. Only one year later "Abigail" was released another concept album about an undead girl who puts a young couple to death. Not only the music on that one was excellent, but the story which King had made up in a dream showed that King was and still is writing one of the best lyrics in metal even though he was critizised very much for the stories of the songs on his early Mercyful Fate albums. "Abigail" is still said to be King's best album and it was also the first King Diamond album to reach the Billboard charts with sales of more than 175.000 in the U.S. alone and "The Family Ghost" was the first King Diamond song with its own music video.

The success even continued with the next album called "Them". Which was also the first one without any remaining Mercyful Fate members (except King of course) because both Michael Denner and Timi Hansen had decided to quit the band. They were replaced by Pete Blakk and Hal Patino on guitars and bass. The story was about Them some supernatural creatures who manage to take possession of the mind of a young boy named King and his grandmother and witch can be summoned by blood filled into a tea bowl. Even though it lacked the atmosphere which made "Melissa" or "Abigail" so great, it was still a superb album and it fitted the taste of 1988 very well - it was even more successful than "Abigail" selling more than 200.000 albums in the U.S.A. The next album "Conspiracy" continued the story of Them and the music was also quite similar and so it was also almost as successful as its predecessor but the story wasn't unique any more.

Meanwhile a band named Kiss decided that King's image and the fact that he was also using make-up might decrease their sales and they decided to take King to court in order to force him to stop wearing make-up on stage but King had already changed his make-up for "Conspiracy" and Kiss were critizised in the press so they decided to put a stop to it. The next album released in 1990 was "The Eye". The Eye's story was placed during the time of the French Inquisition and the only horror element was a haunted necklace called The Eye which links the whole story together. But even though it wasn't as "frightening" as the other King Diamond albums, "The Eye" is definately King's most satanic solo release and Christianity and its history were heavily critizised.

Musically it was also kind of back to the roots of "Melissa" and "Don't break the Oath" and most of the songs were really good but all that was overshadowed by the grunge/alternative movement which was started by cheap groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam at that time,and such traditional metal bands like King Diamond were soon on their way out. But not only the musical climate was changing, King's label Roadrunner Records also decided to concentrate on more modern bands and now they have become one of the most successful labels since then. So King decided to leave Roadrunner to keep on creating the music he had always been famous for but nothing much was happening after the depart from that label. They released a "live" album recorded at the "Abigail tour four years earlier" and a best-of album named "A Dangerous Meeting" after their classic from "Don't break the Oath" but it took King more than four years to release another solo album "The Spider's Lullabye" in 1995.