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Heavy Metal — A (Lighthearted) Pox on Christmas
How King Diamond’s debut release No Presents for Christmas gave headbangers across the globe something to celebrate on December 25th.
Before King Diamond (the vocalist) formed King Diamond (the band), he fronted the more-feted-than-thou heavy metal troupe, Mercyful Fate.
Mercyful Fate was a big deal.
I mean they influenced everyone from Metallica to Blasphemy. No underground band from the 1980s escaped their impression, their Occult inspired hard rock from 1982 to 1984 still waved as a flag of righteous influence.
And another thing. No one sounded like Mercyful Fate.
Then or now. Because what set the Danish troupe apart was not their Lizzy-on-steroids arrangements as much as it was King Diamond’s peculiar falsetto. An unorthodox singer by any measure, his vocal work presents as simultaneously intentional yet never categorically within his control. It’s like he’s possessed by some force — something akin to the Aiwass who directed Crowley’s Book of the Law — an entity manifest, speaking through King Diamond in…