Thursday, April 17, 2025

Entry 1101 - Merciful Fate - 9


Style: 1st wave black metal, heavy metal

Primary Emotions/Themes: The prodigal son returns home, the master's revisit their roots

Thoughts:  The ninety's were a strange time for Merciful Fate. They experimented with different sounds, King was balancing his own band with Fate, and I feel like the quality of both suffered because of this. It had been ages since the band had embraced the Satanic side of their sound... that was until 9 came out.

9 takes the classic riffing that Merciful Fate had on their first two albums and brings it back full force. Additionally, Mr. Diamond sings about heaven, hell, god and satan all over again... it's a wonderful return to the classic Fate style. 

While I still prefer the original two albums from the band, this album retains much of the same "fun" that the band had in their early works. The riffs are full of energy, King sounds better than he had in years (though Dead Again was also a fantastic album). The band is firing on all cylinders once again. 

This would end up being the final full length of the band. Even though they are back together, I don't know if they will ever release another album. If that never comes to pass, this is still one hell of a swansong.

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Entry 1128 - My Dying Bride - The Light at the End of the World

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