Mercyful Fate - general biography and current information

Mercyful Fate was created in 1981 in Copenhagen, Denmark, by the vocalist King Diamond (really Kim Bendix Petersen; definitely the vocalist with the widest voice range ever) and guitar player Hank Shermann (really Rene Krolmark). King came from badly known band called Black Rose, while Hank earlier played with an important punk band Brats (some Brats song were later re-recorded as MF songs). Classical line-up also includes guitar player Michael Denner, who earlier played with Hank in Brats and created Danger Zone (often referred to as an old MF name which appears not to be true) before he joined the band in 1982, bass player Timi 'Grabber' Hansen who earlier played with Michael in Danger Zone (left MF in 1993) and drummer Kim Ruzz (till 1985).

After releasing successfull EP Mercyful Fate (aka Nuns Have No Fun) and LPs Melissa and Don't Break The Oath, containing their own kind of black metal, the band splits up in 1985 because of musical differences. In 1986 the postmortem LP The Beginning is released, putting some old songs together.

King Diamond created another band, named also King Diamond, which formerly contained two more MF members (Denner and Hansen). At the same time Hank creates Fate, which was pretty far from Mercyful Fate (despite similar name). Later Michael joins Hank in a band called Zoser Mez.

In 1992 Return Of The Vampire is released. It's an LP containing early unrelesed tracks, put together by King. Soon after this Kings hears Hank's and Michael's recordings and finds out they came close to MF's original sound. This resulted in their reunion and release of In The Shadows, which also was a big success.

In 1994 they release an half-live MLP The Bell Witch followed by LP Time. In 1996 they released Into The Unknown.

Next LP, "Dead Again" was released in the middle of April 1998 (May for Japan, June for USA), followed by US tour.

Current band's line-up is formed by two classic members - King Diamond and Hank Shermann - as well as new members (bass player Sharlee D'Angelo and guitar player Mike Wead (both were earlier supposed to play in King Diamond but didn't record any LP then) and drummer Bjarne T. Holm).

News: New CD "9" will be released on May 25th 1999. You can find more details here.

(Next to this text: Mercyful Fate '96 (taken from "Into The Unknown"))

Mercyful Fate '99 (taken from "9")

King Diamond		Hank Shermann		Mike Wead
	Sharlee D'Angelo		Bjarne T. Holm