The 1984 Listening Post - mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath

Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath

#231

September 7 1984

Mercyful Fate

Don’t Break the Oath

4 out of 5

Highlights:

Night of the Unborn

I think this is great but, honestly, I’ve burned out on satan metal. I’m secretly rooting for the PMRC not because I want this music shut down for it’s expressions but just cuz, fuck it’s boring as hell now. That’s what those parents wanted, a fucking respite from the shrieking and chukka-chukka assault. If this was ALL my teenage kid was listening to all day I would be desperately trying to get him to do something else. Go outside. Ride a bike. Read a comic book. Play a board game. Just to give me a break. 

I don’t know how to correctly evaluate it. Like I said, maybe it’s great. 

By the end I just gave myself over to it. It’s good for what it is. 

https://www.allmusic.com/album/burial-mw0000466948

The 1983 Listening Post - Mercyful Fate - Melissa

Mercyful Fate - Melissa

October 30, 1983
Mercyful Fate
Melissa
3.25 out of 5

This is interesting. To me this is a hybrid of the tired, trad, tread 80s metal sound but inside it (fueled by the drummer, natch) is a speed metal, Metallica Jr, struggling to be free. Not as annoying as Anvil, not as dumb as Twisted Sister, not as purely fun as Riot…this could be the road that metal takes as they follow Lars and James instead of Vince and Nikki.
Soaring Halfordian vocals, wagnerian melodies. If that’s what you’re looking for, you can find it here. In the end, the Sabbath impulses take over and render the album only semi-interesting.