October 27th Phoenix, Arizona had the pleasure of hosting King Diamond and the almighty Mercyful Fate annihilating our ear drums at the Arizona Financial Theater. Being it was just a couple days before Halloween, this was the perfect way to kick off the festivities that the Samhain holiday brings. Mercyful fate is King Diamond on vocals, Guitarist Hank Sherman, Bjarne T Holm on drums, Mike Wead on guitar, and Becky Baldwin filling in for Joey Vera. To say Mercyul Fate was influential to so many bands would be an understatement. They were the driving force behind extreme music and breaking down boundaries no one thought was possible. The amount of respect for this band is far and wide and the fact they’re still killing it on stage after all these years just adds another level of respect the metal community has for them!
It was finally time for Mercyful Fate to take the stage and, as the large banner was strung up across the stage, everyone threw up the metal horns when they saw the Mercyful Fate name in big red letters. I could hear multiple people talking about how they saw them at Psycho Las Vegas 2022 and how excited they were. They got Mercyful Fate two times in one year. The last time they played a show was in 2011 with Metallica and then in 2019 they announced they had written several songs for a new album and announced they would be performing live in multiple states and in the U.K.
They opened up the set with ‘The Oath’ which has a dark and ominous tone and as the last part of the sample hit with the eerie piano and laughing, it was finally time! A big bang hit, and the curtain dropped! All anyone could look at was the giant goat’s head in a pentagram that had back lighting and then you had the massive lit up, upside down cross above the pentagram. Mercyful’s stage is colossal and the attention to detail, such as the 666 on the arches at the end of the stage down to the marble exterior. It was such a beautiful site and so much to take in. As the band started to play, King Diamond made his slow creepy entrance with his signature Goat head mask on, long red coat and his human bone mic prop. It was on the third song ‘The jackal of Salzberg’ (New song) when King Diamond traded in the goat’s head for the ever so famous corpse paint and the infamous black crown. King Diamond continues to impress and I can honestly say he is still at the top of his game. I heard multiple people talking after the show about how ‘King’ sounded god damn amazing, the best they’ve ever heard, and this was a huge highlight of their life witnessing this. I have to agree with all of those! Another major highlight was Becky Baldwin filling in on the bass. She is every bit talented and fits right in. During ‘The jackal of Salzberg’, Hank, Becky, and Mike all lined up together thrashing away on their instruments. This shows Becky was the right fit for this tour and I truly hope people take notice.
The next two songs were ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’ and ‘A dangerous Meeting’. Instead of being in the photo pit, the media was allowed two songs from the floor. For any metal show, this is highly complicated as mosh pIts are going on all around, beer is flying in every direction, but honestly I love every bit of it. I was able to get the entire stage and show just how massive and impressive their stage set up is. It shows how much they all care about their fan base and put into making sure all the details are there.
For any long time, Mercyful Fate fan seeing them on this tour will fill that empty black void in your metal heart. The band had only a couple of shows before they played Psycho Las Vegas. So I truly feel we’re getting the most solid version of them on this tour.
Set list
Encore:
