What are you Listening to Right Now? Febus XIV

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 Toaster Mantis wrote:

I actually think Melissa flows better as an album, even though Don't Break the Oath might have the strongest individual songs. The two compilations of early rarities, In the Beginning and Return of the Vampire also come highly recommended if you haven't heard them.

This reminds me that I never liked King Diamond's solo albums after Abigail that much, that's not-so-coincidentally also the last one Michael Denner played on and afterwards KD began moving away from the MF signature sound.

Maybe that's just me being closed-minded though.

For me it was after Mickey Dee left that I started losing interest in King Diamond. 'Them' suffered from a tinny production but I thought 'Conspiracy' was a really strong effort. After the departure of their superb drummer, I couldn't get into 'The Eye' due to the drum machine usage, and I haven't bothered with their followup stuff except for 'Abigail II' which didn't compare with the original (one of my fav metal albums). The 90's Mercyful Fate stuff was merely passable as well, lacking the occult atmosphere of 80's MF. 

Melissa is awesome, but I much prefer the vinyl & cassette version of the title track than the CD release which has a different production regarding the vocal track. They're clearer, but without the heavy reverb of the original vinyl edition they lack in the atmosphere that's so apparent in the other tunes.

Their other 80's releases definitely have some good stuff as well, although I prefer the Melissa renditions of certain tracks rather than the earlier versions. 