Mercyful Fate
Explore the band's historical lineups, musicians, and studio albums.
Active10 formations7 studio albums
Formation chronology
Newest first
Formation 10 of 10
Jan 19, 2024 – Present
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Mike WeadGuitar
- Becky BaldwinBass
- Bjarne T. HolmDrums
Formation facts
- On January 16, 2024, Mercyful Fate and Joey Vera mutually ended the arrangement. King Diamond said the friendship and respect remained.
- Three days later the band named Becky Baldwin as permanent bassist. Joey's priority was Armored Saint. Baldwin was willing to put Mercyful Fate first, and she looked ahead to recording.
Formation 9 of 10
Nov 2019 – Jan 16, 2024
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Mike WeadGuitar
- Joey VeraBass
- Bjarne T. HolmDrums
Formation facts
- In 2019 King announced a 2020 return with the 9 guitar-and-drum lineup and Joey Vera on bass while Timi Hansen was away. King said Vera was chosen because he plays with his fingers, much like Timi, which mattered for a set drawn from the early records.
- Timi soon explained that he was fighting cancer. He still hoped to be ready, asked fans to take care of Vera, and called him a perfect stand-in. Timi died on November 4, 2019, shortly after his 61st birthday.
- The 2020 dates were pushed by the pandemic. In summer 2022 the band finally played 18 European concerts, including Copenhell, Wacken, Sweden Rock, and Hellfest. King said the run would include a new nine-minute song, The Jackal of Salzburg, and called it quite a monster.
- Becky Baldwin, a Birmingham bassist whose playthrough videos the band had been watching, was already going to Bloodstock to see Mercyful Fate when they offered her the North American tour on the spot. Joey Vera had an Armored Saint conflict. She was a stand-in, not the new member yet. Joey even sent her a live mix with the bass loud so she could learn his parts.
Formation 8 of 10
Sep 1996 – 1999
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Mike WeadGuitar
- Sharlee D'AngeloBass
- Bjarne T. HolmDrums
Formation facts
- Metallica cut a Mercyful Fate medley on Garage Inc. in 1998. Hank's official biography says King and Hank later joined them onstage for it around the 9 European dates.
- After Mercyful Fate went quiet at the end of the 1990s, Lars Ulrich asked in 2008 for the original Melissa masters so the band could appear in Guitar Hero: Metallica. Easy Sound had closed. Hank searched the old owner's private cellar. Roadrunner had nothing. With three weeks on the clock, King, Hank, Denner, Timi, and Bjarne T. Holm re-recorded Evil and Curse of the Pharaohs. Activision used Evil.
- The Metallica medley returned live on December 7, 2011, when King, Hank, Denner, and Timi joined Metallica at the Fillmore in San Francisco during Metallica's 30th-anniversary shows.
Studio albums
- 9 (May 1999)
- Dead Again (Jun 1998)
Formation 7 of 10
Nov 1994 – Aug 1996
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Michael DennerGuitar
- Sharlee D'AngeloBass
- Bjarne T. HolmDrums
Formation facts
- As far back as 1982, according to Michael Denner, he tried to hire Bjarne T. Holm for Mercyful Fate. Holm was busy with his own band. Holm finally joined in 1994.
- Into the Unknown came out on August 20, 1996, Denner's last Mercyful Fate studio album. In 1997 Hank said Denner had become a father, married, bought a house, and started a Copenhagen label, so they jointly decided he should step back. Denner's first suggestion was Mike Wead.
Studio albums
- Into the Unknown (Aug 1996)
Formation 6 of 10
1993 – Oct 1994
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Michael DennerGuitar
- Sharlee D'AngeloBass
- Snowy ShawDrums
Formation facts
- Timi Hansen had five children and a stable job. According to Sharlee D'Angelo, Timi did not want reunion touring. After the Metallica stadium date and Dynamo, that was the end of Timi's 1990s run with the band.
- Snowy recommended Sharlee. Hank came to Gothenburg. They rehearsed, Sharlee already knew the songs, and he was first taken for the tour, then became the bassist.
Studio albums
- Time (Oct 1994)
Formation 5 of 10
May 1993 – May 1993
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Michael DennerGuitar
- Timi HansenBass
- Snowy ShawDrums
Formation facts
- King had called Snowy Shaw about two years earlier and asked if he would join a possible reunion as the only non-original member, because they would not bring Kim Ruzz back. Snowy said yes, then heard nothing. He next learned they were already recording in Dallas.
- Timi Hansen played only the first two reunion shows: a Metallica stadium date and Dynamo. According to Snowy Shaw, Metallica invited Mercyful Fate to support so the band would not miss its own first reunion concert.
Formation 4 of 10
1992 – Apr 1993
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Michael DennerGuitar
- Timi HansenBass
- Morten NielsenDrums
Formation facts
- In the summer of 1992 King and Hank got Mercyful Fate back together and signed with Brian Slagel at Metal Blade. In the Shadows arrived on June 22, 1993.
- The reunion album was cut at Dallas Sound Lab with Danish drummer Morten Nielsen. Years later Snowy Shaw said the band chose a Dane because flying in a Swede was less convenient. By the time King was ready for vocals, Snowy had already been hired, because the Nielsen tracks were not working. Recutting them on an expensive Dallas clock was too late, so the session was patched and finished.
- One extra track revisited a 1981 demo, Return of the Vampire. Original Metal Blade copies of In the Shadows include it as Return of the Vampire... 1993. According to Snowy Shaw, Lars Ulrich of Metallica volunteered to play drums on that re-recording when he heard Mercyful Fate were getting back together.
Studio albums
- In the Shadows (Jun 1993)
Formation 3 of 10
1982 – Apr 1985
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Michael DennerGuitar
- Timi HansenBass
- Kim RuzzDrums
Formation facts
- The classic five-piece rehearsed seven days a week and kept writing. Hansen later said you could have woken him in the night to play Satan's Fall and he could have done it in his sleep.
- Holland heard Mercyful Fate first. After Aardschok magazine and Radio Hilversum took up the demos, Eindhoven's Rave-On Records issued a four-song EP on November 8, 1982. A BBC Friday Rock Show session of Satan's Fall, Evil, and Curse of the Pharaohs followed, and that broadcast helped open the Roadrunner deal.
- Melissa was recorded at Easy Sound Recording in Copenhagen. The studio was so expensive that, according to Michael Denner, the band had only a few days to record and mix the whole album. They went in fully arranged. Roadrunner released it on October 30, 1983.
- The first track Mercyful Fate cut for Melissa was Black Masses. Denner later recalled that the guitar sound was so lame they pulled it off the album and issued it as a B-side instead.
- The skull King Diamond used onstage, named Melissa, came from his brother's classmate. The classmate's father was a doctor who taught with donated cadavers. Leftover bones went into barrels, and King ended up with the skull and the leg bones for his microphone stand. The skull was later stolen at a show.
- A UK double bill with Manowar collapsed after the first night. According to Michael Denner, Mercyful Fate were denied a soundcheck, had their sound sabotaged, and left the tour. He said the episode damaged them in Britain for a long time.
- Metallica were recording Ride the Lightning at Sweet Silence Studios, next to Mercyful Fate's rehearsal room. Lars Ulrich later said Fade to Black, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Escape were finished in that room. After James Hetfield's amp was stolen, producer Flemming Rasmussen called around Copenhagen for Marshall stacks. The amp they used was Hank Shermann's 100-watt Marshall.
- In 1985 a Washington group of political spouses, the Parents Music Resource Center, campaigned for warning labels and a rating system on records they considered harmful to children. As a sample of what they wanted flagged, they published the Filthy Fifteen, fifteen songs marked by category: X for sex, V for violence, D/A for drugs and alcohol, and O for occult. Mercyful Fate's Into the Coven, from Melissa, sat at number 11, listed as occult for lyrics inviting a listener into a coven to become Lucifer's child. King Diamond later called the campaign pathetic and said the song was a horror story.
- In April 1985 the band split. Hank Shermann wanted a more commercial, radio-minded sound. King Diamond wanted to keep the heavier writing and take control of his own songs. King later said he left on April 11, the day after a sold-out hometown show at the Saga in Copenhagen.
- King formed a new band with Michael Denner and Timi Hansen, and kept the King Diamond name so they could cut a better deal. He did not want Hank or Kim Ruzz in it. Denner accepted because he wanted to keep playing heavy metal rather than what he later called radio Def Leppard rock. As a favor, he still played a few solos on Hank's new band Fate.
Studio albums
- Don't Break the Oath (Sep 1984)
- Melissa (Oct 1983)
Formation 2 of 10
1981
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Benny PetersenGuitar
- Timi HansenBass
- Kim RuzzDrums
Formation facts
- The name did not come from King Diamond. A friend named Ken Anthony had a girlfriend who suggested Mercyful Fate in 1981. The band kept it and later shifted the spelling toward older English, with a Y.
- After the Danger Zone merge, the drum stool first went to Old Nick Smith, who had already been Danger Zone's drummer. Lindblad's April session belonged to a different lineup; no source says he was fired. Hank later asked if Lindblad wanted in. Lindblad did not take the offer seriously, and Kim Ruzz arrived instead. Timi Hansen later said Nick was not good enough, that several players were tried, and that Ole Frausing was the best of those tryouts. Frausing's asthma made fast sets hard to play. He and the band agreed he should stop. Ruzz, Benny Petersen's former bandmate, became the drummer who lasted.
- Michael Denner stepped away for a stretch. According to Timi Hansen, Denner "had some problems," and Benny Petersen, who had been hanging around the band, took the second guitar. Denner returned in 1982.
Formation 1 of 10
Apr 1981 – Apr 1981
Members
- King DiamondVocals
- Hank ShermannGuitar
- Carsten Van der VolsingGuitar
- Jan LindbladDrums
Formation facts
- CBS dropping Brats looked like a disaster at the time. Michael Denner later said Mercyful Fate probably never would have happened without that decision. Denner started Danger Zone with Timi Hansen. Hank Shermann joined King Diamond, who had come out of Black Rose.
- On April 1, 1981, King Diamond, Hank Shermann, Carsten Van der Volsing, and drummer Jan Lindblad paid for about four or five hours in a Copenhagen studio. Lindblad had only heard the songs on a cassette. Among them was You Asked for It, later recast as Black Masses. The session went out on Danish radio the next day. King gave Lindblad the stage name Musen.
- The four-piece with Carsten Van der Volsing and Jan Lindblad is not the Danger Zone lineup. After Brats split, Michael Denner and Timi Hansen were already working as Danger Zone. Denner asked King Diamond and Hank Shermann to help record those songs at a tiny Copenhagen studio. Timi later recalled that Mercyful Fate already had a name, but still needed a second guitar, bass, and drums. That session is how the two groups became one band. Lindblad's April radio demo, without a bassist, was a separate session that happened before Timi was in the picture.