Black Metal Arrived At The Doors Of Indiana’s Hard Rock Casino And Headliners Mercyful Fate Debut New Song Live

Nov 07, 2022 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

By Christopher David

Sweet mother of Satan, it finally happened.

The legendary Mercyful Fate, led by the one and only King Diamond, arrived at the Hard Rock in Gary, Indiana, on Thursday for a night of the purest black and thrash metal one could hope for. And when a bill’s openers consist of the likes of Midnight and Kreator, you know you’re in for it. Both bands proved their worthiness from the first note, with Midnight offering a short but savage set of Satanic anthems, followed by arguably the best thrash metal band on the planet.

Kreator’s set highlighted most of the band’s eras, and while less than ten songs for a band with such a deep discography stung a bit, “Enemy of God,” new tune “Hate Uber Alles,” and “Phantom Antichrist” perfectly captured the technical proficiency of the German quartet, and Mille Petrozza remains one of the most magnetizing frontmen in all of metal, while lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö gave the band’s blend of blazing riffs and nuanced breakdowns a renewed energy.

But the night belonged, understandably, to Mercyful Fate, whose one-off show at Psycho Las Vegas earlier this year, it was hoped, would lead to a full tour. The stage looked like a Grecian plaza in Hell, with a massive pentagram flanked by marble archways and a massive, inverted cross looming over the proceedings. Opening with one of the deepest cuts of blasphemous gospel the band can claim, “The Oath” led into an all-too-short set of classics like “Evil,” “A Corpse Without A Soul,” and “Black Funeral.” Perhaps most promising was the inclusion of a new song, a sprawling ebb-and-flow of crunchy riffs and moody lyrics called “The Jackyl of Salzberg” (a reference, one can assume, to the 17th century Austrian witch trials) which is to be featured on a new (yes, new!) Fate album in 2023.

While the only original member of Fate remains iconic guitarist Hank Shermann, the rest of the current lineup offers a promising future to the Danish quintet, with bassist Becky Baldwin filling in for Joey Vera this time around and giving her all, alongside guitarist Mike Wead and drummer Bjarne T. Holm, and if this current go-round is any indication, 2023 may be one of the biggest years for arguably the most wicked black metal band on earth.