Customer Reviews

Return of the Vampire

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great idea for an album, all unreleased and rare tracks including early demos of later songs, e.g the legendary "Curse Of The Pharaohs" in its earlier, longer form than that on the re-mastered "Melissa" album which cuts out some great riffs. There are also earlier forms of: "Desecration of souls" with its amazing intro, "A Dangerous Meeting", in a better form called "Death Kiss". But, the main attraction for me is the stuff I hadn't heard. E.g Peterson's "Burning the cross" with king diamond's younger sounding voice is a 8min + thriller. The album includes "Corpse Without Soul", from the first Fate ep which with its changing riffs and howling vocals is a must for any MF fan. This album even goes back to before Mercyful Fate when Hank would also fill in for bass in Michael Denner's 3 piece band in which he wrote vocals which, unsurprisingly were never put on any album. These 3 songs are very un MF but still have great riffs, rough sound quality and a brilliant King Diamond voice. All the songs have rather good quality sound for demos and howling King Diamond vocals, though it is sometimes hard to hear what he is singing and it all sounds rather dated, even compared to some of the stuff on "Don't Break The Oath" and "Melissa". The title track is one of the best songs on the album and I can't wait to hear the 1993 version. This is a good album, though by no means one of the best, also I wouldn't recommend it as a first MF album to buy because it doesn't reflect what the band is really like, this is for the die-hard MF fan. I liked the album because it shows what MF were like before their fame, what songs got them business deals. This album is usually on most internet music shopping sites.

This was my first Mercyful Fate cd.. I don't regret buying it by any means. I am just suggesting that you only buy this if you're into Mercyful Fate already. Return of the Vampire is a great album. It is compiled of rare and uncut takes (as well as raw unedited tracks). My favorite track is Leave My Soul Alone.

I enjoy this album very much. I love the hard licks, the vocals and believe that this MF album ranks in there with the other MF albums, dark, haunting, yet uplifting and great vocals and a rocking, heavy pulsing beat!

This is a great idea for an album, all unreleased and rare tracks including early demos of later songs, e.g the legendary "Curse Of The Pharaohs" in its earlier, longer form than that on the re-mastered "Melissa" album which cuts out some great riffs. There are also earlier forms of: "Desecration of souls" with its amazing intro, "A Dangerous Meeting", in a better form called "Death Kiss". But, the main attraction for me is the stuff I hadn't heard. E.g Peterson's "Burning the cross" with king diamond's younger sounding voice is a 8min + thriller. The album includes "Corpse Without Soul", from the first Fate ep which with its changing riffs and howling vocals is a must for any MF fan. This album even goes back to before Mercyful Fate when Hank would also fill in for bass in Michael Denner's 3 piece band in which he wrote vocals which, unsurprisingly were never put on any album. These 3 songs are very un MF but still have great riffs, rough sound quality and a brilliant King Diamond voice. All the songs have rather good quality sound for demos and howling King Diamond vocals, though it is sometimes hard to hear what he is singing and it all sounds rather dated, even compared to some of the stuff on "Don't Break The Oath" and "Melissa". The title track is one of the best songs on the album and I can't wait to hear the 1993 version. This is a good album, though by no means one of the best, also I wouldn't recommend it as a first MF album to buy because it doesn't reflect what the band is really like, this is for the die-hard MF fan. I liked the album because it shows what MF were like before their fame, what songs got them business deals. This album is usually on most internet music shopping sites.

if you like your music heavy and mean then this cd is for you. even though these songs were first recorded in the early 80s, this cd cranks,the sound quality is pretty good,.the early fate sound like a cross between vintage priest meets iron maiden,with excellent results. if you are into mercyful fate then get this cd you wont be disapointed

When viewed in the scope of being just a set of rare and unreleased material this set of songs isn't all that bad. The opener "Burning The Cross" is some sort of lost epic track, that was only kept off the original albums because it was written by an ex-band member. It's truly a scorcher on all fronts, it could have been a centerpiece track on either of their first two albums. The version of "Curse of the Pharaohs" present on here has been slowed up considerably, I find this version interesting if not a bit tedious after the first couple listens. They were wise to speed that one up on "Melissa". "Return Of The Vampire" is actually a quite boring and slow song. This is one of those b-side tracks that is quite evident why it was left on the cutting room floor. It contains a boring slow plodding riff, unmemorable lyrics, and a somewhat bland instrumental section that speeds up the pace to end the track. "On A Night Of Full Moon" is an earlier version of "Desecration of Souls" from their "Don't Break the Oath" album. It's actually a pretty good version, and the intro was actually better until King Diamond started howling, which is quite frankly a bit goofy and absurd sounding, even from a man that makes his living making his voice do odd things. Overall not a bad version, but they ended up making it better overall in it's finalized form. "A Corpse Without A Soul" is an interesting and plodding tune, that could benefit from being a bit shortened, like it's earlier version. Overall it is fairly strong and could have resided on either of their first two albums. "Death Kiss" is an earlier version of "A Dangerous Meeting", and it's actually pretty awesome, and doesn't quite sound the same. I do strongly, strongly prefer "A Dangerous Meeting", but it is pretty solid. "Leave My Soul" alone is about as pure and simple that Mercyful Fate ever got to that NWOBHM sound. Not much vocal acrobatics from King, and the riffs are basically just fast and dirty good times riffs. Nothing that I personally care for, but it is very interesting to hear that sound from Fate. "M.D.A" might be the oddest song from Fate. A song about aliens? For obvious reasons this one was omitted from their albums, it's a decent song. Finally, "You Asked For It" is a far superior version of "Black Masses". I had never really cared for "Black Masses" until I heard this version. I don't care which lyrics they use, the music just sounds so much better in this rawer incarnation. And there you have it.

I don't typically do song by song reviews, but for an album like this I felt it necessary for people to understand what they were getting. It's truly meant for true Fate fans, otherwise snag the first two Fate albums if you don't have them and come back to this some other time.

this release was clearly aimed for the established Mercyful Fate fan,as these are essentially unreleased /out-takes of various sound quality.
this should not be construed as negative,however as these tracks have that inmistakable Fate magic - all the ingredients are present;heavy,catchy & King's classic falsetto.
for the uninitiated,one should probably start with one of their earlier studio recordings for a point of reference(again,the production differs from track to track here).
for the fan,add another star

Ok, there are songs that were reworked and songs that weren't on this album. The ones later reworked don't sound too good, because they were rough versions of songs that would later be classics. The later versions on Melissa and Don't Break the Oath are ten times better. The songs that were never reworked are awesome, which it gives it the four stars, in particular Burning the Cross is one of my favorite Mercyful Fate songs. This is kind of raw sounding and in the end it all works.

This is a fair compilation of Mercyful Fate's unreleased and rare material. Nothing really stands out on this release. King Diamond did sound quite different in the earlier days though. The songs aren't bad, but don't leave much of an impression either.

When I pulled this item up, it said:

"10 used & new from $6.66 "

The price says it all - it's definitely satanic.

Not much to pay for a decent album.