Customer Reviews

In the Shadows (Reis)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I stayed away from MF in the 80's because of a review in Hit Parader magazine that referred to them as "satanic drivel". Big mistake! This is the first album I ever owned by MF and it contains some great songs like Egypt, Shadows, A Gruesome Time, and 13 Invitations. There is really not a bad song on the album. I dig how most of the songs do not follow the typical rock/pop song structure. The guitar harmonies are also very unique at times. I regard MF as progressive metal with all of their tempo changes and key modulations. Complex and intelligent songwriting indeed. A very talented and underrated band!

The title of my review sums it up quite adequately. Let me please explain.

I'd like to begin by saying that I am not a big KD or MF fan, but this album is nothing short of pure metal genius.

The song writing is incredibly original, and the guitar lines are some of the best MELODIC, yet dark, grinding passages I have ever heard. This is another one of the more rare albums in which every single song is equally excellent. The only song I didn't like as much was 'Return of the Vampire'. However, songs like 'The Old Oak Tree'..."blood to the ground, blood to the roots...ahhhhhh" and 13 Invitations (sent out through the night promising eternal life), and the Bell Witch with it's haunting "I am a million years, I am the BELL WITCH!" lyrics are bone chilling.

As the title proclaims 'Favorite Halloween Album', this recording gets played every Halloween in my household, and its blasted out the front of my house to greet the little goblins in search of candy and treats. It always puts me in proper spirit for that divine Pagan holiday with its dark story telling and wonderfully intoxicating music.

Metal guitar players and listeners will undoubtedly appreciate the guitar work, as it's first class and positively professional in every sense of the word. KD vocal freaks will agree; its KD all the way!

By far one of my all time metal favorites in my collection.

PR

For those who are opposed to the idea of fate, let me offer the story of my first encounter with Mercyful Fate. I was in eighth grade at the time, and being a newbie to the metal genre, I was mainly listening to acts like Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. Browsing the discount tape rack at The Wall (yes, this was a long time ago), I came across "In the Shadows" by Mercyful Fate. I hadn't heard of this band before, let alone their monumental impact on the heavy metal world, but the album cover looked enticing and the $2 price tag assured me that I wouldn't be too disappointed if the album did happen to be a flop. Upon entering my room and removing the tape from its case, I was greeted by a photo of a menacing madman in black and white corpse paint, an upside down cross adorning his forehead.

It was music unlike anything I had ever heard before, and was the only album I listed to for weeks. To this day, I still consider "In the Shadows" to be my first encounter with true heavy metal. A meager $2 gamble that forever changed my musical experience.

Though not quite up to par with Mercyful Fate's heavier material from the early 80's, "In the Shadows" is a fantastic album with only a minor amount of patchy points, and to me, the best thing King Diamond did in the 90's (be it Fate, or solo material). King's voice on the album is at a perfect equilibrium. There's still alot of the trademark falsettos on the album (as opposed to his more recent vocal outings), yet it's not overbearing as it sounds on albums such as "Abigail" or "Them", making it a great introductory album for those whose ears are still virgins to King's unorthodox singing style. Highly recommended.

As a funny denouement to my story, when I first opened up the cassette case for "In the Shadows", I noticed that Lars Ulrich played drums on the track "Return of the Vampire...1993". Being naive and unaware, I thought `wow, this no name band should probably be thankful that Lars is on this album'. Hahaha, oh how stupid I was. But seriously, this is one Hell of a comeback from one of metal's most pivotal acts. Buy.

Friends, when I die, at an absolute minimum, please pack among my provisions for the journey, the following tracks from this album: Egypt, Shadows.

King Diamonds solo rlbums never really did it for me - they lacked that raw grit in the riffs - that "chunkiness" and heaviness that MF had. Also, the concept albums stories often get in the way of concise lyrical passages, as it seems he is often trying to squeeze/shriek in tons of words to tell the story to the point that it doesn't really fit within the song structure. Andy Laroque, while an absolutely remarkable soloist, is not in the same league with Sherman and Denner in the riff department - they play these angular riffs that somehow work together. So what does this all have to do with "In the Shadows"? Well, all of the aforementioned problems are completely addressed. It has themes similar to King Diamond's solo projects, but without the forced million word vocal passages, no screaming "Grandmaaaaaaaa" or "Miriammmm", or "Jonathonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn....." 50 thousand times while describing drinking tea in a wheelchair in painful detail. No Andy Laroque - along with his "I will play the obligatory riffs for this song - so as to get to my incredible guitar solo" (and they are incredible - it may sound as if I don't like him, but I do). Instead, we get the King Daimond atmosphere, the chilling lyrics, and they are spread atop a musical backdrop that is deserving of it all - Sherman and Denner are criminally underrated - a better term may be "underknown". This work strays a bit from MF's eighties products, but mostly in the lyrics componenet, as the in your face, first person, present tense Satan-Satan-Satan stuff is exchanged for a more surreal, less straight forward story based approach, which I think displays much more musical maturity which is far less campy then their older releases. I love every track on this, my favorite being The Bell Witch. Five stars (or should it be 6!)

It's not common a band return and release a solid albun like this (maybe Deep Purple with "Perfect Strangers" achieved that. The songs are solid, compact, intelligent, the technical side is perfect, I loved it.

Rarely a band comes back to work after so long time (12 years) and makes an album so great, so full of unforgetabble lead breaks and riff by their two guitar players (at the time), Hank Shermann & Michael Denner. The album is very good from beginning to end, and one good point is that King Diamond tells us horror histories, which at least is less idiot than the Devil's worship foolish of the first two albuns (Melissa & Don't Break the Oath. Great !

This is a great comeback album. The Old Oak, Egypt, Return of the Vampire(with Lars from you know who on drums) are all awesome. Mercyful Fate is once again a metal monster and this is on of their best.Hail the King.

Forget about the wussy commercial metal that was just going out of vogue at the time, IN THE SHADOWS is the real heavy metal deal, with Fates Warning-like precision and grandeur and dark, supernatural (not really Satanic anymore) lyrics that are imbued with a wicked sense of humor. Fans of the early work will not be disappointed; newcomers may wish to collect MF's earlier work before picking this one up to get a feel for King Diamond's vocal style. Standouts include "Egypt," a continuation of sorts to "Curse of the Pharoahs," "The Bell Witch" (based on a true story), "The Old Oak," and "Is That You, Melissa?", a continuation of "Melissa," from MELISSA. All in all, this is a very good heavy metal record, and also a very good progressive metal record with a huge sense of grandeur and explosive time changes.

This was the first I had ever heard any of Mercyful Fate's work. I was very impressed. The guitar solo's all through the album are excellent. King Diamond's voice, as well as those of the band in the background fit in with the beat of the music very well. My favorites on this one are Shadows and Is That You, Melissa. Overall this is an excellent cd. I will most likely be checking out other albums by this band and would recommend other do the same.