In the early ’80s, the Danish band Mercyful Fate pioneered a wild, theatrical, occult-heavy strain of heavy metal that proved hugely influential on all sorts of subgenres; thrash and black metal would probably look and sound massively different without the band. Mercyful Fate made two albums before breaking up in 1985, and frontman King Diamond went on to a huge solo career. In 1992, Mercyful Fate broke up again, and they released five more albums before breaking up again in 1999. Now, Mercyful Fate are once again active and working on new music. Last night in Germany, they played their first proper live show in 23 years.

This latest reunion is a long time coming. Mercyful Fate got back together in 2008 to re-record some of their old songs for Metallica’s Guitar Hero game, and most of the band joined Metallica onstage in 2011, at Metallica’s 30th-anniversary show in San Francisco. In 2019, Mercyful Fate announced plans to play 2020 reunion shows in Europe, which of course never happened. But right now, Mercyful Fate are gearing up to play virtually ever big metal-friendly European festival, and they’ll also hit Psycho Las Vegas this fall. Last night, they opened for Volbeat at Hanover’s Expo-Plaza.

As Blabbermouth reports, Mercyful Fate debuted a new song called “The Jackal Of Salzburg” at the show. (They’ve got a whole new album in the works.) Bassist Timi Hansen died of cancer in 2019, so Joey Vera, formerly of Armored Saint, is now a member of the band. King Diamond is still wearing his full evil-priest finery, and he’s still hitting impossible high-note screeches. The band’s stage set manages to incorporate both a pentagram and an inverted cross, which is just as it should be. Right now, there’s no video of “The Jackal Of Salzburg” online, but you can watch Mercyful Fate play a few classics and check out last night’s setlist below.

SETLIST:
01 “The Oath”
02 “The Jackal Of Salzburg”
03 “A Corpse Without Soul”
04 “Curse Of The Pharaohs”
05 “Evil”
06 “A Dangerous Meeting”