Wiki
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Release Date
30 October 1983
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Length
7 tracks
"Melissa" is the full-length debut for legendary Danish proto black / heavy metal band Mercyful Fate.
Released in 1983, "Melissa" featured a unique sound for that time which was somewhere between early Judas Priest and the darker dirges of Black Sabbath chocked with a haunting and brooding evil atmosphere, aggressive musicianship, high pitched shrieks and falsettos and lyrics driven by darkness, death and Satanism. These radical and controversial elements would help inspire the future black metal scene along with acts like Venom, and later Bathory.
The album cover depicts the iconic skull "Melissa" which was later stolen by a fan at a Mercyful Fate gig. Singer/songwriter and band leader King Diamond would make frequent and sometimes veiled allusions to the skull and "Melissa" entity in other Fate albums as well. "Is that you, Melissa" from their 1993 comeback album "In the shadows" was the last known Melissa reference.
Many fans and several extreme metal polls list "Melissa" as one of the top 5-10 greatest metal albums of all time, typically just behind their follow up "Don't break the oath".
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