Well it’s time to listen to some Heavy Metal. I have quite a few Heavy Metal and Stoner Rock records to listen to. These will take me to the middle of July. I’ll start with Melissa, the first release from Danish band Merciful Fate. Heavy Metal has many sub-genres, some would say Stoner Rock is one of them. Merciful Fate I would say falls into The New Wave of British Heavy Metal category although some credit them with being early examples of other new genres like Thrash Metal and Death Metal. Sounding a lot like Judas Priest with the same line-up of two lead guitarists, bass, drums and singer, King Diamond’s operettic screams match Rob Halford’s, in fact it’s hard to tell them apart. I bought this about three or four years ago and have not listened to it yet. It sounds good with good solos by guitarists Hank Sherman and Machael Denner. I liked the 14 minute “Black Funeral>Satan’s Fall” best. Lyrics are included on an insert and they are decidedly demonic. The song “Into The Coven” was mentioned during the PMRC hearings in 1985. Diamond also released records under his own name with some people playing in both bands. I had their second album Don’t Break The Oath on cassette as well as two King Diamond releases.