 And here we are live on the metal voice today with the what can I say Brian's leg middle blade records The guru will say What's going on Brian? I'd be called worse Good good good What a fitting time riskful fate is on tour. They're coming to the end of their tour but nevertheless They're still going and what a great time to talk about the first two albums plus maybe a little bit about their EP Their nuns have no fun the first one that was released and I thought to myself Who can better speak to these albums than the man himself the guy who we released these suckers? We could go into the whole catalog of merciful fate, but we won't we'll just start off kind of like the first two And if everything goes well, maybe we'll revisit this show and do a part two on the rest of the catalog All right, so the big news is I have by the way nuns have no fine the EP. I Have it, but I'm not gonna show it Trouble I got in trouble when I bought it my mom got me, you know, she kind of what are you buying here? You know, so I could just I could just do a picture for everybody like that kind of thing, right? Basically When you first purchased I just like to tell everybody that I should say this first of all The whole catalog of merciful fate has been re-released. Correct. You want to speak about that first of all And King Diamond as well and King Diamond as well. So maybe just quickly just tell everybody about that They're they're available now. Yeah, so obviously I've been a massive fan of both King Diamond and merciful fate for years and years and years In fact, that was lucky enough to in the 90s Convince King and merciful fate to get together again, although they were already talking apparently And we did a bunch of phenomenal records that we won't talk about today But if you if you like the early stuff, please check out the stuff we did in the 90s So we signed both merciful fate and King Diamond put out a bunch of great records And obviously we still had a relationship with them for years So at one point Warner Brothers was being was I guess they're buying EMI or they're merging or whatever it was and The government of Europe said that it's too big a monopoly and they had to sell some of their catalog But it had to go out independent labels. So we raised our hand for could we buy the King Diamond and merciful fate stuff? And they said sure we you know negotiated a price with them We obviously had to get the bands to sign on to that it was okay with them Which of course it was and now we own all of the merciful fate in King Diamond catalog Wow at metal plate and we've obviously gone about Re-releasing it making sure that it's masterings that the King likes because some of the reissues wasn't happy with but all the Masterings of all the stuff that's currently up now Whether it's physical or digital stuff is all completely approved by King and and and merciful fate And just to start things off the they called the nuns have no fun EP. It was really merciful fate EP But it's over the years. I bought it when pretty much it came out on vinyl. I'm not gonna show it now because you know But what were did you did you did you did you discover that album? Did you discover merciful fate on that I'll more later on no it was actually earlier than that so the first time They were went to England was in 1982 And it went over with my buddy John Cronarans who you know helped me with I had a fan they had the first ever US hip-hop fanzine and We had the metal the metal mask was out at the time too So we went to London just to see the scene we got there a little bit late It's we're both big fans of the new wave of worship and metal But we went up and down the country you got to you know, I got to see girl school I got to see Saxon I got to meet and interview guys from Raven which was really interesting because they lived in Northern England and I couldn't understand anything they said But one of my friends while we were we were we were You know going around the country and had the original merciful fate demo Which most of it ended up being on the nuns have the fun thing So he gave it to us on cassette so we didn't really have a chance to listen to it But when we got to London, we had no money But we somehow somehow on a travel as we acquired a cassette tape player And the only thing we had was it was because we bought a ton of vinyl But the only thing we had was that merciful fate cassette So I think we were in London for like the last three days. We ran out of money We stayed like a bed and breakfast and you know, we bought like a loaf of bread some cheese And it's how we fly for like three days and in addition to that We listened over and over and over again to that original merciful fate demo Which at the time was this is like the heaviest thing I've ever heard my entire life So I was a huge fan of it before then and then they were actually going to be on the first metal masquerade as well But they had already signed the deal to that Ray Vaughn record So so that didn't work out But I did bring in when I started working at a record store shortly thereafter I brought in that EP and we sold tons of it. Yeah, I remember when that EP came out What were your first impressions? I Maybe I shouldn't ask this question your first impressions of that album cover. I mean it was it was edgy, right? Even for back for today. It's edgy Look, I grew up as a big kiss at Alice Cooper fans So I like people to push the envelope and clearly was pushing the envelope with that with that cover But I that's what I loved about, you know, that whole independent spirit I mean there were you know, which funder general had covers that work. Oh, yeah Around that time, you know, we're doing stuff like that. So I thought it was I thought it was brilliant And of course the the music again, I'd heard a lot of it already on that demo So I just thought it was was incredible, you know corpse without soul nuns have no fun doomed by the living dead and devil's eyes These are two four rock solid tracks and like you said it's and and you think an EP it was recorded in just what a few days or It was just done. Yeah, they didn't have a lot of a lot of money So I try to remember because the original demo had most of those on it They might have added one more song and they might have had an extra one on there But yeah that thing is just it's just insane and strange enough But nuns have no fun was probably the most melodic song and actually maybe the career of merciful fate yet it had the most sort of Outlandish lyrics, so I guess it never really became this mainstream hit because I'm assuming, you know radio Yeah, I mean, I don't think radio ever really played merciless college. You know, obviously, yeah Regular radio ever really played merciful fate So yeah, but obviously the I mean the buzz was out about them and people knew they were based on the EP and just you know So many people talked to each other about it. So people knew who they were and clearly, you know When you look at I don't know that there's a metal band that exists today That wasn't heavily influenced by merciful fate, you know the Metallica being of course, you know one of the major ones Yeah, yeah, many other other bands that just people in general actors and you know movie I mean, it's just amazing how many people, you know love king king diamond and merciful fate and all this crazy stuff When's the first time you met the band? Did you meet them like like like the whole band or just maybe king or just maybe Hank? So when they first came they first came to LA on that that first tour that they did I believe with motorhead, I think and they play the country club in LA And I briefly got to got to say hi to king. I don't think I talked to Hank I was the Hank just a point. I love Hank by the way. He's great But on that tour Hank Sherman for some reason was All was wearing all white With pink leg warmers. Yeah. Yeah, and I asked him years later like what were you thinking? He's like, I don't know. It was a big thing in Europe. I just trying to be different. It's like dude I was like, this is merciful fate. What what is happening here? So I got to meet them a little bit But I became much more friendlier with with king as once he started the solo solo thing because we had a lot of bands open Trouble for example and stuff. So so I got to become pretty friendly with king You know going to a lot of those shows, you know, and now he's you know, I'm happy to say one of my very very good friends Very cool Michael denner who I've interviewed and I've interviewed a lot of the guys over the years Well denner said when they were sort of starting off They were practicing like seven days a week non-stop like eight hours a day There was no breaks unless there was a you know a funeral or a wedding, you know kind of thing colds Sickness that they would practice and that's probably a testament to that first, you know those first records, right? the the quality of musicianship is like it's just basically You could hear the quality and the time that they spent putting those songs together. Do you do you agree or? Oh, yeah a thousand percent. I mean they were you know, they were obviously doing something extremely special and Different not just when the music but obviously, you know king vocals But they're all so heavily influenced by stuff that I grew up with too like all the 70s, you know priest and Deep purple and black Sabbath and you know all the 70s metal bands that were big big fans of but what they did And you know, this is why I always tell even bands today Like it's cool to be influenced by bands, but don't try to sound like them And what merciful faith did is it took all those influences and created something at that point? Like I'm totally different like we hadn't heard Stuff like that ever and certainly I don't think we didn't really heard vocals Like king really that way either or sense really You know, I want to tell everybody that nuns have no fun. The ep is out on metal blade records You can pick it up, you know amazon wherever you want to buy it wherever it's on streaming services Wherever you want it you can pick it up So I was I was actually I was surprised like I saw it on amazon. I go, whoa, look at this. Wow That's pretty cool. So everybody who doesn't have a copy. There it is. You can go pick it up Well, I devil eyes is one of my favorite songs off of that and and I asked king if he'd ever play it live He said no, he for whatever reason he hates that song. Really? It's like why it's one of your songs. I don't know. I just never liked that song. All right It's got a nice groove. It definitely has a knife. I think it's amazing It's one of those ones where I always like head Besides, I don't know if they ever really played it live ever. I'm not sure You know what I've noticed with king? He's transitioned from a sort of a rob halford voice on the demos And then he kind of went into his own, you know, and it's probably what you're saying You know you you take all your influences and you try to become your own identity And that's what he's done with his voice Like if you really listen to the demos you go, it's you know, it's got those false saddles But more of a a deep purple rob halford ish kind of screaming right sort of like a tail and You know falsettos Yeah, I think it was really when when he's when he started king dime The banking diamond where the falsettos came in more like if you listen to you know, even even the later Mercilface stuff he did it's he's singing in more of a lower registry. There's still the high stuff But then he can dime and he's doing more of the falsettos But you're right. So yeah great album corpse without soul to me It's I I loved it from the day I bought it, you know devil's eyes I think is a brilliant track too because it's got that groove and it's just I don't know man and doom by the living dead is just What can you say, you know, there's like a little bit of prog there too, right? There's a bit of prog happening a lot of time changes a lot of key changes Just everything's going on all at once obviously, you know, another big influence on with rush Clearly vocally and musically too. So, you know, all that stuff It can't go. It's funny because kink's favorite singer of all time is david byron from you're right. Oh, yeah Yeah, uh, in fact, he named his son byron after him. That's his favorite singer of all time You can definitely if you listen to that stuff and they're not really super popular in the states necessarily but huge over in europe If you listen to that stuff, you can definitely tell where where king got a lot of his influences But you hear the wizard right before every a king diamond show doesn't play the That's his favorite song from his favorite band. So it's a great song. All right. Here we go Let's just go into this. Here it is the day came out. This is what I picked up Yeah, it's not on middle blade records. It was on attic back then in canada. Oh, yeah, there it is Yeah, yeah, and let me tell you like back then it was like, what am I picking up? It's like I discovered this in some sort of cabin in the woods, right To the shirt right to today, but you know back then I'm like look at this strange figure called king diamond Just so you know in montreal we used to have a show called the metal files And I'm sure a lot of you know other markets in north america had like a friday night They would play on you know mainstream radio Well at night and like at 11 o'clock or 10 o'clock the metal Songs and the metal bands and that's where we you know, we we discover bands like this like merciful fate, you know All right, the production. What do you think about the production overall on on melissa? I mean, you know, it's it's one of those things where So much of the early 80s stuff There wasn't a lot of money being spent and so the production on a lot of this stuff isn't, you know, spectacular But it it works for me. My only my only complaint I've told I've mentioned this to the band before too is that the the original demos and the nuns have no fun They were the rhythm guitars like my favorite rhythm guitar sound of all time is a flying v through a marshal 100 watt amp it just that's the crushing sound of metal to me and that's what the earlier stuff had And this one they switched over to strata casters, which are great for solos But I feel not as good for the crunchy rhythms So I mean look the album is an absolute classic of all time But for me the production is Good and it's you know, it's good for that time But I think it's almost the songs that are just so the songs are so great That you know, whatever production things may not have been there for me that you kind of forget Yeah, so they brought in producer. Oh, what was his name again? You know what? I have his name here somewhere, but they brought in a famous Producer but not in the rock hard rock metal sort of sphere He was more of a star in Denmark at this one though what the guys told me over the years And he didn't understand metal at least they thought he didn't understand metal And so he pushed him out of the sort of control room when he was mixing the album I'm sure you know these stories Yep And king was he told me this king. He was like sort of like furious sitting outside What is he doing with my music? What is he doing? And so was the rest of the band Michael Denner told me that he wasn't to your point happy with the guitar sound itself The production on the guitar He thought the guitar should have been more heavier And then I think Hank Sherman told me a story about how kings somebody stole king diamonds jacket during those sessions I guess he had some sort of cool jacket and it kept disappearing somebody stole it in the control room or something Something like that happened. So there's a little little stories there. Oh Heinrich looned Heinrich loon was a producer. Yeah, yeah, I think if I remember correctly, I think that that you know They were they were signed by roadrunner records, which was their their main label This is the other labels obviously And you know case who ran roadrunners great person by the way But he came from You know, he was a major label guy. So he came from that kind of background I think that when he had merciless faith trying to get them A legitimate producer to try to you know, make them sound better more commercial Whatever so so yeah, I agree. I don't know if it was the right sound I mean, obviously the songs are so great that You I mean, there's a lot of I mean, look at metallica's records and half of their records set have have sound Floss as well and they're still amazing stuff. So yeah, but maybe that's what makes it so special the little flaws, you know And also sometimes the headbutting is what makes albums, you know, the they're sort of like the give and take Or the forcing it down, you know, one way or the other, you know, yeah And you know, maybe there's tension in the studio which makes bands more angry. I mean, I mean that's a That's an intense album and the playing on that record by everybody is super intense You know, it's interesting this album because when you put it on king diamond comes into his own Like no no longer is he that guy on the ep that kind of Reminds you a little bit about little like maybe Rob Halford, but now he's just now it's kind of like He's using two voices The falsettos for the harmonies and the lower register for the melodies and he's just taking it to another I don't think I've ever heard anyone sing like this I guess even to this day or sound so different tone wise Well, that's kind of the thing about that record too when it came out that Everything they were doing was was differently. We hadn't heard any band play with that that style and that heaviness It's certainly, you know, pain is is one one of one He's nobody like him out there And that's one of the again one of the reasons why it's they were so great and so influential It's like I mean nobody at that point had really heard what they were doing There's a few bands that you're touching on it, you know, maybe except or a couple other things that were kind of super heavy But this was uh, you know a whole whole new level You've clearly iron maiden was you know had started out there too But that really wasn't a lot of other stuff that like what they were doing at all Yeah, you know, here's here's the metal blade version. I picked it up. I thought it was so cool You know and it's got Well, actually it's in my cd player, but it's got all the same little Same little lettuce I'm doing an unboxing right here. This is exactly what's in the lp right here I mean, we're all huge music fans and labels So whenever it is the issues we try our hardest to make it as cool as possible It is it's very cool. And I just wanted to show maybe I can grab it out of my cd player here But oh, there it is. Okay, there we go You got the little album the little album cd, right? It's very cool. It's fun. It's fun to do stuff like that Absolutely. And and the sound is good. Did you remaster this or you just took it right off analog? Yeah, we've remastered everything and and with the Approval of the band members as well just to make sure they're all happy with it So you know, we've been able to upgrade the sound a little bit. I think so it sounds a little more I don't want to say modern day, but it just you know, it's just upgraded a bit. So it just sounds better basically First time you heard evil. I guess it was on the demos, right? First time you hear what's going on here. What's are this their signature song in a sense Yeah, 100% I mean that's when I first put the record on and and heard that I was like, wow, this is This is just completely insane. I mean that to begin a record I mean it's you know one of obviously the first song especially back then when you know It's vinyl and the first song in the records, you know one of the most important songs of the record You're just you're automatically like just I was just blown away by oh my god. This is insane I've never heard anything like this before Yeah, especially his vocals and and and sort of the little nuances in the musicianship as they're just you know, sort of like There's just and that goes back to michael denner what he said, you know, they used to practice practice practice practice and do Hundreds of hours of practicing and that and you could see it. You can hear it in the songs, right Curse of the pharaoh that's got to be like their big hit. We'll call it, right? The most sort of catchy Chorus, you know curse of the pharaoh. I mean they played it, you know all their shows I'm sure even king maybe tosses it in there once in a while. Yeah, it's they're playing it on on this run Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean and then into the coffin. Here's a cool story about into the coffin the prmc back in the 80s Put it on their filthy 15 list and by doing so expose the band globally So that was that was the thing that we always laughed about about that whole pmrc political thing So ridiculous was what they really ended up doing was just giving a much larger platform to all of these bands That people like oh that they get what is this is a little curious and it obviously backfired tremendously on them and Thankfully, you know, it's very occult. This album now. He's really diving into sort of the occult the dark side of things I think again michael denner told me this he goes it was actually him and again this is what he's saying it was him who introduced king to the Occult because denner's parents were sort of like into that stuff And as denner got bored of it king got more interested in it and he started writing his his lyrics Yeah, I think that we were a few people around that time in in their world that were kind of into that that sort of And king just just naturally latched on to it. He just felt felt very comfortable for him Then obviously, you know, he's to this. I mean, you know, it's interesting when you when you talk to him about stuff Like he literally is like the nicest guy ever and you know lives his life, you know, nice to everybody You know, it's great and it's just interesting when you talk to him about that sort of stuff and and the misconceptions that people have about You know, what satanists are and all these sort of things It's really fascinating because he's he's you know, I mean, obviously he's one of the experts at it now and it's not It's not at all what what people think it is. So it's it's fascinating. Yeah, I mean this record clearly I mean, I think all of his lyrics have always been Into this sort of, you know, sort of stuff at least the early merciful fate stuff was and clearly, you know, this This whole record is like like I had to buy striper to counter the the blackness of this album Do you understand that that's how I was like as a kid That was why I liked it when trouble was on the road because trouble did a lot of tours with king diamond It's always really great that you know trouble was out with king diamond Um, what I loved about into the coven, you know, it's it's that chamber music and that guitar You really didn't hear that much sort of that Neoclassical chamber music And really gave it a very scary vibe and I guess that sort of borrows from black Sabbath a little bit, right? Yeah, and I think also very rich blackmore too because you know black very rich blackmore. Yeah Yeah, you know what most of his great stuff is all his classically stuff Especially the things he did at rainbow and you could definitely hear those influences a lot I think on some of the stuff they did on this record too Yeah at the sound of the demon bell, you know, what can you say about that song? This is like a rush song, right? With those sort of intricate little tempo changes That's kind of the overlook song on the record like they don't really play it a lot You know, if you when you look at the at the list, it's like, I mean look every song on there's that I guess or whatever you want to call it But but that's probably the one that that that people, you know, don't talk about as much but it's still a phenomenal track Yeah, and of course black funeral And black funeral is sort of like the trade-off vocals that he's known for he does the deep tones and the falsetto Then the deep tones and the falsetto and he's really changing it up to the point where you think there's two different singers If you didn't know, uh, you know the band, right? Well, that's a very hell for it like too, you know, because hell for it would do the same thing In fact, when I first heard Judas Priest. I thought they had two singers I didn't realize that he but Halper was doing both of this, especially on a song like tyrant It's like really that's the same guy doing all that stuff So same thing with king and the interesting thing too about that song and a lot of the a lot of the personal faith stuff that people don't Recognize this really is true for a lot of metal that people the mooch is metal or whatever. It's so melodic I mean black funeral is a pop song. It's just it is a little now But if you look at it as as how somebody would write and construct a song, it's a pop song It's a catchy pop song The first time I first time I heard I didn't know what my sense is it was like sensorly overload on that Like I mean, what is this guy doing vocal wise? It wasn't like the beach boys, you know that kind of fun falsetto that he does This was like, you know hard hitting, you know Yeah Full on out um and and the layers the vocal layers You see I don't have a problem with the production of this album at all because To me it's perfect the way it is And if you would have changed it and they would have changed it at the time. I don't think it would have been Again, you know, I just think it's a perfect. No, I agree and that's the the funny thing You know, whatever how are these how are people perceive productions of whatever album do I've always wanted to go back and there's Certain records that I would love to remix but and we've done it a couple of times But the fans always want the original mixes. I don't care about the remixes even though You know might sound better like armored saints done some remixes of some stuff that that Because we felt especially that first album could have could have been a lot heavier But people still like the original mixes and that's that I get it because that's how you're hearing it Like I guess that's another question right there. I mean Who decides if the I guess it's the band at the end of the day, right? They they decide if that that new remaster or remix Makes sense, right? Yeah. Well, I mean look sometimes it's the labels too. It depends on you know some I mean at our label We want to make sure that the bands are happy with anything that we ever do and it comes from them Not for anything else But there are other labels that just put stuff out and remix and remaster it not even get approval from the bands So that's why I like you brian so much because not only are you the ceo of metal blade But you're also you care about the product and what you put out there under your name And you want to make sure the artists are super happy about it. Yeah, I mean look at my fan Just like everybody else is that's right. I want it to be good from a band's perspective But I also also felt from day one It's very very important that the bands have the complete control and say over how their art is made and And and advertise and all that sort of stuff because they're the ones creating the art And they shouldn't have the final say in all that sort of stuff Yeah, I got a little scared when I started reading the lyrics I didn't know what he was saying so when I bought the album and I opened up the lyrics I go what the heck's going on here. I'm not a good little christian boy anymore, right? But I kept listening more and more. I didn't care, you know, it's like What's going on and and and the way they typed it out it even looked evil like I'm I don't know I just I just don't know what it is did evil Yeah, so then satan's fallen melissa. I mean satan's fall is like the epic multi-part epic track I I think Hank Sherman was telling me just there's so many riffs in that song it just But again, it's the time that they took to put it all together. It's dynamic. It's it's just got everything It's almost like five songs in one, right? There's yes, exactly And you know people weren't really doing stuff like that back back then I mean, yeah, there were some some I love epic songs and you know since then obviously there's You know a lot of bands have done big long epics, but back then you know in the early 80s There wasn't you know, even iron maiden were doing their epics were like six seven minutes long And this is a lot longer than that So it was kind of groundbreaking in that respect too that here's this really long song that that goes in so many different directions But it's so incredibly amazing What about Tim Timmy Hansen and Kim rise I think they get under they're under the radar They get they don't get as much appreciation as they should Because when you hear the bass like the little bass runs throughout each song and the drumming They're they're working together. It's so tight and Only as an adult I can listen back and really appreciate how good these guys were but they never really got that credit Yeah, and I think it goes back to what you were talking about earlier that they're rehearsing so much that you know The rhythm rhythm section is the bass and drums right and you need that to be super tight to make it work Those guys as you just said were we're super tight and I do think that they're both Criminally underrated especially timmy like I'm not a musician But you know, I can appreciate stuff But I have to so many incredible bass players who worship Timmy I mean Joey Vera now is the new bass player in well in a lot of bands But also in in merciful fate and you know in talking to him he was You know honored to even be thought about it because he's such a fan of timby's playing and such a huge influence on him And and timmy did before he passed away give the his blessing to have joey be be in the band And our hope was you know that timmy might be able to come up and play a couple of songs Yeah, but you know, obviously sadly he passed away But yeah, you're right like they're because everything is so you know Hank and and michael denner this you know amazing guitar duo and king you have all these you know Amazing musicians with also also just a lot of they're all kind of type a personalities do Where the other guys are just kind of there and obviously kim rose, you know after merciful fate just kind of more less vanished He worked as a in some sort of That's what king said, but then I asked either hank or michael and he said he worked at some sort of employment office Sort of like you know getting people jobs, but he could have been a postal guy too. I mean People could have a lot of jobs, right? I've never got to meet him. But fortunately, which is kind of above. Yeah, kim. You know what? He's so unappreciative like on these albums. He's just it's just what a great job both them timmy Of course went on to king diamond, right? you know and You know, just again Underrated I'd say underrated bassist and more people need to know about and appreciate. Okay the last track melissa Yeah, you know, this is problem. You made least favorite track off of this record for some reason Yeah, I don't know. I mean look it's still amazing like least favorite saying You know the worst of the best, right? Um and they're playing it live on on this run too I really like it a lot and obviously, you know, king's vocals are great And I like the build-up part of it. I said it's an amazing song every song on this record is You know 10 out of 10 for me But this is probably for whatever whatever reason I think that maybe because I personally would have if I was sequencing the record I would have put this before satan's fall and have satan's fall Finish out the record because just after that Explosion of insanity. It's kind of like anything after that's going to be Going to be kind of be not a letdown, but just it's going to be It's a huff act to fall basically All right, let's pause on the album and just tell me about watching merciful You saw the merciful fate in vegas. Is that where you saw them on this tour? Yeah, at at psycho fest. Yeah, that's great Yeah, would you would you think of the whole sort of from creator to merciful fate to uh midnight, right? It was midnight. Yeah, it was midnight. Yeah Oh, no, you're talking about the tour the tour now though. They didn't play megas First of all fate played at psycho fest just themselves. They uh, oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah So I did see that and that was great. Um, but yeah, so I've saw them twice I saw the first show here in dallas and then I saw the la show Just a week or so ago. I mean, look, I'm a huge fan of midnight. I absolutely love them I've been chasing them trying to sign them for years And they didn't want to be on a real label for for quite some time But um, finally they got a manager who we know and he kind of convinced them to sign with us And yeah, they're great guys. In fact, the dallas show I got to spend And I've talked with the bass player quite a bit. He's a humongous metalhead And we've talked a lot on the phone and stuff. I never met it in person So I got it was nice that I spent about 45 minutes with them. I just talked about, you know, bands we love Which was super great. So I love them and your creator guys are super cool as well And they're always fun to watch. So it's a really great bill. I saw the bill. I'm like, wow This is really cool. I think it'll be really fun for the fans because there's three really good bands And it also exposes midnight a bit to a new audience like in in dallas People got there really early. I was kind of surprised. I think it was about 70% of the audience was there before when midnight came on and they got a really great response. So so it's been it's been fun for them and then and you know Being a massive merciful fate fan and you know having them go away in the early 80s to have them, you know Come back in the 90s and being able to work with them was tremendous And I saw so many of those shows and just didn't come back again now Uh in 2022 and they're only playing stuff for the first couple of records was It was great. It just kind of blows me away Like I don't know how many people there were in LA like 6,000 or so whatever it was a place was bad like here we are in 2022 and you know, it's it's not just It's not just old geezers like us. It's like a lot of young kids are there They're going crazy over this music that came out so many years ago that that constantly blows my mind Is is how how stuff like that stands the test of time and there's a whole new whole new generations Plural that are are getting into this and and the band still is playing. It's such a such a high level too I mean, it was the obviously the structure is amazing But the band is a good level and you know, I know a lot of people are bummed out that that that michael denner Is not in the band as well as I am but then Mike weed is an unbelievable guitar player He's kind of the secret weapon. I think of that bank is he's he nails nails everything, you know I don't want to say I don't miss michael denner because I do miss michael denner But Mike weed so amazing Part of the king diamond band too and then you have becky, right? She's the new kid on the block, right? Yeah, so when joey obviously couldn't do the us tour, which was really made him very sad, of course But he's in verse. He's in armored satan. Those are his boys. So and they're all lost, which is a great tour as well So he couldn't do it. So we're like, I mean, I mean you you're replacing, you know, timmy grabber Into joey veer like where do you go from here? So when I saw them at cycle fish were talking and they said, yeah, we hired this this girl From england named becky. I'm like, oh, okay. So I saw you know, she's got she's got a pretty large social media Following which was helps and they said she's really good And so I was like, all right. I mean I'm gonna I think I think it's a cool aspect to have a girl in the band You might as well Changes it up a bit, right? Yeah, it's it's kind of fun and I like it but she's got to play right and the dallas show I mean, first of all, I met her before the show and like very very nice Very respectful, like really really good person, which I know that's important for you know, anybody that works within the merciful fate or king diamond camp All everybody everybody surrounding him are phenomenal. They're just really great Um, so she was really cool, but she nailed. I mean, I was I told her afterwards like you were awesome You nailed it. You were great. She's great on stage. She has a great stage presence. She didn't feel You know, she wasn't scared or timid and she she she was great. She was really great That's so it's so important that people gel, right? It's not only a question. Can they play how they look and their presence? It's also how they get along with everybody on tour, right? Yep There's problematic, you know, there's issues that happen when people don't have that character, right and And from what it looks like it looks like everybody's gelling it looks like it's it's it's a good pick, right? Yeah, and it's a yeah, it's it's a I guess it's a great camp So it's fun for me to go and you know, just hang out with all these people because even the people that work for for king Like jody who is now kind of his uh his assistant on the road because his wife Who's doing it before has to stay home with her kid. So she's out and she she also plays She's been with king forever. She does grandma and all that sort of stuff She's really great and their crew people are really cool and I was very happy on this us run that their tour manager was My guy named michael latronico who is slayers tour manager forever and he's like Not only a really great guy and a really close friend of mine, but he's probably one of the best tour managers ever So when when he texted me, he said did you hear the news? I said, no, what he said? I'm gonna do merciful family. Oh, thank you That means my life a lot easier too because of course gonna run smooth Um, so pick joey. Was it the band who picked joy? Was it you who recommended joy vera? Well Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of both. I mean king was asking me, you know, what Who do you think and I said, well my obvious choice would be joey vera Uh, it just depends on because he's all these other bands that he could make the time to do it And king loved the idea because he knows joey, you know, they've they've toured together And he it was also important for king to have somebody from that same era to to be in the band Like you didn't want to have, you know, some, you know, a young kid or something being in the band It's like if somebody's going to be in this band now, then, you know, it makes sense for joey and joey Like one of the nicest people on the planet too easy to get along with and I got I got an email or uh Yeah email is an email or text. I forget. I think it was a text because thing doesn't really do email So I think I got a text room just saying like man, joey fit said so great. Thank you so much He's like he's the perfect guy and when they're over in europe doing that the summer festival stuff. So that was really cool to hear So, okay, so just for a point of clarification. Is it joey or becky? That's going to be like continuing Yeah, joey's always in the band. Yeah, becky was just a replacement for this for this one tour But yeah, it was going to be in the band joey's playing on the record and the dates they're going to do next summer at the festivals Joe will be in so he's he's in the band. He's he's definitely been that's why if you saw any of the Photos or advertisements for this tour photos of the band was was with joey Yeah in 2019 when king came to Montreal he goes he told me We're gonna do You know, we're gonna do a tour for king diamond Then we're gonna do an ep maybe for merciful fate And then we're gonna do another king diamond out But then everything went to hell because of the covet right? Yeah, so but I mean Is that the plans for a merciful fate ep with hank and the rest of the guys? No, so no, it's it's changed up a little bit. So here here the plan. So there's two songs One of it, you know, they're playing a new song in the in the set nice now, which was supposed to be out prior to all of this but uh, you know A good song I heard it. It was good. I saw everything's delayed from everything So so the first thing is they're going to finish up this means this tour is done. They're going to finish up that song It's it's mostly recorded. They're going to finish that up and we're going to put that out to the digital people On the in on the internet. Yes. So you'll be able to stream that I don't know sometime in the next few months. So there's that they have another song they've written That's also going to be be out there as well. So there'll be two merciful fate songs Out there and you know, we'll probably do some sort of vinyl thing with the two tracks as well Then we'll have a king diamond album following that up and then We'll go back to kind of the way we did in the 90s where the next record will be a full merciful fate album Is this are these shows like I just saw I just saw merciful fate What on friday in in montreal? Are these shows being recorded for any possible future Live album or I don't know if they are filming in other parts of this, you know parts of the world Yeah, we've got a ton of stuff recorded. We have stuff recorded and filmed over in europe. Um, but that's kind of a it's a King's not a huge fan of that sort of thing and and he likes to You know, it's very important to him that everything is like exactly perfect. So it's it's it's a it's a big process But I I think down the road, uh, you know, we've talked at length many many times about trying to get more Immersal fates stuff out there even like older stuff And older live shows or older stuff So we'll see there's just so much going on in his world right now that he can only You know, there's only certain things he can do and right now we need him to finish the merciful fate stuff And the king diamond the king diamond album, which is where everybody's been waiting for since All right black masses didn't make the album of melissa that was the track They weren't kind of happy with on the production, but it did go on to other sort of You know compilations over the years and other re-releases of melissa. So, you know, it is what it is I I kind of like black masses, but I don't think it does fit on the album. I don't think it ever did fit Yeah, great song. I mean, I love it. I think it would have been fine on the record if they wanted on there, but they For whatever reason they didn't but you know, the good news is all of this stuff lives on whatever other You know, there's there's that record called beginning, which is all the early demos and yeah So there's all that stuff lives somewhere, which is great. No, are you ready for it now? Yes, sir. This is probably the greatest album cover ever to come out. Look at this. This is the greatest album cover It's brilliant. I actually like the merciful fate nine album covers. She's very similar to that one and say more It's did it but uh, yeah that that's a pretty insane album cover And then when you like turn it around It's spooky especially when you're a teenager, right? It's spooky. It's a stuff you love, right a dangerous meeting So the tidbits that I have off of this album is this it's the sequencing and they didn't want side a On side b here and there was this vote that they had between the band and king was the odd man out I think he wanted the oath on side a as the first track But the the rest of the band wanted a dangerous meeting because it's more of a mid tempo thing I could see the argument both ways the oath is a phenomenal track a fast up beat track a great way to start What are your thoughts? What would you like would you like the dangerous meeting or the oath? I mean look, I love in dangerous meetings a great song For me personally, I would much rather have the oath and they they've you know began shows with the oath And it's a great opening track. So I would have I would have preferred that but you know, it's interesting when you know We talked about sequencing and it's a whole you know It's a whole different animal back then we get side one side two It was also very important that the lead song on side two was a big track You know people talk about like number of the beast and going about you know why is you know Invaders the first song of the record. It's like I mean I I love that record It's probably it is my favorite album of all time But also, you know number of the beast opens up side two like oh my god. That's like the best side two song ever Right, but I agree with what you're saying here is a very bizarre pick, right? It should have been side a and side b. I don't know Yeah, but it was there was a lot of for whatever reason There is a lot of back and especially back in the 80s where you know When you're sequencing, you know, you want people to flip the album over and have a great track Opening up side two that was kind of the way the thinking was often through this Was it kind of the thinking through the 70s too? So I mean I get it I can get both sides of this argument, but for me personally, I probably would have rather have the oath leading off though Well, you know what I think a dangerous meeting I would have been happy either way, but I think a dangerous meeting as a song is a slow grooving track Probably one of their the best songs that they've ever written It's just because it's it's just not uh, you know a full onslaught of metal There's some really good vocal lines. You know, he's really doing well on this Chass voice and it's just mixing it up and just the guitar work and And the melodies and the bass and the drums everything is perfect about that song and to me. It's like a hit single Yep, I agree And one thing that they do a lot of too that was that was really kind of classic and different at times a lot of Start stop stuff You know all these kind of you know, they switch to a whole other part of the song was completely Different than what they were doing and that was for that time there weren't a lot of bands I mean obviously rush and you know some of the progressive bands, but there weren't a lot of bands that were doing that You know that that's another thing that I always loved about them. It was just completely different All right, so then you have the second track nightmare, which always reminded me of the ending of 2112 Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan Dan if you listen carefully, that's where the rush is Interesting. Yeah, I can see that put it on put it on now. You're gonna hear and that's just the ending, you know And yeah, just the guitar harmonies, you know the chamber music on the keyboards, you know the falsetto stuff It's just super proggy song. What do you think about nightmare? Yeah, great. I mean it's a great track you know classic merciless a track and You know, I mean, yeah, I thought it was an interesting track to be the second one on the record, but You know, it kind of but the sequence does flow Really well and kind of it kind of sets you up for you know It's like kind of this is really good and then it kind of hits you in the face Like the next one death's gracious souls like hits you in the face hard It's kind of like an effect on the vocals, right and lower register And now you're it's kind of like what's called like a vocal enhancer of some sort And I might I know michael daner wrote that song too along with hank sherman and king But it's it's it that's a that's the odd odd one out of the album. I think really interesting. Yeah I mean, I love that song. I think it's tremendous. So I love it when they play it live too Which they don't do enough of you know a night of the unborn now here is like Some serious bass work and some serious vocal work And I don't know if you know He's singing sort of the the sort of the falsetto stuff, but he's singing in a minor key Like he's singing singing the scales and you're going what on earth and he's singing it high too This is not this like this is really hard to do Um But I think night of the unborn is a classic that they should play live Yeah, and that's that's classic hank sherman hank wrote that song and that's like, you know When you've listened to you know all the merciful fate stuff over the years That's that's the classic hank sherman's all just so great And then you got sigh to the oath Yeah, I mean that's that's probably my favorite song off of this record And certainly one of my favorite merciful fate songs ever like I said when they when they did When they've opened with that song live a few times just it's just just tremendous Especially live is just such a great track In munchy all they opened with it live and you know, it starts off with the rain and then the organ going and and then the whole song starts That's a nod to black Sabbath sort of those song black Sabbath, right? You know with the rain and uh But of course a much faster song and this again It's a prog this is a very proggy album with key changes tempo changes You know And guitar solos like but not Guitar solos where they're they're off for like three minutes playing just so want to like guitar solo You know just just jumping in and out, right? Breaks guitar breaks will call it. Yeah, I mean look, you know like like any second record or the first record You know they they took years to write there's there's definitely a couple songs on here that they had They'd written prior that just didn't make the record Um, you know when you're doing a second record It's you know, you have a lot less time to write and all those sort of issues But so I think they took what they did on the first record and really kind of elaborate on especially the the proggy parts Start stops the proggy parts like so much of this record has that that feel and vibe to it Where they're again, they're kind of in this territory that not really very many bands if any really done You know, I again, let's say some rush, but this is just so much heavier than rush Yeah, you know and actually it's a good point because if you listen to their demos you can hear a dangerous meeting, right? And and how they worked They're working on a song, but they didn't quite have it yet and then they turned it into a dangerous meeting Yeah, I think that was originally called death kiss and that was yeah. Yeah death kiss. Thank god. They didn't keep it as death kiss That's all I'm gonna say. Yeah, that was That was supposed to be the track that was gonna be on the first metal master bottle Oh, okay. All right. Let's move on or two. I forget Okay, and gypsy now. Here's like a grooving track. This is more of an upbeat groove to it You know a lot of people love gypsy. It's another classic Yeah, it's another great live track too because king king's vocals are just so so soaring around and yeah It's that really cool Very very melodic and very heavy again when you when you listen to this stuff This it's all these songs are so super complex, but they're also a special song like this It's a it's a pop song. It's totally it's a pop song for an evil I'm just reporting somebody now because they're putting stuff in the chat So hang on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah There's a chat going on by the way So if anybody has a question from brian, he's here Hang on there's a lot of these every time you do a live show There's people just you know putting their sort of little pornographic stuff, you know when they want to get rid of it Yep I just blocked three people There's these bots. Okay. Anybody got a question for brian is the I missed this whole chat because I'm so interested in what you're saying so Sorry, all right. So and as we go into welcome prince of hell That's the next track, you know, this is kind of like again another grooving song princess of hell princess of hell Welcome princess of hell. Oops Take two. Okay What did you think of that track? It's great. It kind of reminds me of and I don't know when I forget which songs were written when But that reminds me of like an older merciful fate kind of vibe to it But I can't there was a couple obviously talking about dangerous me There were one or two songs that that they'd written earlier that kind of re re did for this one I can't remember if that one is one, but that's a kind of old school like early early merciful fade five, which I love Uh, Gabriel saying welcome princess of hell just rules guitar work drums riffs and follow those baselines Shift and groove one of my most favorite metal songs ever. What's the story of the song? confusion jimmy I don't understand I guess it's pretty straightforward welcome princess of hell. Yeah, and you know, yeah, I mean king king was never I mean, you know, he had some songs that you that you Might not be together for the most part. He's pretty like when he's doing king diamond stuff. It's all uh, It's all stories and everything It's really great. Like when for example, I had a really great phone conversation with him I don't know what it was like when you're kind of first putting together the institute Which was going to be the title of the next record, but it's for king diamonds, but it's not But anyway, he's telling me the whole story and like he's he was doing this We did that a thing back when we had merciful fate I can't I mean he's telling me all the stories about the record and and uh, the uh What merciful fate I came down and the story and I said you've got to do like like let's do a thing Well, let's you know get all dressed up and everything and we'll put you in this really cool thing and and tell the story Of the album because it's really amazing like the stuff that's in his head that you see it in the lyrics But when he's telling you the story, it's pretty it's pretty magical So if you want if you can find that on youtube somewhere, it's pretty great Can we buy Bfjs is saying can we buy the remasters off the metal blade website? And I guess he's referring to merciful fate, right? Absolutely, and you could pick up some vodka. Can you not or is that You can't pick up the vodka on our website, but you can go to metalblade vodka.com And if you're in one of the 34 states that allows that they will ship it to Or if you're in nevada go to lee's liquors. They have it there. It's the biggest Is it only in nevada? No, no, no, it's it's it's going to be in about I think it's going to be about seven or eight states, illinois, florida Texas, utah just it's kind of the the rollout is all happening now We just did a big deal with lee's liquors in nevada, which is the largest Spirit stores in nevada. So we're pretty pretty pumped about that. That's the problem with liquor You know, it's not you can't go you can't over, you know go over the border with liquor Like if I want to order liquor You can't get it shipped to you now. They've changed the laws I think there's 34 states where you can you can have it shipped for you They said we have it at that website where you can buy it and and they'll ship it to you If you're in one of those states if you're not then hopefully that district will be there at some point Okay, last song come to the Sabbath. Oh That's the definition of a king diamond and merciful fate right there. I mean that's one bass drum there and just starting things off Um Everything great about that band the band is in that song Yeah, and that's a song that you clearly you you I would imagine the back of king's mind He was writing for for a live thing too. Because it's just so great. It's a the sing-along, you know It's it's so fun to go to shows when they play that and then the audience like sings a third of the lyrics And then you do the work It's a great sing-along song and yeah, I mean it's just a such a classic track and that's so when king was doing his solo stuff He would do come to the Sabbath in Egypt or pretty much the two mercy songs. He did. Yeah a quick funny story about about About evil. I just say Egypt evil Um quick funny story about evil. So when they were on the the mayhem for slayer was on on on that bill as well He played right before slayer. So carry king's a massive Uh, muscle fainting king diamond fan. So we were talking early in the tour I was talking to carry. I said, hey, would you want it? We've talked about evil I was like, would you want to go up and play that and I can't remember if he mentioned it to me or I mentioned to him He's like, yeah, for sure. So I got him and king together. I said, okay Kerry wants to go out and play one of the leads on evil. Can we make that happen? Like, oh my god, that'd be amazing and everybody's they're all into it So I didn't see that was the first show. So I missed like the next I don't know 10 shows or nine shows or whatever So I go to the next one. I go, hey, and you guys I went to carry you going up and playing evil. I said, no So why not? I didn't hear from king. So I go to king. I go, dude What he's I don't know. I didn't hear from Kerry didn't know what he was going to do it. So I thought I'd get you to get So so for the last Half of that tour ever long it was Kerry went up and played evil every night, which was spectacular And obviously the fans went completely nuts. So that was that was super fun So everybody who I know that went to see the merciful fate show Loved it You know a great presentation, you know great musicianship great vocals great set list For me, it was the best set list the first three albums the epian the first two albums are, you know, the great The greatest of the great Are there plans to go back out there, you know in a year or two and start playing songs from You know in the shadows time into the unknown. Yeah, I think king wanted to really Celebrate the the early merciful fate stuff on this Obviously, I'm all for that because I love that sort of stuff But but there's still a lot of really great songs I've been doing a lot of interviews because it's our 40th anniversary So I've done a ton of interviews this year and and I always talk about the 90s And you know the 90s were kind of the years that you know metal was Allegedly dying and you know or yeah, both dead or whatever You know wasn't in the mainstream, but there's a lot of really great music that came out of the 90s I I mean, we didn't do a lot of king diamond albums in the 90s I think we just won But then we did a bunch of the 2000s that are equally as great But that merciful fate stuff, man I mean it's there's a lot of it I think it stands up to the first couple of records and if you didn't if you love merciful fate Or you're just now getting to merciful fate or whatever it is and you missed out on that stuff Highly recommending you guys go back and listen to some of this. There's some really really good stuff there. So yeah, for sure They're gonna they're gonna do some more festival dates next next year Then we're gonna put on a record and then there'll be a tour to support that record All right, so what else you've got going on since we covered the merciful fate first two albums and the pay What else is going on with the metal blade? You want to promote? I'm exhausted Okay. Well, I just just uh the high level high level high level Well, it just gets you know We have like basically every big band is on the road right now. So we have obviously verse fate is out there I'm on a marth is out there kind of a corpse is out there armored saint is out there White chapels out. So you've got all these tourists I'm trying to see as many of these folks as I can because in a lot of cases I haven't seen these people for a long time like the reason I'm in Dallas is Monta Martha's playing here on Wednesday and obviously I haven't seen those guys in person for you know Uh four three years two so two and whatever I with COVID you can't remember how long it is But they're you know, really really good friends of mine, especially Johan So so it'd be fun to see them uh on uh Wednesday because I didn't get a chance to go to Europe this last summer So so I'm doing a lot of that stuff and you know, we've got a lot of you know There's a new cannibal cannibal corpses out also and there's a new cannibal corpse record coming Next year, which is already finished, which is amazing really amazing We just signed this really great band if you're into I kind of I kind of wait I just try to describe them they're cross between cannibal corpse and power trip called 200 stab wounds and The vibe on them is is insane and I saw them at play at cycle fest And you know, I don't really get excited about much these days I've seen 10 million shows and 10 million bands Especially new bands, but they blew me away. I was like, oh my god, this this band is really really incredible So super excited for that. There's a lot of good stuff. Just go go to the metalblade.com See all the good stuff Almost human, which is Ralph. He's saying all the metal master massacre albums were so important for me in the 80s Just played volume four last night. Thank you, Brian. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I appreciate that I mean, I just did I actually earlier today did an interview for uh, there's a voivod book coming out Voivod, yes. Yeah, so I did an interview today. We're talking about the metal massacre five that they were on And I was I was saying that's probably my favorite of all obviously the first one is, you know, legendary Special record, obviously, but but that's probably my favorite one Just because there's so many great bands that were on that record and ended up having, you know, really good careers So, you know, I went out to dinner with uh, from death death the be dealer Signed on I went out to dinner with him. Just uh, Pierre Jean Pierre. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome Uh, at the maiden show we we met up and we had dinner and uh, yeah, you know He's he's doing the re-release two of one of his albums. I don't know which one that I guess the second one I believe. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah, it's really cool. And that's about it, man And thank you very much for sharing all your you know, your thoughts My pleasure. I was actually going to go to that maiden show and I just My schedule's got all screwed up. I only ended up because I'm a huge Iron Maiden fan That's my place at my favorite band and I usually go to multiple shows on a tour I only made it to one as well tour Which made me bad But the next tour, uh, they're playing all my favorite songs off the new record and somewhere in time So I'll be at many many Did you ever come to Canada? Did you ever go to Montreal? Yeah I love I'm a huge hockey fan. So yes, I've been to Montreal many times. I've been to Toronto. I've been I've been to Vancouver Edmonton Calgary Toronto Quebec, you know, Laval all these I've been uh, yeah, I love it up there. I need I need to come up and get to some hockey games, too All right, call me up and go watch a hockey game. All right, my friend Thank you very much for your time and we'll talk soon and everybody go pick them up Not these but go pick up these Also Have a nice night. Yes. Thank you. Have a good one man. Take care