there's much more to MF's sound than just trad heavy metal. if you listen to any of the second wave black metal outside of norway you'll see exactly why, as well. tremolo riffs and blast beats in bm weren't even prevalent until post-93.
just listen to any band like mortuary drape, necromantia, varathron, master's hammer, root, etc. and other DEFINING black metal bands of the first and second wave, the black metal becomes ABUNDANTLY clear.
sheesh
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From most obvious to least:
Song-structure, pacing, riff dynamic: Mercyful Fate are one of the earliest bands I can find that display the "surf-rock" sound that became popular for black metal bands of the second wave, the often atonal and dissonant melodies and evil-sounding chords that when played cleanly and faster sound like surf rock. This wasn't prevalent in heavy metal.
The band's riffs were a large influence on the thrashier, heavier side of metal, notably influencing early Slayer albums, and almost sounding like an early blueprint for Celtic Frost as well when they would break it down into the slower, heavier sections (again, a good example would be 0:46 onwards in 'Satan's Fall').
And their guitar solos often devolve into extremely messy, random, and atonal examples of styles later found on Slayer, Bathory, and Morbid Angel records.
These three guitar styles would often interlink into long-winded passages that would repeat cyclically together over and over again, oftentimes King Diamond bringing his voice down the low growl, also not prevalent in heavy metal.
And mentioning vocals, the vocals!: King Diamond's ultra-high falsetto was highly irregular, oftentimes becoming a piercing shriek, or turning into a very guttural spoken word. These two dynamics became a staple of black and death metal, most notably in Celtic Frost and Darkthrone ESPECIALLY when mentioning literal falsettos. King Diamond pioneered unconventional, layered, and highly effected vocals with lots of reverb.
Finally, atmosphere: the band would often employ a lot of atmospheric qualities, distorted intros, backing keyboards interlacing the heavier moments. Some attribute this as being prog-rock influenced, but their take on it most definitely was passed forward onto the way black metal bands would interpret the music in the future.
Overall, their sound can feel highly familiar when listening to bands like Varathron, Mortuary Drape, Master's Hammer, Root, Necromantia, even Mystifier, as mentioned before.
Mercyful Fate were undoubtedly one of the greatest defining bands of the first wave. And the first wave IS indeed black metal.
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