Nyt olisi tarjolla toinen osa tanskalaisen Devilutionsin tuoreesta Hank Shermann -haastattelusta. Tämä haastattelu on keskittynyt Mercyful Faten alkuaikoihin. Alun perin tuo haastattelu on ollut tanskaksi, mutta eräs tanskalainen fani on kääntänyt sen englanniksi Google Translate -toiminnon avulla.
Interview with Hank Shermann about the origins of Mercyful Fate
How and when did Mercyful Fate start?
- It all actually started with a punk band named Brats, which was started in 1978. I had started playing guitar a year before, but it was pretty strong, and it was some pretty cool years in the late '70s, when the giant punk wave came across Europe, where the Sex Pistols had started in 1976, and then it just got on tracks up to 1980, when Iron Maiden started coming on the pitch and changing things. In 1979 we had already begun to have interest in Judas Priest and Sabbath, and this was reflected in Brats, which became increasingly heavy.
- The next step was to get a more heavy vocals into the band. A good friend - Ken Anthony - recommended us King Diamond, who at the time played in something called Black Rose. So we went all in and then it Saltlageret in late 1980 when he came in with makeup and a wheelchair. He was very old school, like Deep Purple and Rainbow-esque music from the 70s. So we had a meeting with King about the issues in a wine bar on the street. He had actually heard Brats' first album from 1980, and he thought that there were many cool elements in it, where those elemnts were the more heavy metal-influenced part of AC / DC and Judas Priest that $shone through.Then we made an appointment to test it in our rehearsal room out in Rødovre just before new years. Then King Diamond officially joined in early 1981, when we still were called Brats. We managed to do two concerts under the Brats name with King Diamond, one of which was in Sweden with Overdrive, a Swedish metal band, and one we played at a high school in Naestved.
- In the spring of '81 we made such a shift, where we officially became known as Mercyful Fate, where the lineup was Denner, Timi, Kim Ruzz, King Diamond and myself. King and I was pretty focused and productive, so while the others were down on the tank and buy sodas and Yankeebars, King and I rehearsed, working on riffs and ideas that later turned into some of our classic tracks like for instance 'Into the Coven ',' Desecration of Souls', 'Evil' and many others. We were very serious about everything and got a huge kick out of it. This lead to us doing some demos, which are spread around Europe and the U.S. especially Holland and San Francisco.
- We get approached by the Dutch Rave On in 1982, offering us a contract that we were happy to get. We pack as a VW van with all our gear on the roof - and it was really sick, because we just had a tarpaulin over our Marshall Cabinet, and the wheels were just waved out slightly because of the heavy lifting ... haha! We had amps and guitar in the car - it was crazy, but then we were still young and fresh and would out in the world - so there's nothing you can't do!
- We took a big step, where we made a mini album and recorded it all in 3-4 days with a mix. It was totally raw and one of the really cool ones with 4 tracks. In 1983 we got an offer from Roadrunner whom we signed with. It was a great time right there. It all grew and there was wind in the sails and we were specially popular in California, Holland, Germany and Denmark.
- King made some new types of vocals, as they had never heard before. We mixed different elements, and today I can - when I look back - see I unconsciously used both funk music and the melodic rock to blend into our heavy metal riffs. Our different style and occult image, I think, caught people's attention.
But I bet consciously to send your demo tape for example San Francisco?
- No, not at all - it was quite a coincidence that there was a guy in San Francisco, named Ron Quintana, who ran a radio called KSUF where he played our demo tapes often. But how our demo tape landed over there, I do not know. They were copied extensively, so the entire Bay Area scene was familiar with our demo tape, where Slayer, Exodus, Forbidden and all those guys come from. They were all total Mercy-freaks, especially because of our mini-album from 1982.
- I actually met Ron last week when we were in San Franciscio and it was pretty cool. You can say it was one person who helped to spread the Mercyful Fate. From there we moved on to Los Angeles and so on. The same is true in Holland, where a guy named Andre Verheusen had great share in our good start there, as he had arranged all our concerts in Holland back in the 1980s. Andre is the man who created the Dynamo festival, which was big in the 1990s.
- In the summer of 1983 we released the album 'Melissa' and already in late summer 1984 released "Do not Break the Oath '. It meant we were on tour in Italy in January of that year, and then we got a huge offer to come on tour in America. We played over there for two months with for example Exciter from Canada, including Exodus, later with Motörhead in a whole month, and it was damn cool.
- We were quite privileged in this early period in relation to what we had accomplished and experienced. We got the opportunity to come on tour with the bands before they were big yet - even Metallica was in 1984 on stage in San Francisco and jam with us.
- It was too late for us because we split in April 1985 when the King would release solo albums under his own name. You can say that Mercyful Fate didn't stop while we were on top, but we were well on the way.
What did you do then, Hank?
- Well, the band fell apart and I thought ''okay'', and it was not like I sat and cried. I was more like - ''well, okay I have to get on in the text.'' I was so hooked on playing music that I wasn't annoyed about it, and within a week I had assembled a new band. Already one month - in June 1985 - we had a contract with EMI, it was damn fast! The band was named Fate, and consisted of Bjarne Holm, Peter Steincke, Jeff Lox Limbo. Our musical style was inspired by the time melodic rock.
- The first album was a little more heavy, because I had just come out of Mercyful Fate, so I had to tune into a more melodic style. For me it was not very different. It was the same guitar, amp and pedal, that i used in Mercyful Fate.
- We managed to make two albums, and during the recording of the third i got in a verbal fight with a high producer Simon (Hanhart) who came from England and had worked with Saxon and Marillion to name a few. He was dissatisfied with my solos, I got mad and told him to leave the mixing room so I could continue myself. But later that same day he came again and marked with his fist - it was crazy.
- Then I walked away from the setup, which probably was a bit shabby at some point, but it just happened out of the thin air. A few days earlier I had talked to our keyboard player Flemming and told him - ''great, it's going great for our band'' and bang! I was out two days later - I really had not seen it coming!
- So I'm out and I fly home. EMI then has to fly a new guitar player in, for quite an amount of money and it was actually the guitarist from Level 42, who the producer knew already. In my case it was only two albums and then a goodbye. I could feel that it began to tear into my roots - which is heavy metal, and there was just metal into my life again.
- I contacted Denner, immediately, and he had started in a band that was heavy metal - so we started. Through some intermediary King heard one of the instrumental tracks we had made in 1992. When he had heard it, he said "well, what the hell, shouldn't we make Mercyful Fate again?" - The same year we were reunited. Then there came seven otherwise awesome years in the '90s - from 92-99, where we for instance toured 5-6 times in the U.S., South America and in Europe, where we made 5 albums.
It was not to start over in 1992?
- There was a natural thing here, because now that we had become somewhat legendary from start-'80s - where our albums were about ten years old, they were classics. The break had created a vacuum, and people were just ''wow'', because we had been restored. The interest was enormous, and the U.S. tour was virtually sold out in 1993 for that reason. Of course, our last album at the time 'In the Shadows' damn heavy!. We were able to resume our career and move on from there.
But why did you actually split up in 1985 - were you and King Diamond falling out or something like that?
- Well, no, there has never been any "bad feelings" or something - not quite up to today. We have, after all known each other for 30 years now. So you could say that he was very focused and had a plan for the entire King Diamond "band". We were maybe starting to go our separate ways in terms of clean clothes, but I always said 'let the music do the talking' - that's what this is about. One can never predict what is happening and there is nothing that isn't good for anything, and there may arise other new cool stuff.
- We've known each other for 30 years and have a long history together, so we are definitely like a family. So when we met the other day, it was just as if we had not seen each other for a week or day - we have quite a strong bond between us. We have grown up together and had our youth together - it gets deep into one's system. We have a really good time when we're together and have lots of fun, so it's super.
How is it to have been the inspiration for the world's greatest metal band?
- Well we're proud of the fact that we've been able to inspire Metallica in their musical development. But we are equally proud, if a guy in Nørrebro will be motivated to go into Aage (4 Sound - Ed.) And buy a cheap axe from Korea and maybe later even becomes a rock star.
- There is actually quite large internal respect for the environment and especially our first three albums are strong, and we can still inspire today. We've always been humble in our music career, and because of that I have given respect and several offers from bookers and promoters.
- I started myself because of Kiss - I had a lot of posters and records with them at home. I drove to the Lyngby shopping center on my Puch tregear and bought a black guitar, a Japanese copy of Les Paul, and I would just go home and play guitar. It was a tough ride home with guitar in hand, as I also would also revving up and down on Puch'en. So that I myself have had the same impact on others' choices in life is something that I'm proud!
Perinteisesti Swanön yksin tai bändiensä kanssa tekemät coverithan ovat olleet imo aina helkutan hyviä, mutta tämä on aikas ovela sekä biisivalintana että toteutukseltaan. Kingi itsehän kai on sanonut jossain tuon olleen hänelle mieleisin tulkinta tuon tribuuttilevyn biiseistä. 
Voisipa ostaa tuon levynsä, kun tätä kitaristiaan toisinaan kylillä näkee:
