Mercyful Fate "Don't Break the Oath"

Don't Break the Oath is the second studio album by Danish heavy metal band Mercyful Fate, released in 1984.

The style Mercyful Fate employed on Don't Break the Oath resembled a mixture of heavy metal with progressive elements, lyrically preoccupied with Satan and the occult and distinguished by King Diamond's theatrical falsetto vocals. Although very influential to future black metal bands due to its lyrical content, the music itself is more reminiscent of traditional heavy metal. The album was remastered and subsequently re-issued on Roadrunner Records in 1997. This reissue came with the bonus track "Death Kiss (Demo)", which would eventually evolve into the album's lead-off track, "A Dangerous Meeting". Metal-Rules.com named this the greatest extreme metal album of all time.

The actual name of the song "Welcome Princess of Hell", was supposed to be "Welcome Princes of Hell". It was a title misprint, where the lyrics were correctly written in the original pressing but the title wasn't. The distinction can also be heard in the song (the prince "is" vs. prince "s"), as well as the plural connotation of the lyrics "I'm alone with my friends, We will be back, we will be back". Nonetheless, what is printed on the actual album stands as the official title.

Recorded and mixed at Easy Sound Recording, Copenhagen, Denmark in May 1984.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by King Diamond.

Side one

1. "A Dangerous Meeting" Hank Shermann 5:10
2. "Nightmare" Hank Shermann 6:20
3. "Desecration of Souls" Hank Shermann 4:54
4. "Night of the Unborn" Hank Shermann / Michael Denner 4:59

Side two

1. "The Oath" King Diamond 7:31
2. "Gypsy" Michael Denner / King Diamond 3:08
3. "Welcome Princes of Hell" Hank Shermann 4:03
4. "To One Far Away" Michael Denner / King Diamond 1:31
5. "Come to the Sabbath" King Diamond 5:19

1997 re-release bonus track

1. "Death Kiss" (demo) 4:30