Warthur Mercyful Fate's run of reunion albums ground to a halt with 9, which highlighted the problem with Dead Again. The problem was that the band had got themselves into a cul-de-sac; if they changed up their musical style, they'd lose that classic old Mercyful Fate atmosphere and they still hadn't found a similarly compelling alternative to it, but at the same time if they stuck with their old sound after numerous reunion albums things would finally begin to get stale. So this time around they try to go a middle route between those two options, and end up with all the disadvantages of both approaches and none of the advantages.

UMUR "9" is the 7th full-length studio album by Danish heavy metal act Mercyful Fate. The album was released in May 1999 by Metal Blade Records. The album features the same lineup that recorded "Dead Again (1998)".

The music on "9" is in the trademark melodic and powerful heavy metal style that we´ve become accustomed to when hearing the name Mercyful Fate. King Diamond´s high pitched vocal style is as always one of the defining characteristis in the music. His singing style has become more an more varied since the early nineties though and he also sings in both low- and mid register vocal registers. The lyrics are about the supernatural and occult so again nothing has changed. Fans of the band will probably notice that the pace in some tracks have increased greatly though and that drummer Bjarne T. Holm utilizes the double bass drum style a lot more than on any other album by the band. Tracks like "Burn in Hell" and "Insane" are examples of this. Tracks like "Church of Saint Anne" and "Sold My Soul" are examples of the more melodic and mid-paced tracks on the album.

"9" is yet another solid and at times excellent album by Mercyful Fate and with the added speed in some tracks the album actually adds a new dimension to the band´s signature sound that is most welcome. A 3.5 - 4 star rating is warranted.