Warthur The second incarnation of Mercyful Fate goes from strength to strength on Into the Unknown, which manages to top the two preceding releases when it comes to following on from the band's first two releases. With brilliant performances all round once again and King Diamond in a particularly dramatic mood, the album includes some of the band's most compelling post-reunion songs, such as the sinister and amazingly catchy The Uninvited Guest. Though Melissa and Don't Break the Oath get most of the critical attention when it comes to Mercyful Fate's material, I'm inclined to suggest that much of the post-reunion material is at least worth a listen if you're a fan of the group's first incarnation, and if I had to pick one reunion album out of the lot I'd choose this one - but they're all sufficiently similar that it's a rather arbitrary choice in the end.

UMUR Into the Unknown is the 5th full-length studio album by Danish heavy metal act Mercyful Fate. The album was released in August 1996 through Metal Blade Records. Since the release of Time (1994), Swedish drummer Snowy Shaw has been replaced by Bjarne T. Holm but other than that there´s been no lineup changes.

The music on the album pretty much continue the distinct melodic heavy metal style, Mercyful Fate initiated on their comeback album In the Shadows (1993) and continued on Time. King Diamond´s distinct high pitched vocals defines the music but also the melodic and heavy guitar playing by Hank Shermann and Michael Denner gives away that we´re listening to a Mercyful Fate album. The addition of Bjarne T. Holm gives the music a slighty more hard rock tinged sound compared to the more metal based and technical drumming of Snowy Shaw. The omnipresent Sharlee D'Angelo delivers yet another great bass performance.

It´s been quite a few years since my last listen to Into the Unknown and I had to dig the album out of my basement to do this review. Albums that end up in my basement is never a sign that I treasure them, but it´s always interesting to see if my taste has changed in the years since my last listen or if I missed something the first time around. It´s happened before. Not this time though and listening to Into the Unknown today it´s obvious to me why I never cared much for this album. As such all the right ingredients are here and the music is unmistakably the sound of Mercyful Fate, so there´s nothing wrong in that department. The musicianship is also excellent, so again no complaints there. It´s actually far worse as it´s the material itself that are below par compared to the best material released by the band. The only two songs that rise above mediocrity are The Uninvited Guest and Kutulu (The Mad Arab Part Two) if you ask me. The rest don´t stand out much and when tracks like Deadtime or the title track do stand out, it´s not necessarily in a good way. So while all tracks contain enjoyable elements and great ideas, it´s like those great ideas don´t come together to form consistent quality tracks.

I see the above might seem a bit too negative considering that Into the Unknown overall is a pretty good heavy metal album that would leave many other metal releases behind in the dust, but I expect high quality from a band like Mercyful Fate, and when they don´t deliver fantastic releases, I´m entitled to be disappointed. That´s my privilege as a fan. So somewhere between a 3 and a 3.5 star rating is fair IMO. I´ll have to go with a 3 star rating on this one.