Warthur An interesting but, at the end of the day, not particularly essential collection of demo tracks from prior to the recording of the Nuns Have No Fun EP, this isn't exactly the most essential of Mercyful Fate releases - the absolute best songs on here were recorded in better renditions on later releases, the production is somewhat rough around the edges, and on the absolute earliest tracks King Diamond hasn't yet worked out his legendary wail. Still, this look at the band's routes is at least interesting, particularly since the unique style they developed over the course of these demos would eventually have a huge influence on the thrash metal scene.

UMUR Return of the Vampire is a compilation album by Danish metal act Mercyful Fate released in March 1992 by Roadrunner Records. The album is a compilation of early eighties demo material. Track 1-5 are from the 1981 Burning the Cross demo. track 6 is from a session the band recorded in England for Ebony Records and tracks 7-8 are from the Danger Zone demo while the last track on the compilation is the first demo track the band recorded as Mercyful Fate.

The music is heavy metal with King Diamond´s trademark high pitched vocals in front. The inspiration from seventies acts such as Uriah Heep, Rainbow and Judas Priest shine through clearly. While Mercyful Fate had some similarities with the contemporary NWoBHM scene, the band´s music was actually more rooted in the heavy metal and hard rock/ progressive rock scene of the seventies. I mention progressive rock here because Mercyful Fate on several occasions throughout their career composed long multi-part tracks. This can already be heard on these early recordings by the band in the two almost 9 minute long songs Burning the Cross and A Corpse without Soul. Many of the songs on this compilation would appear in other re-worked versions on the two first albums by the band. Some with new lyrics and other titles. The sound quality is for the most part pretty good considering that these are demo tracks from the first part of the eighties.

Personally I´m a huge Mercyful Fate fan and a compilation like this should per default be something right down my alley. Unfortunately it does leave me a bit cold. Maybe I´ve just listened to the "original" studio versions so much that these versions sound unfinished and odd to my ears but I find that it´s very seldom that I take Return of the Vampire out for a spin. Still this is an important document of how visionary Mercyful Fate were already this early in their career and a guess a 3 star rating is deserved.