''Don't Break the Oath'' is the second studio album by Danish heavy metal band

Mercyful Fate Mercyful Fate is a Danish heavy metal band from Copenhagen, formed in 1981 by vocalist King Diamond and guitarist Hank Shermann. Influenced by progressive rock and hard rock, and with lyrics dealing with Satan and the occult, Mercyful Fat ...

, 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 Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehoo ...

and the

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

and distinguished by

King Diamond Kim Bendix Petersen (born 14 June 1956), better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Danish rock musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his powerful and wide-ranging countertenor singing voice, in particular his far-reaching falsetto ...

's theatrical

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentou ...

vocals. Although very influential to future

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an em ...

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 Roadrunner Records is an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. History The label was launched in 1980 in ...

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". The album received critical acclaim, and ''

Metal Rules ''Metal Rules'', also known as Metal-Rules, is a heavy metal webzine created by EvilG established in 1995. Based in the province of Newfoundland, Canada, the site was founded with the goal to promote "Real Metal". It is one of the world's larg ...

'' named this the greatest

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

album of all time.

Track listing

Personnel

Mercyful Fate *

- vocals, keyboards,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

Hank Shermann Rene Krolmark (born 11 July 1958), better known by his stage name, Hank Shermann, is a Danish musician best known for his work with the heavy metal band Mercyful Fate. Career Shermann started playing guitar in 1977, influenced by the likes of Ac ...

- guitars *Michael Denner - guitars * Timi Hansen - bass *Kim Ruzz - drums *Benny Petersen - guitar (on track 10) Production *Henrik Lund - producer, engineer *Niels Erik Otto - engineer *Thomas Holm - cover art

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1984 albums Mercyful Fate albums Roadrunner Records albums