The saga of new King Diamond and Mercyful Fate continues! Mercyful Fate has been working on a new album since 2020 in tandem with frontman King Diamond working on his own solo records, and it seems they're still in the demoing process. According to Mercyful Fate bassist Becky Baldwin in an interview with The Metal Voice, the new King Diamond record is in the works this year and then 2026 will be the time for new Mercyful Fate.
"So, it's in the kind of demoing process at the moment. Instrumentally, it's mostly there," said Baldwin. "And so the next step is for King to work on it, but King also needs to put out the King Diamond album this year, hopefully. So [the King Diamond album] should be this year and then he'll do a European tour, and then it's Mercyful Fate time. So it's kind of like, yeah, there's an order that things need to happen. So, hopefully this year we'll be able to start on finishing the album, like finishing it in terms of lyrics.
"'The Jackal Of Salzburg', that song has already been performed live. That's gonna be on the album. King has done some really amazing things with the demo version that he's been working on. And then, yeah, towards the end of the year, probably [Mercyful Fate will release] some singles hopefully. Or if not, then next year."
The new Mercyful Fate record will be the band's first since 9 in 1999. Mercyful Fate in 2025 is currently King Diamond alongside guitarists Hank Shermann and Mike Wead, bassist Becky Baldwin who joined in 2024, and drummer Bjarne T. Holm. As Baldwin noted, so far as we've heard is the new single "The Jackal Of Salzberg" in a live setting. Mercyful Fate returned to the stage in 2022 for the first time since 1999 for a full tour, and then played two shows in 2024 – Summer Breeze Brazil 2024 and then a show at the Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.
