2022 was a big year for Mercyful Fate. The band played their first shows since 1999, did a full US tour, and even played a new song called "The Jackal of Salzburg". Vocalist King Diamond began talking about release schedules for both new Mercyful Fate music and his long-awaited new double album The Institute and everyone was beyond stoked. Yet here we are, still waiting.
So what's going on? According to Diamond himself in an interview with The Electric Theater With Clown, it's all still in the works. Diamond adds that the new Mercyful Fate record has a title and cover art, though the music is still being written, and that The Institute is also still being written.
"There's a lot in the works right now. I'm writing with Hank [Shermann, guitar] for Mercyful Fate and writing with Andy [La Rocque, guitar] for King Diamond and writing on my own for King Diamond. For King Diamond, it's an album that's gonna be called The Institute, which is part one of two; there'll be two full albums that will be completing that full story. As the title says, it's gonna be some creepy, weird stuff. And for Mercy, I also have the title, but I'm not giving it out to anybody at the moment. We have the front cover for the new Mercy too. It's very correct, very right for Mercyful Fate. It's very back to basics.
"For my part with both Mercy and King Diamond — even more King Diamond, I would say — all vocals are gonna be lead vocals again, like they were in the old days for me. It didn't matter if it was a choir singing on the right or the left side or whatever; they would still go in and pick up parts of the lyrics to progress the story and so on. So it's gonna be anything goes with the vocals, for sure — back to the old style. And for Mercy too; it's gonna be very old-fashioned. Hank is writing very much like the old days. And it's nice to feel that we can capture that again.
"So that's the two albums that are being worked on, that will be done by the time we go out on tour again, I'm sure."
So stay tuned. Apparently there's a King Diamond tour coming up sometime this year, too.
