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King Diamond has revealed he’s grateful to have the opportunity to remaster his old material as he doesn’t think his past work stands up to today’s standards.
A Mercyful Fate compilation is in the works and the Danish frontman reveals that enhancing selected tracks using modern studio techniques has breathed new life into the recordings.
He tells Canada’s The Metal Voice: “I don’t like the versions which are out – I think they have been crushed to death and a lot of the original sounds have been squashed.
“One of the main reasons to remaster was to get the songs better presented on radio. But when you make them just louder – you just compress them and lose so many of the details. You crush them to death and I think there’s so much missing. There was the opportunity to do something great – so we enhanced what we could find of the old stuff.”
Diamond also says recording Mercyful Fate albums Don’t Break The Oath and Melissa in the early 80s was “like being at the dentist” as the sound engineer wouldn’t let them hear how the tracks were progressing.
He continues: “We weren’t so involved – we knew what we liked but the engineer didn’t want us in the control room. When I think of Melissa, it’s the same as when I think about Don’t Break The Oath – it was like being at the dentist, sitting in the waiting room to be the next one called in.
“It really annoyed me not to be in there and not to see what he was doing. I don’t think he trusted us – I don’t think he felt we had enough experience. When it finally started and we became involved in the actual mixing of the album, it was much faster and we got much more done.”
King Diamond stated he’s feeling better than ever after heart surgery in 2010, while the band are currently working on a follow-up to 2007’s Give me Your Soul…Please, with Hammerfall’s Pontus Norgren in as sound engineer.
They are joined on the recording by bassist Pontus Egberg, who took over tour duties following the acrimonious departure of Hal Patino. Egberg confirmed this week he was leaving his band The Poodles to work full-time with King Diamond.
