Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Denner / Shermann
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release: 2016
Duration: 41:17
Rating: 3.5/5
Michael Denner and Hank Shermann are names tied tightly to the legendary and sadly defunct Danish metal icons Mercyful Fate, who, by the way, opened for none other than Metallica back in 1999 at the then still-standing Plečnik “ruin” in Ljubljana. Even Hetfield and company openly admitted Mercyful Fate’s role in shaping Metallica’s early sound, and held a kind of awe for them. Well, Mercyful Fate may be gone, but the riffs remain. They live on in the heads of two former members of the band, who joined forces on a project and decided to bring them back to life.
Already with the EP »Devil’s Thomb« (2014), which heralded a fresh assault by Denner and Shermann on the metal scene, you could sense that good things were brewing in the background. The debut »Masters of Evil« is thus an album that all too boldly promised to stand up to Mercyful Fate’s output. Well, the cover itself hints at it, reminiscent as it is of the cover of the cult Mercyful Fate classic »Don’t Break the Oath«, which is hardly surprising, since the same artist made the cover for »Masters of Evil«. Thomas Holm, that is.
What »Masters of Evil« offers is, then, a sort of fly-by stroll through the Mercyful Fate discography. Apart from a track like The Wolf Feeds the Night, which comes off as “Ozzy-ish” not only in its phrase structure but also because of the vocal approach of singer Sean Peck (Cage), the rest of the material is a mix of classic Mercyful Fate from their eighties days (Son of Satan, the opener Angel’s Blood) and their later period (the nineties), as the main riffs of Pentagram and the Cross and Servants of Dagon remind us. Then again, you have to take into account how Peck’s vocals work, as his approach at times evokes the vibe typical of American speed metal acts (Escape From Hell) and, as a result, a kinship with the work of his former band Cage.
So. What we have here is a tonne of excellent guitar riffs, brought to life by seasoned masters of the metal craft, and that goes for the many melodic flourishes woven into the passages too, not to mention the deadly seasoning of solo excesses that the two “devilish” guitarists bring to the album. Sean Peck reigns supreme with his constantly shifting lead vocal melodies. In that respect his voice is powerful and commanding at every pitch. The delivery of his vocal fieriness builds steadily in power and unfolds through the glow of consistently brilliant execution.
The mood? Doomed. The album is rather dark, gloomy, at moments sinister and scary, but it’s still quite a way off the saturation of eternal-damnation atmosphere, occult blood sacrifice, horrific psychomasochism and generally the whole theater that would suit the script of a horror flick adorned with outbursts of eternal female hysteria. In that, the eternally blasphemous Mercyful Fate with King Diamond were simply unique masters, so “sipping on the magic” that you may have gotten hooked on while consuming Mercyful Fate is mission impossible this time around. Perhaps simply because Mercyful Fate were a solid, coherent group of five Danish musicians with a clear artistic focus, whereas this project is of course (in growth and development) a sort of derivative of that band, which at best can only more or less successfully recall the good old days of Mercyful Fate. The final piece, the mini-suite The Baroness, which is especially tightly characterized by sudden changes of time signature and lead motifs, represents a kind of compositional peak on the album.
The somewhat clumsy production is a bother too, aimed mainly at the drum mix in the sonic picture, which sounds thin and boxy and consequently “without real ties” to the other building blocks of the sound. By modern metal production standards, then, it’s dated, to put it mildly. A shame there’s no bigger sonic payoff here, since the drums are played by none other than the esteemed Snowy Shaw (ex-King Diamond, ex-Mercyful Fate).
Anyway, the album »Masters of Evil« very successfully gives us a peek into which school of metal Shermann and Denner come from. And as said, the bulk of the riffs, if not all of them, could easily be tied to the unique expressive charisma of Mercyful Fate in some other story. You never know? Maybe King Diamond will change his mind someday and reunite Mercyful Fate. Denner and Shermann, meanwhile, are warming up and sharpening their fingers!
Denner / Shermann – Angel’s Blood:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHoZbbxXMo8
Line-up
Michael Denner – guitar
Hank Shermann – guitar
Sean Peck – vocals
Snowy Shaw – drums
Marc Grabowski – bass guitar
Production
Michael Denner & Shermann
Tracklist
01. Angel’s Blood
02. Son of Satan
03. The Wolf Feeds At Night
04. Pentagram And The Cross
05. Masters Of Evil
06. Servants Of Dagon
07. Escape From Hell
08. The Baroness
