The Metal Files

Mercyful Fate played Dallas on the opening night of their current tour a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately work got in the way. Things loosened up a bit and I decided to catch the final show of the tour in Atlanta and I’m glad I did.

I’d seen enough clips from the tour to see that King was on his game, especially for a 66 year old. On recent King Diamond tours he’d been using a female backup singer to help with the higher notes but apparently she wasn’t needed for this.

After an hour or so delay leaving Austin, we’re off to Atlanta on an east flight. A quick walk to the MARTA rail and I was off to my hotel which was a block off of the rail stop and a block from the venue. Perfect.

Doors were at 6 and around 5 I grabbed dinner at a little steakhouse between the venue and hotel. The burger was meh but the asparagus was good.

Once collecting my ticket at will call, I went straight into The Tabernacle. It’s an old church that’s been converted into a music venue. This place was great. I went downstairs to the basement to glance at the merch and grab a drink. The line was long so I went back upstairs to see Midnight.

The room sounded great and Midnight put on another great show. I’ve seen them a few times this year already with the last time being the night before the Fate tour started. No surprises.

Kreator was up next. I’m not a huge fan in general and only watched their last few songs. During their set I met up with some old friends and jumped in the merch line to hang out.

After Kreator finished, I moved up a little closer and waited for Fate to come on. They opened with The Oath and Corpse Without Soul and sounded fantastic. Their new single, The Jackal of Salzburg, was next. It was ok but I’d definitely need some more listens. The rest of the set never went past Don’t Break the Oath and they never deviated from the same list for the whole short tour. It would have been cool to hear some stuff from In the Shadows but oh well. The band was fantastic, too. Of course Hank Shermann and Mike Wead are beastly guitarists and fill-in bassist Becky was fantastic. My only issue was with the drummer. The dude is a total badass but was not doing some of the cool Kim Ruzz licks that I feel are signature things on those old Fate songs. No matter, I thoroughly enjoyed the set.

After the show I hung out with the Midnight guys. We went backstage for a “dummy check” to make sure they had all of their stuff and as we were leaving, I got scolded by Fate’s security for being back there without a pass. We were already on our way out, relax Ricky.

Rodney, Midnight’s road dog and merch guy, was staying in the same hotel so we went back and snoozed for a few hours before meeting up on the lobby at 5AM. Ugh. We both had 8AM flights. We jumped on the train and headed to the airport where I am writing this from. It was busy but we got through pretty quickly.

It was a short but great trip with no regrets. If/when Fate tours again, go. You won’t be disappointed.