Christian Bands Similar in Sound to Mercyful Fate and King Diamond?

Lately, I've been drawn to the sounds of Mercyful Fate and King Diamond. Mercyful Fate because of the high pitched vocals combined with the Black metal sounds, and King Diamond because of the energetic gothic-esque rock mixed with some gothic vocals and Progressive metal. Are there any Christian bands (or bands that don't deal with Satanism or anything too negative) that may sound like them?

The first band that comes to mind is Dark Night.  They have released 7 albums and the majority of them can be purchased at Vision Of God Records.  Here is an album sampler of their 2016 album "Day Of The Dead":





This is "When The Bell Tolls" From their last album "The Crow":





If you're not already aware of Tourniquet, their first album, "Stop The Bleeding" from 1990 has some King Diamond influence, mainly in the vocals as they are/were a thrash metal band with two vocalists (in the beginning anyway). 









Hope this helps.

Dark Night is definitely it for a copycat. It's 100% what they were going for. The albums (which I own them all) are of varying levels of quality. Some aren't good at all in my opinion and production is rough.

The debut Night of Halloween has the best musicianship. It has wonderful guitar solos and the drums don't sound as much like a drum machine like much of the rest. Not my favorite but higher up the list.

Funeral Night has great sound also. Personally it's my favorite. The songs are better and are more varied, though a little long. Guitar playing is closer to the standard of the debut.

Tales After Midnight is my second favorite. Similar comments apply to this as they do to the above. If I'm playing a Dark Night I go for this album or Funeral Night almost every time.

This sounds odd but the rest are much worse for my tastes. Maybe it's just me but some of them seem to have poor production and playing (Cemetery Porter) and others are more of a mixed bag anyway. Cemetery Porter and Zombie basically have no guitar solos. On Day of the Dead, though a pretty good album, they seem at times poorly played and are almost the same solo placed on different songs. Not sure what this band was but they have numerous copycat bands they were a part of. Check it out on metal archives. You'll see.

In the end, they are all to some degree very repetitive of one another. I used to listen to a ton of King Diamond, one of my favorite artists. Both Them and Abigail were in my top 10 albums of all time. You can literally pick out the songs they took. Most of the riffs are familiar. They nail the sound but are never ultimately as catchy.

I'd recommend trying Funeral Night if you choose to look into them. I would never buy Cemetery Porter. It is way below the quality of the rest. Don't let the remastering fool you. Nothing can save that album from its poor production.

That Dark Night stuff sounds cool. 

Also, how about Haven's Age of Darkness?

XINR
Assasin/Deadly Assasin

Frozen Fire wrote:I'd recommend trying Funeral Night if you choose to look into them. 

I would agree that Funeral Night seems to be their best release overall, from what I've listened to.   
I also like parts of Night of Halloween and Zombie.  Not crazy about Day Of The Dead and unfortunately it;s the only one available on Spotify.  As for Cemetery Porter, I like the title track but the rest is a bit dull.

I love the fact that they are out there making music and that they are at least a credible alternative to King Diamond / Mercyful Fate.  I loved "Melissa' and "Abigail" and part of "Don't Break The Oath" but would rather not listen to King's stuff due to the occultic nature of it.

Would also agree that Haven "Age of Darkness" has some strong KD / MF vibes, as well as influences from Queensryche, Metal Church, Fates Warning, and some Loudness.

Maybe I need to give Dark Night another chance.  The only one I have is Cemetery Porter.

 Temple of Blood wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6vBfJO8UBc&fbclid=IwAR3JCEI66iMASjPwS52h7BWX67vUv0FJlCeEsP9OvDNs2tDSIVqJby-3aPk&app=desktop

Why do these guys sound familiar? I know that I have heard of this band before.

average joe wrote:Why do these guys sound familiar? I know that I have heard of this band before.

I am pretty sure I posted some of their songs on a prior thread....I have also been telling friends about them because it is highly unusual to find a credible Christian version of MF/KD.

That’s right, Heirbourne members formed into Possession. Would have been cool had Possession kept the same vocal style.

its one thing to be influenced/inspired and have some similar sound to other bands, but to exactly plagiarize their sound...like carbon copy, that's just lazy and disrespectful and a sign of mediocrity.
Christian or secular, doesn't matter. Don't rip off other bands.
I mean there are bands that sound a bit, even a fair bit like other bands that influenced them, and that's OK, especially when there's so many bands in a genre that originality is near impossible(such as in death metal or black metal. But its less tolerable in thrash, heavy metal/speed metal and glam/hair metal)
But to 100% carbon copy like this Dark Night band here?

One King Diamond is cheezy enough, lol! Yes, he's legendary and cool, but yes...his vox can also be a little cheezy at times. To carbon copy them(and the music too) to be a *Christian alternative*...even cheezier.

Christian metal musicians have gotta get past this obsession with being *the Christian version of*...it comes off as lazy and patronizing pandering- which few metals ears of any religious/ philosophical view actually like. Its fine to take influence and incorporate the sounds of secular(and/or other Christian bands) but to carbon copy rip off one single nonchristian band...appeals to the lowest common denominator. I get it, when I was a Christian I wanted carbon copy *Christian versions of* bands too. At first. But didn't take me long to see that it does no one....Christian metalheads or the nonchristians they are trying to *reach* or anyone...or the bands much good. And it just alienates nonchristians as they see zero originality, just plagiarism, so it just provides *christian alternative* enclaves ...and any ministerial value is lost.
It really is just plagiarism.

At least if you're going for that, try and have at least 2-3 major influences and not just carbon copy rip off plagiarize ONE band.
Not to mention....legal issues could arise if not careful.

Contrarian Deist wrote:its one thing to be influenced/inspired and have some similar sound to other bands, but to exactly plagiarize their sound...like carbon copy, that's just lazy and disrespectful and a sign of mediocrity.
Christian or secular, doesn't matter. Don't rip off other bands.
I mean there are bands that sound a bit,  even a fair bit like other bands that influenced them, and that's OK, especially when there's  so many bands in a genre that originality is near impossible(such as in death metal or black metal. But its less tolerable in thrash,  heavy metal/speed metal and glam/hair metal)
But to 100% carbon copy like this Dark Night band here?

One King Diamond is cheezy enough, lol! Yes, he's legendary and cool, but yes...his vox can also be a little cheezy at times. To carbon copy them(and the music too) to be a *Christian alternative*...even cheezier.

Christian metal musicians have gotta get past this obsession with being *the Christian version of*...it comes off as lazy and patronizing pandering- which few metals ears of any religious/ philosophical view actually like. Its fine to take influence and incorporate the sounds of secular(and/or other Christian bands) but to carbon copy rip off one single nonchristian band...appeals to the lowest common denominator. I get it, when I was a Christian I wanted carbon copy *Christian versions of* bands too. At first. But didn't take me long to see that it does no one....Christian metalheads or the nonchristians they are trying to *reach* or anyone...or the bands much good. And it just alienates nonchristians as they see zero originality, just plagiarism, so it just provides *christian alternative* enclaves ...and any ministerial value is lost.
It really is just plagiarism.

At least if you're going for that, try and have at least 2-3 major influences and not just carbon copy rip off plagiarize ONE band.
Not to mention....legal issues could arise if not careful.

While I agree with you in some cases directly ripping off a band is lazy and artistically devoid of value, I have to say I'm a MASSIVE fan of D-Beat, and that's an entire genre of music that unashamedly is copying the band Discharge. Also, some of the "black n roll" bands who sound like total Venom clones are actually pretty decent!

I completely agree that the whole "Christian version" thing is ridiculous.  In a lot of cases I don't even think it was bands fault, they were gently pushed (or probably forced in some cases) to sound like a well known secular band by either their record label or their church.  I would like to think that the reason was that they could "reach more lost souls" that way.  Probably had more to do with simple business however.  I remember some stores would have guides that said "if you like so and so secular band you should check out this Christian band".  Problem was, the people who made the guides were so out of touch with the metal scene it was laughable.  I remember seeing stuff like "if you like Slayer you should check out Recon"!  They don't even sounds remotely alike!  No disrespect intended to Recon, their first album is pretty cool.  It was even worse when "Christian Punk" started to become mainstream.  Oh, you like Crass and Nausea?  You should check out Five Iron Frenzy! HAHA