Mercyful Fate bootleg CDs - Gimme some baby blood!

Crush The Cross
Aardschokdag Festival Brabanthallen, Den Bosch, Holland, June 25, 1983
Metal Memory MM 90017
59:49
	1. Corpse Without Soul [sic] (7:45)
	2. Doomed By The Living Dead (5:46)
	3. Black Masses (4:56)
	4. At The Sound Of The Demon Bell (5:26)
	5. Satan's Fall (11:43)
	6. In To The Coven [sic] (4:53)
	7. The Oath (5:16)
	8. Curse Of The Pharaohs (3:59)
	9. Evil (4:17)
	10. Nuns Have No Fun (5:48)

There's a short guitar solo at the beginning of "Nuns Have No Fun," mostly consisting of the Rondo alla Turca movement from Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 11. Fantastic early gig.

The Live Oath
Trocadero Theatre, Philadelphia, PA, Feb. 18, 1995
Label unknown
68:23

Given tracklisting:	Correct tracklisting:
1. intro (The Oath)	1. The Oath (7:42)
2. The Oath	2. Nightmare Be Thy Name (3:30)
3. Nightmare Be The Name	3. The Bell Witch (4:53)
4. The Bellwitch	4. Curse Of The Pharaohs (4:20)
5. Course Of The Pharaohs	5. A Dangerous Meeting (5:34)
6. Dangerous Meeting	6. Is That You, Melissa? (5:03)
7. Is That You, Melissa?	7. Doomed By The Living Dead (5:26)
8. Doomed By The Living Dead	8. Moby Dick (Led Zeppelin cover)/ Drum Solo/The Mule (Deep Purple cover) (7:16)
9. Moby Dick, Drum Solo, The Mule	9. My Demon (5:30)
10. My Demon	10. Satan's Fall (9:44)
11. Satan's Fall	11. Satan's Fall (cont.) (3:26)
12. Come To The Sabbath	12. Come To The Sabbath (3:32)
-- --	13. Come To The Sabbath (cont.) (2:27)

Same recording as the earlier "The Oath" bootleg minus the song "Evil." This later version has inferior packaging which gives no recording/date information. Still, a great soundboard show with excellent guitar sound.

Track 8 has the beginning of Led Zeppelin's "Moby Dick," then a drum solo, and then a shortened instrumental cover of "The Mule."

Nuns Have No Fun
Dynamo Open Air Festival, Eindhoven, Holland, May 30, 1993
Morbus Records 006
79:21

Given tracklisting:	Correct tracklisting:
1. Intro	1. The Oath (intro part)
2. The Oath	2. The Oath (cont.)
3. Curse Of The Pharaos	3. Curse Of The Pharaohs
4. Into The Coven	4. Into The Coven
5. Egypt	5. Egypt
6. Doomed By The Living Dead	6. Doomed By The Living Dead/Drum Solo
7. Nuns Have No Fun	7. Nuns Have No Fun/A Corpse Without Soul (Part 1)
8. A Corpse Without Soul	8. A Corpse Without Soul (Part 2)/Guitar Solo
9. Melissa	9. A Dangerous Meeting
10. Shadows	10. Satan's Fall
11. Satan's Fall	11. Come To The Sabbath
12. Come To The Sabbath	12. Black Funeral
13. Black Funeral	13. Evil
14. Evil	-- --

I believe this is the second gig after the band reformed. Very good recording, but as it's from the audience, you can hear the crowd sing along loudly, and some even try to imitate King Diamond's falsetto (badly). This can be both hilarious and annoying.

There is a cut/short pause at 4:23 of track 9.

Return Of The Living Dead
Tracks 1-6 - Odd Fellow Palćet, Copenhagen, Denmark, Mar. 26, 1982 Tracks 7-9 - Saltlageret, Copenhagen, Denmark, Mar. 7, 1982
Metal Memory MM 90010
54:00
	1. Black Funeral (3:44)
	2. Curse Of The Pharaohs (4:36)
	3. Into The Coven (4:00)
	4. A Corpse Without Soul (8:10)
	5. Return Of The Vampire (4:34)
	6. Devil Eyes (5:19)
	7. Nightmare (6:39)
	8. Nuns Have No Fun (4:05)
	9. Satan's Fall (12:53)

As with most of the early '81-'82 Mercyful Fate audio, a lot of conflicting information about this boot. So if you have any further information that can substantiate dates, please let me know.

Bootleg gives no specific date information, just "Copenhagen, Denmark 1982." Some sources list the boot as an Oct. 5 show at Odd Fellow Palćet, but this seems unlikely since "Return of the Vampire" is in the set--note that it was played at other March '82 shows, then seems to have been dropped from the setlist completely (it was not played at the Dutch gigs in late 1982).

The last 3 tracks are from a different gig, but there's no major change in soundquality. You hear King thanking the audience at the end of "Devil Eyes" and then "Nightmare" abruptly kicks in. These last 3 tracks were all non-consecutive in their set so there are subtle fade-ins between the track indexes. I'm less confident about the dating of these tracks, though they seem to be consistently associated with Mar. 7.

"Nightmare" (aka "Dangerous Nightmare") is a later version of the early live tune "Shadow Night" with changed lyrics. It is completely different from the track on "Don't Break the Oath." As far as I'm aware only one live version exists.

There's a short distorted guitar intro/solo before "Satan's Fall." "Satan's Fall" itself is also an early version that has slightly different lyrics and some different arrangements in the middle section of the song.

Werewolves In Hilversum
Anna's Hoeve, Hilversum, Holland Jan. 20, 1984
The Return Of Hassan Mohammad Records HMR 002
25:53
	1. Intro
	2. Black Masses
	3. Curse Of The Pharaos [sic]
	4. Evil
	5. Gypsy
	6. Into The Coven

CD version of the old "Live in Hilversum" LP (the original vinyl was one of the first Mercyful Fate bootlegs ever). There's some occasional surface noise so it was probably sourced straight from a vinyl, but otherwise the sound is very good. The inserts are printed on thick card-like paper, and the back insert doesn't have any preforation marks to fold up the spines.

I'm not totally sure about the venue. This show was recorded and broadcast by the Dutch "Countdown Cafe" radio program, and you'll often find that mistakenly listed as the venue. There's no question about the date though, as before "Gypsy" King mentions they had a Dynamo show the night before.

There's a quick fade out and break at the end of track 4, but the audio on track 5 just seems to pick up right where it left off.

There's a jump/edit just as "Gypsy" ends.

It might also be noteworthy to mention that this The Return Of Hassan Mohammad Records' first release was a bootleg CD of the Brats 1980 album.

Miscellaneous

The "Sabbath of All Witches" bootleg is a black-colored CD-R.