Mercyful Fate/Kreator/Midnight - Inglewood, CA - 10/29/22
Danish heavy metal legends Mercyful Fate announced their first North American tour in over 20 years. This tour includes German thrash metal band Kreator and black-thrash band Midnight. A stacked tour like this deserves a big venue so the choice of venue for Los Angeles is the newly built YouTube Theater. Being that it was their first USA tour in over 20 years, it was surely the first time that most people attending the show would be seeing them. Even before doors opened, fans were lined up as they were eager to see and epic lineup like this.
As Midnight prepared to go on stage, the venue was about half full which wasn't too bad, but Midnight deserved better. The lights went out and the fans cheered with excitement as Midnight came on stage and started their show with Fucking Speed and Darkness. Midnight plays their music fast and loud. The only thing lacking was a mosh pit within the crowd on the floor. Regardless, Midnight blistered through their setlist which included Szex Witchery, Evil Like a Knife and You Can't Stop Steel. Midnight is one of the best choices for an opening band, so the tour was off to a great start.
Kreator released their fifteenth studio album Hate Über Alles on June 10th, 2022 and were more than ready to go on tour for the album. By now, the venue was more packed. Kreator came out and started their show with Violent Revolution. One thing you'll notice is their newest bass player Frédéric Leclercq (formerly of Dragonforce) who joined the band in 2019 after their bassist of 25 years Christian "Speesy" Geisler left. Kreator is no doubt one of the best live bands around right now. They further proved it by playing nothing but songs that drove the pits crazy. Some of those songs were Enemy of God, Phantom Antichrist and Satan Is Real. To end their set, Kreator played their most popular song, Pleasure to Kill. In the middle of it, singer/guitarist Mille Petrozza ordered the pit to split open. At his count of four, he ordered the audience to kill each other. The wall of death clashed and went full force until Kreator finished their set. They left and made way for the headlining band of the night.
By now, the venue was packed to capacity full of metalheads of all ages. A drape with Mercyful Fate's logo covered the stage as fans eagerly waited for the show to start. The lights went out once more and the full-packed venue roared with excitement as the drape came down and revealed the stage setup like a cemetery building. The band members came out one by one and started the show with The Oath. Vocalist King Diamond was the last to come out and belted his signature far-reaching falsetto voice. You'll notice that their usual bassist Joey Vera was not present. This was because he's currently on tour with his band Armored Saint. For this tour, Mercyful Fate recruited Becky Baldwin who is one of the UK's busiest bassists. The next song was another classic, A Corpse Without Soul. The third song was a brand-new song The Jackal of Salzburg which will be featured on the upcoming new album. Mercyful Fate kept up the evil music with hits like Melissa, Black Funeral and ended their show with Come to the Sabbath. The band left the stage and all seemed quiet. After a few minutes, Mercufyl Fate came back out for an encore. The encore was Satan's Fall. It was 12 minutes of pure heavy metal goodness. Mercyful Fate finished up the set, thanked the audience for patiently waiting, then left the stage once again. As fans got out of their seat, you could see nothing but smiles on their faces as they were happy to finally witness the legendary music of Mercyful Fate. Hopefully it's not a long time before they come back to haunt North America again.
Photos and review by Misael Ruiz
Mercyful Fate
Kreator
Midnight
