King and the Knights of the Pentagram-Shaped Table return with 9, the best Mercyful Fate in years. Warmly produced, 9 has an immediacy past records have lacked.
They’ve cooked up the “Stone Temple Pilots’ sound,” which, despite not being terribly original, is better than imitating whatever’s popular at the moment.
This 18-minute, nine-song, self-produced EP is meant as a teaser for their produced-by-Joey-Cape (Lagwagon/My Records, duh) full-length out in early ’00.
His songs are folk ballads in the classic sense, but they refuse to wallow in the “woe is me” solipsism that makes most modern folk music the bore that it is.
Like Black Sabbath’s “Planet Caravan,” a side of The Sabbath Show that gets down-played but is as emotionally-integrated into their “thing” as the stompass is.