We imagine Ghost frontman Tobias Forge got bored of the constant comparisons between his band and Danish occult metal warlocks Mercyful Fate roughly five minutes after people started making them.
Thankfully Tobias can finally relax, because someone has finally leapt to his defence and put the comparisons to rest – none other than Mercyful Fate shrieker-in-chief King Diamond himself.
Speaking exclusively to Metal Hammer, King pooh-poohed claims that Ghost ripped off his band, heaping plenty of praise on the Swedes along the way.
“Some people have compared the two bands, but I never thought that,” the singer told Hammer’s Stephen Hill. “I very much saw them as a Blue Oyster Cult style band. I'm sure they have a little influence from us, and that's a huge honour to hear, but they have their own style. I never felt that they were copying us. We have all these guitar solos, and they barely use any guitar solos on those first couple of albums.
“They also have a show which is completely different to ours,” he continued. “You see someone saying 'Oh they got that from King Diamond and Mercyful Fate!' but I don't think that is true. It’s not like we don’t have any humour in our shows, but it’s very grotesque and twisted. With them I see it as a lot more tongue-in-cheek. Ours is horror show, they have jokes going back and forth during the show.”
“I’m not so much into the pop side of what they do, but they’ve certainly done some very heavy songs too. They do it very well, they’re amazing songwriters.”
You can check our the comparisons yourself when Mercyful Fate headline the UK’s Bloodstock festival on Saturday August 13.
Ghost themselves appear on the cover of the latest issue of Metal Hammer, onsale now.
