King Diamond Denies That Ghost Are Copying Mercyful Fate

Apparently, a lot of people have made comparisons between Mercyful Fate and Ghost, stating that the latter is ripping off the former. Well, King Diamond himself has weighed in on the matter, denying that Ghost have copied him or his bands.

“Some people have compared the two bands, but I never thought that,” King Diamond told Metal Hammer. "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 honor 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 humor 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.”

King Diamond admitted that he isn't interested by Ghost's poppier material, but that they've done "some very heavy songs too," and they're good at writing songs.

There are a plethora of shock rock artists that have rose to fame over the last several decades, so it's unfair to assume that using face paint and horror themes in a stage performance means an artist is imitating another. Ghost frontman Tobias Forge has actually named Alice Cooper as the reason that Ghost exists.

"I lack the proper words to fully explain how extremely vital he has been for the whole genre of rock and roll, really. But also speaking from a context where I guess we are also a theatrical shock-rock band, we wouldn't have been here had it not been for Alice Cooper," the vocalist said back in 2019.