Led by King Diamond's vertiginous falsetto and iconic corpse paint, Mercyful Fate drilled their way into heavy metal infamy. Though formed in 1981, the band didn't truly arrive until 1983's Melissa, an intricately constructed album based on a haunting female protagonist. Occult subjects and historical settings helped make them one of thrash metal's most cinematic bands. While Metallica gleaned a lot from their atmospheric moods and relentlessly ominous riffs, there isn't a black metal band alive that doesn't owe a Satanic salute to these Danish originators.