Ex-MERCYFUL FATE Guitarist MICHAEL DENNER To Perform The Band's Early Material At Nordic Noise 2025

Mercyful Fate guitarist Michael Denner isn't involved with the band's current iteration, so he's taking the band's old material into his own hands! Denner and members of Artillery will perform as Ardennery to perform the first three Mercyful Fate releases – Don't Break The Oath, Melissa, and the Mercyful Fate EP – at the Nordic Noise 2025 festival this May 9 and 10 at Kometen in Hvidovre, Denmark.

"It is an absolute joy to share the stage with musicians I have respected and known for decades, performing legendary songs that shaped my own career," said Denner. In the meantime, you can check out some footage of Ardennery doing their thing in 2019 below. Festival information is available here.

Denner played with the band between 1981 and 1985, again between 1993 and 1996, and then for some reunion shows in 2008 and 2011. In an interview with Chaoszine from 2022, Denner said nobody ever contacted him about the Mercyful Fate reunion and that he misses his old bandmates. Denner also praised current Mercyful Fate guitarist Mike Wead as a great guitarist who can handle his solos, which is nice.

"I [feel like] this is not my band anymore," said Denner. "I'm not part of it, because they didn't tell me; they didn't invite me. We didn't even have a discussion about it. So, of course, it took some time for me to digest it. It was quite painful, because I miss my friends from the '80s — I miss them. But not the people who [are] in the band today. I wish them the best. I mean, the better they play, the more records we can sell and the more money I will get in the end. Of course it's heartbreaking. And also to see and hear — they play my signature stuff.

"Most of the songs they play now is things I've done — I mean, my signature solos, my themes, my arrangements, my stuff. And it's another guy who plays. But then again, Mike Wead is a great guitarist, and he's still a good friend of mine. So if anyone should do the job, I'm glad it's him who did it, really. He can do the shit. That's some sort of comfort in all this agony and disappointment — that it's Mike Wead who plays. And that makes me feel good."