Melissa

Melissa was recorded in twelve days in July 1983 at Easy Sound in Copenhagen with the producer Henrik Lund and the engineer Jacob J. Jorgensen. The band rehearsed the songs beforehand to make the most of limited studio time; Lund had never produced a metal band and mixed the record himself, which frustrated them, though King Diamond later understood it. At the label's request they recorded Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" as a cover but dropped it. All music is by Shermann, all lyrics by King Diamond.

AllMusic's Steve Huey gave it four stars and said the basic components of the band's influential European gothic black metal sound were already in place. Rolling Stone ranked it number 17 on its 2017 list of the 100 greatest metal albums, and "Into the Coven" was on the PMRC's Filthy Fifteen in 1985. Decibel called "Evil", "Into the Coven", "Black Funeral" and "Satan's Fall" stone-cold classics. The 2005 reissue adds BBC Radio 1 session versions of "Curse of the Pharaohs", "Evil" and "Satan's Fall" and an outtake, "Black Masses". Sources differ on the date, with another giving October 30.