Melissa (Mercyful Fate Album) - Melissa, The Skull

Melissa, The Skull

"Melissa" was the name of a skull the band was using at the time in their shows, and it is possible that the skull on the cover of the album is a reference to this. Originally, someone gave this human skull to King. Something had happened to this person as it had a heavy blow on the forehead and the top had been cut off and was attached with a small hook. On the inside of the skull, there had been a big piece that had gotten loose but had grown back onto it on the inside, and there was a tiny little hole that you could see through from the outside to the inside. So, that person would have been hit by an axe or something, right in the forehead and obviously did not die from it. So King started wondering what had happened to this person, what fate could this person have had. For some reason, King had to make up his own little story to put his own mind at peace and that's where the song Melissa came from, it was inspired by that skull. King thinks this could have been a witch, just like it could have been anything in fact, but that was just something to put himself at ease.