Hank Shermann – Guitar for Denner/Shermann, and Mercyful Fate

1. The Denner/Shermann band will be releasing the debut, “Masters Of Evil”, on June 24th. With you, and Michael Denner back together, has much of this album a sound and feel like Mercyful Fate?

HANK: Yeah, its kind of unavoidable, and me being much of the primary song writer. And working with Michael who helped with the arrangements and leads. Like with Mercyful Fate, I wrote many of those classic songs. But that’s the nice thing about me and Michael, we have a very distinct sound and way we compose.

2. Will Snowy Shaw be playing drums on the full length album?

HANK: Yes, and he was also a very important part to this band because he is not only a very talented drummer, but also plays other instruments. As was the bassist Marc Grabowski, and our singer Sean Peck, from the band Cage, he has a great tone and is able to do the high falsetto stuff.

3. Are there any connections between this band and you previous one Force Of Evil?

HANK: I think this one is a little more focused. This time Michael and I are a little more relaxed and comfortable with our past. I think with Force of Evil, aside from the singer being different, some songs were maybe more mainstream. I think this has much more in common with Mercyful Fate, more epic songs, and a few that are catchy as well. The album has eight songs, short and to the point, like the albums from the 80s, albums that were forty two minutes long. Just enough, and not too many tracks.

4. Obviously, its unavoidable, this band would have similarities to Mercyful Fate. Was that part of the plan to be a kind of sister band to Fate, or trying to do something a little different as well?

HANK: Well, like I said earlier, working with Michael its really unavoidable, but, not working with King Diamond with this band, we can do a couple different things. Since King is so recognizable, even though Sean is as well, he is also different, so we can take the songs to a couple different places. When we were looking for a singer, it was important to find someone who could sing the high stuff like King Diamond, but it was also looking for that Rob Halford quality because we are such fans of that early 70s Judas Priest – like “Sin After Sin”, “Sad Wings”, “Stained Class”, and “Killing Machine” are my favorite albums, and to even old Queensryche. Plus, Sean also has his own signature tone, and is a great frontman who could handle the press and opinions, Hahaha.

5. How many old Mercyful Fate songs will you play live, and have you played any concerts yet?

HANK: Yes, one show so far. And we will do a couple festivals in July. So at that one show, we did six Fate songs, because we only had the E.p. out at the time. So we of course did ‘Evil’, ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’, ‘Desecration of Souls’, ‘Into The Coven’, ‘A Corpse Without Soul’, and ‘Black Funeral’, I think those were the ones. But now that the full length album will be out I think we will still do three or four.

6. Since Snowy was one a couple Mercyful Fate albums in the 90s, would you do a couple from those?

HANK: No, its all about the Denner/Shermann Ep and “Masters of Evil”, and then the classic Mercy songs. That what everyone wants to hear, is the classics from those classic first couple Fate albums. But regardless, we still made some great songs on those 90s Merciful Fate albums. But for Michael and I to go out and play a show, we have to stick to those classics from the E.P., “Melissa”, and “Don’t Break The Oath”. King Diamond does one or two Mercy songs in his setlist, so its kinda our obligation to do a couple others you won’t hear King do.

7. Are you playing of the big European festivals?

HANK: No, we were too late, because the E.p. came out in November, and the album is just coming out this June, and those festivals are scheduled a year in advance. But we are doing one called Headbangers in Germany, and one called Metal Magic, and then looking at a European tour in Sept, maybe America in October, we have to see.

8. From what you know, how many pro shot Mercyful Fate concerts have been recorded that could be released on DVD?

HANK: The 80s there is very few recordings, nothing pro shot really. There is footage from the 90s, when we recorded for the ‘Bell Witch’ single and the video for ‘The Night’, we filmed a lot of stuff at that time. There is some footage from a 1996 concert as well.

9. Shooting any promo videos for the “Masters Of evil” album?

HANK: Yeah, but I don’t want to give anything away, we will be released a video teaser very soon, right around the release of the album at the end of June. Any day now, so keep your eye out.

10. Anything you’d like to add?

HANK: Yeah, we have song titles on “Masters Of Evil” like ‘Angel's Blood’, ‘Son Of Satan’, ‘The Wolf Feeds At Night’, ‘Pentagram And The Cross’, and ‘Escape From Hell’. So the titles are interesting and evil enough (hahaha), and the same artist who did “Don’t Break The Oath” also did this cover. It’s very reminiscent of Mercyful Fate, and Michael and I have no shame in that. It’s something old with something new.

Official website: http://dennershermann.com