KING DIAMOND's website has been updated with the following message from manager Olé Bang:

"Like said last week, more news is soon to come, however not right now, but I have received a couple of mails asking me to post a few notes about the “METALLICA event”... so here a short run down of what was going on.

It actually started a while ago, when Lars Ulrich approached the original MERCYFUL FATE members, to find out if able and willing to participate. It was all to be secret to keep in line with the surprise effect. When that was sorted, we went to San Francisco; Timi, Michael, Hank and myself from Denmark, and King obviously from Dallas.

It would be King’s first appearance since he joined Metallica on stage in Dallas, and his first since the by-pass. We were all anxious and excited about the event, and met up at the San Francisco hotel booked for us. Really nice to se the guys together again; a first time in 18 yrs.

The following morning (December 7th) we were taken to sound check, which was also kept under tight secrecy... actually had to enter the Filmore through the kitchen of a Korean restaurant, and up the fire escape staircase. Sound check was a blast for me to watch. Michael and Hang were given each a Metallica flying V-guitar’s and a bass was ready for Timi.

A few moments later the eight guys on stage went through the medley already agreed on, spending quite some time on getting detail absolutely right. King and James went over who would sing which part and after some adjustments on the monitors it ended with a complete run-through of the medley. Altogether it was a very smooth sound check, with a really nice and friendly Metallica crew, whom we all owe a huge 'Thank You'!

During sound check, both Livia and I got some photos of the action, some of which have already been posted on line. Metallica had their own photographers all over the place, so you’d surely seen the action by now.

The Filmore was set for a great evening, and we now realized who would be the other surprise guests of the evening. They turned up one by one for their sound check, and we spend some time checking out the ‘Metallica Museum’ with rare and unusual effects on display. We then had an afternoon break and returned in the evening around 9 PM.

The place was packed, and upstairs in the VIP area we had a chance to meet up with a lot of old friends in the business, whom we had not seen for years. One very important person in the Mercyful Fate history is Ron Quintana, who was partly responsible for spreading the word of the band, way back in the early 80s.

Our label boss, Brian Slagel was there, and we simply just ran into people we knew again and again. King arrived in full make-up and made his way to a small dressing room, right by the stage, at the time when LOU REED performed on stage. He might have gotten a small surprise when he got off stage, or maybe someone had warned him.

When Jason went on stage it was time for Mercyful Fate to be ready. Only a few seconds after he left stage, we heard Lars starting his story of the ‘good old days’ back in Copenhagen when recording their first albums. The next 10 minutes are documented on all the video footage much better than I can describe it... and after this there’s really not much to say.

It was an amazing experience and I believe there are loads of comments and stories about how it was to be in the audience.

The following morning we checked out and flew back home... oh yes, we did hang out for a while after the show, and yes we did go to a place for after hours drinks... but that’s another (private) story."

Check out more photos from the event from Livia Zita-Bendix at this location.

As previously reported, on December 7th, as Metallica continued their residency at The Fillmore in San Francisco in celebration of their 30th anniversary, the band invited Mercyful Fate legends King Diamond (vocals), Hank Shermann (guitar), Michael Denner (guitar), and Timi Hansen (bass) for the classic medley 'Mercyful Fate'. Check out fan-filmed footage below:

On Metallica's 1998 collection Garage Inc., they covered a medley of the songs 'Satan's Fall', 'Curse of the Pharaohs', 'A Corpse Without Soul', 'Into the Coven' and 'Evil' under the title 'Mercyful Fate'.

Metallica's setlist featured the following:

'To Live Is To Die'

'Enter Sandman'

'Holier Than Thou'

'Disposable Heroes'

'Bleeding Me'

'Wasting My Hate'

'My Apocalypse'

'Just A Bullet Away' (another unreleased track from Death Magnetic)

'Breadfan' (with MetClubber Andrew Dowis)

'The Memory Remains' (with MARIANNE FAITHFULL)

'Killing Time' (with SWEET SAVAGE's Ray Haller)

'Turn the Page' (with KID ROCK; see footage below)

'The Four Horsemen' (Full Version) (with ARMORED SAINT's John Bush)

'Iced Honey' (with LOU REED)

'The View' (with Lou Reed)

'White Light/White Heat' (with Lou Reed)

'Creeping Death' (with Jason Newsted)

'Battery' (with Jason Newsted)

'Mercyful Fate' (with King Diamond, Hank Shermann, Michael Denner, and Timi Hansen)

'Seek & Destroy' (with Jason Newsted, Scott Ian, Ray Haller, John Bush, Joey Vera, Gonzo Sandoval, and the Soul Rebels Brass Band)