Timi Hansen

Timi Hansen — born in Denmark in 1958, died on 4 November 2019 — was the bassist of both bands founded by King Diamond, and the link between them. He was in Mercyful Fate from its early years and recorded Melissa (1983) and Don't Break the Oath (1984), the two albums that made the group a permanent reference for European extreme metal. When the band dissolved he followed King Diamond into the new project, and his is the bass on Fatal Portrait (1986), Abigail (1987), Them (1988), Conspiracy (1989) and The Eye (1990) — that is, on the whole classic phase. His role in that repertoire was structural. On records built around narrative, with frequent changes of tempo and atmosphere, the bass is what keeps the piece from coming apart between one passage and the next; Hansen played with steadiness and little display, exactly what the music asked for. He took part in the Mercyful Fate reunion announced in 2019, but was already ill and never made it to the stage. He died of cancer that same year, aged sixty-one.