THE SISTERS OF MERCY Vinyl & CDs

Review: Combining industrial metal and art rock with dance-pop and darkwave-influenced post-punk, Sisters of Mercy are essential listening and an inspirational force behind some of the most important names in music. Not least Steve Albini, who is said to have modelled parts of Big Black on their sound. Part of the key to their sound is the bold, mechanical precision of a drum machine nicknamed Doktor Avalanche, which is the only thing in the band, other than frontman Andrew Eldritch that's been a constant. They gatecrashed the mainstream with the albums First and Last and Always [1985], Floodland [1987], and Vision Thing [1990], but were active long before that. This vinyl pressing of their demo tapes gives invaluable insight to their history. It's the rare demo given out to press, friends and the music industry in 1981. It's split into two, with the a-side studio being the three tracks planned for the abandoned Floorshow EP and the b-side a collection of live recordings. This is pre-internet and a representation of one of the coolest ways of trying to break a band.

Review: The Sisters Of Mercy's enduring album Floodland presents an 80s throwback; this was a time in which many bands were experimenting with gothic and shadowy musical and visual themes, and the Sisters were no exception, having been progenitors of this trend in their native Leeds since as early on as 1980, only shortly after the term "gothic rock" was coined. Floodland followed a much-mythologised tour fallout in June 1985, after which the band effectively split up; dusting themselves off, and/or rising from resurrective Transylvanian mists, they soon returned with Floodland in 1987, albeit with a revised lineup. Still aided by the trusty Doktor Avalanche, lead brain Eldritch would this time hire former Gun Club and Fur Bible bassist Patricia Morrison for performance duties; packing the hit singles 'This Corrosion', 'Dominion' and 'Lucretia My Reflection', this is a caliginous cascade of doomy sound, tempered by both lonely moments of piano catalepsy and high moments of hellish hysteria.