The Formative Years – Christian Death
Formed in 1979, some consider Christian Death as one of the quintessential bands that with their endeavours created the foundation for what was eventually become a mainstream phenomenon, i.e. gothic rock.
Personally, I consider the first three Christian Death albums must-haves for any underground music aficionado. Their first album Only Theatre of Pain was not only released on the fantastic Frontier Records label, but saw singer Rozz Williams join forces with Adolescents’ guitarist and song writer par excellence Rikk Agnew, which saw them write songs with a new and idiosyncratic approach defined by dirgey, doomy, effects laden riffage, tribal circular drumming and the incorporation of spooky ambient synthesizer elements.
With lyrics centred around morbid and shock value themes, it is not difficult to see that Christian Death became not merely an influential band for other outfits that followed their steps in terms of being enthralled by the gothic allure, but it becomes obvious that artists like Celtic Frost, Type o Negative, Sisters of Mercy, Danzig and others have drawn on Christian Death’s oeuvre to channel their own melange of dark music.
Having recently revisited the Rozz Williams fronted releases, the songs have stood the test of time with their dense, frighteningly beautiful compositions, Williams’ eccentric, theatrically moody persona, his gloomy, macabre and at times unhinged poetry paired with his moany delivery and the pounding, heavy, driving basslines.
Early Christian Death combined punk and gothic elements in an innovative and otherworldly manner with a heady mix of occultism and bizarre antics to create the American equivalent of what The Cure, Bauhaus and co were accomplishing in the old world, before several line-up shifted saw the DNA being diluted and the original band fell apart.
