First And Last And Always - Sisters of Mercy

Hey 'Goth Kids' out there you really ought to have a good trawl through your dad's record collection and see if he has a copy of this. You might need something called a record player to get any sound out of the strange (eldritch ha ha), black (fittingly) disc that will come out of the big flat cardboard sleeve. Go on, get your dad to get the record player out of the loft and set it up. Prepare yourself for 'celtic' guitar riffs laid over a driving bass and solid drum machine and Andrew Eldritch's forced deep vocals The album starts with Black Planet - the song sounds dull, but stay with it, it is a nice warm up and brings you into the 2nd track ...  Read the complete review

In the same way that what has become known as "punk" today has very little in common with the Sex Pistols or the Damned, so todays Gothic sound is a world away from its roots. The Sisters of Mercy were always seen as the premier band of the Gothic movement, a dark and image consious wave of sound that formed in the late seventies and blossomed with the eighties. As a band the Sisters summed up what the movement was all about and this album captures the times in all its glory. Unlike todays Gothic sound, which seems to be an off shoot of metal, the original sound was under pinned by a dance feel, due to the relience by most bands on the use of a drum ...  Read the complete review

Described by Eldritch as "some good songs but dodgy production", this album is THE best Sisters album and is testiment to the multi-talented Wayne Hussey, who was the real talent in the band - proberably why Eldritch is still trying to "stir it up" with Hussey some fifteen years after he quit The Sisters. Don't beleive me that Hussey was the driving force? Listen to the early Dead Or Alive material that he was responsible for and you'll soon discover where the talent really lies. The production is really clean on this album, dispite the comments from the front man, and great effort has been put into the recordings (if you get the ...  Read the complete review

Certainly the Sisters greatest album (although some people will prefer the slightly more accessible Floodland), which really proves that Wayne Hussey was a great asset to the group. The whole thing is a dark brooding affair with Eldritch's deep booming vocals running though, it lack the dancebility of later releases but instead has darker feel. The prominate bass that is linked to Goth in many peoples minds is here in abudance in what is a sound that influenced so many subsequent bands. Whilst some of the tracks are somewhat overlooked and are likely to be forgotten after listening as such classics as 'Black Planet' and 'Marian' ...  Read the complete review