First and Last and Always

Performer: The Sisters of Mercy
Producer: Dave Allen
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Sisters Of Mercy: Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, programming); Wayne Hussey (guitar, background vocals); Craig Adams (guitar); Gary Marx (bass). The Sisters Of Mercy's debut, 1985's FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS, is the definitive goth record. Combining the filtered punk-inspired angst and fury of Bauhaus, a machine-honed brittleness, and the literate dourness of artists like Leonard Cohen (whose songs are referenced in both the Sisters' lyrics and by their name), it's an amazingly solid album. Highlights include "Marian (Version)" and "Some Kind of Stranger"; on the first, Andrew Eldritch's vocals (about half of which are in German) are felt rather than heard, an effect accentuated by crystalline guitar notes. The latter song is arguably the most spectacularly gloomy song that the goth movement ever produced--nearly seven and a half minutes of soaring keyboards, morose, tortured vocals, and aching, brittle guitars. Fans might wish to note the album's 1992 remastering cleans up the sound quality significantly, but whichever version you hear, this album is an extraordinary document.

Q (p.159) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "FIRST AND LAST AND ALWAYS helped crystallise goth and remains the purist's album choice." Q (12/99, p.171) - Included in Q Magazine's 'Best Gothic Albums Of All Time' - "...their tombstone....This mordant beast survives as a mission statement...for the genre: pitch-black, rock-hard, utterly oppressive, shrouded in bollocks. Black! Black!"

The definitive post-Bauhaus Goth band, the Sisters of Mercy embarked on their dark journey in the mid-1980s, led by cavern-voiced singer Andrew Eldritch. An internecine rift resulted in legal action, with two members of the band breaking off to form the Mission U.K. Eldritch and company subsequently became more popular than ever, breaking through worldwide with 1988's FLOODLAND. Though the '90s found the group largely disappearing from view, their influence on subsequent waves of Goth rock is enormous.

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