(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Gothic punk rock, born from the decadent rock of a decade earlier and the contemporary English "dark punk" scene (Bauhaus, Killing Joke, and Public Image Ltd), found fertile ground in Los Angeles thanks to the pioneering work of Christian Death.
Christian Death effectively continued the horror/shock tradition that began with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and passed through the Cramps. Their approach was an extreme variant, indulging in themes of necrophilia, vampirism, sleepwalking, suicide, and demonism.
The first album, Only Theatre Of Pain (Frontier, 1982), when the group was led by singer Rozz Williams and guitarist Rikk Agnew, forged a new genre: sickly dandy-style vocals, piercing guitar dissonances, funky basslines, and martial, funereal drum patterns gave rise to dark and obsessive ballads, often shifting from beginnings of gloomy, syncopated harmonies to finales of demonic voodoobilly gallops—sometimes emphasizing melody (Cavity/ First Communion), sometimes indulging in psychedelic effects (Burnt Offerings), sometimes unleashing rock and roll instincts (Mysterium Iniquitatis), and sometimes diving into hard rock riffs (Spiritual Cramp), with moments of particular allure in the Eastern-tinged Stairs/ Uncertain Journey and the epic, whirling crescendo of Romeo`s Distress.
The monotony of those lugubrious tones was avoided in the esoteric suicide anthem Death Wish (on the eponymous 1983 EP).
Their trajectory culminated with Catastrophe Ballett (L'Invitation Au Suicide, 1984). Here, unlike English horror, fear is a mental state, an existential vertigo, a subliminal disturbance, an imminent nightmare. The album contains hyper-dramatic arcane ballads, filled with echoes, otherworldly breaths, background wails, witch-like screams, spectral choirs, and liturgical organ phrases—ballads that are at times catatonic and anguished (Sleepwalk), at times martial and solemn (Androgynous Noise Hand Permeates)—proclaiming surrealism and expressionism, Bauhaus and Joy Division, as reference points for their intricate medieval-inspired figurativism. Only Williams’ dying (and monotone) recitation penalized the ensemble sound.
Ashes (Nostradamus, 1985), their stylistic peak, thus marked the transition to the new Christian Death, with none of the founding members, but led by guitarist Valor Kand and keyboardist Gitane Demone (the new lineup, also including drummer David Glass, was practically a reincarnation of Pompeii 99, who had recorded an album of the same genre for Nostradamus in 1981, Look At Yourself).
Deformities, psychic imbalances, and psychotic anxieties pervade this walk along macabre paths. An overly baroque, allegorical, spatial, and introspective album, it ranges from the voodoo dance of Ashes, with spiritual choir, boogie piano, and cosmic-psychedelic guitar (followed by a spectral procession of ghosts with tam-tam, organ dissonances, and a choir of the dead) to ballads on the soft state of “melancholia” (the illness), dark liturgies like When I Was Bed, The Luxury Of Tears, and Face, sinking into torpid and sensual vortices of macabre licentiousness, occasionally punctuated by metallic riffs and fatalistic melodies. The ensemble is now led by guitarist Valor Kand and keyboardist Gitane De Mone. David Glass’s zombie-like drumbeat adds the ritualistic impetus that had previously been missing.
After relocating to Europe, and following the departure of Williams and guitarist Narry "Bari-Bari" Galvin (who would go on to form the Mephisto Walz), their albums became a garish saga of gothic music, traversing all the most corrosive stereotypes of the genre with the most ridiculous pretensions.
Starting with the cassette The Decomposition Of Violets (ROIR, 1995 – Contempo, 1990), the last live recording with Williams, a series of increasingly pompous and pretentious concept albums followed, featuring collections of morbid liturgies, delirious lyrics, and baroque arrangements: from the mini-album The Wind Kissed Pictures (Supporti Fonografici, 1985) to Atrocities (Normal, 1986), from The Scriptures (Jungle, 1987) to All The Love All The Hate (Jungle, 1989), Valor Kand can boast of having composed some of the worst records in rock history.
Nevertheless, Christian Death remain the most influential pioneers of American horror punk. Their black masses are the product of the same cultural background that inspired the criminal violence of beach punk and, in a sense, complement its criminal spirit.
Rozz Williams disappeared from the scene for a while, then returned with the ill-fated Premature Ejaculation (who released several industrial music albums), and finally recorded two albums in collaboration with Eva O (formerly of Speed Queen and Super Heroines) in the Shadow Project.
Shadow Project (Triple X, 1991) marks a return to the gothic rock that has always been dear to Williams; on the second album, Dreams For The Dying (Triple X, 1992), by incorporating free jazz (Funeral Rites), sampling (Zaned People), and the vocal-electronic music of Diamanda Galás (Holding You Close), he demonstrates the vast chasm that separates his true gothic genius from the crude heirs of Christian Death. The slow Jewish prayer of Thy Kingdom Come and the Arabian-flavored gallop of Knight Stalker expand the repertoire of his "dark" songbook, occasionally compromising with heavy metal (and confirming his chronic lack of melodic talent).
The spoken-word album, Every King A Bastard Son (Cleopatra, 1992), is a hallucinatory snapshot of the inner ghosts that burn his damned soul. It would be followed by Whorse's Mouth (Triple X, 1996).
Meanwhile, Williams also reclaimed the rights to the Christian Death name and released Iron Mask (Cleopatra, 1992), which included only one new composition, Skeleton Kiss.
The true album marking the return of Williams’ Christian Death (with Eva O) was The Path Of Sorrows (Cleopatra, 1993), which indeed revisits the hallucinatory atmospheres of Ashes, at least on Book Of Lies and Mother. In June 1993, Williams reunited Rikk Agnew and George Belanger to reconstruct the core of the original Christian Death lineup. Iconologia (Triple X, 1993) captures the historic concert held that June in Los Angeles. Cavity, Figurative Theatre, Romeo's Distress, Spiritual Cramp, and Mysterium Iniquitatis are the gems taken from the first (and only) album recorded by this lineup ten years earlier, Only Theatre Of Pain, among which Cry Baby stands out. Subsequent "live" releases were of uneven quality. The live format prevents Williams from using studio techniques to create the Ossianic atmospheres he favors, resulting in albums that are much more "rock" than gothic.
Rage Of Angels (Cleopatra, 1994) closed the Christian Death era in an elegant fashion. Drawing on a lineup that included Paris from Shadow Project and the rhythm section of the Cradle Of Thorns, Williams delivers some of his most baroque compositions.
Premature Ejaculation is Rozz Williams’ purely instrumental project. Necessary Discomforts (Cleopatra, 1993) and Estimating The Time Of Death (Triple X, 1994) contain long suites of spectral noises. Neue Sachlichkeit (Triple X, 1994), credited to Hilter, is even more cacophonous.
The next project, in 1994, is a conventional power trio, Daucus Karota, whose first EP, Shrine (Triple X, 1994), has more than one arrow in its quiver: Stranger evokes the early Pink Floyd (the Lucifer Sam era) and the Doors (the When The Music Is Over period); Angel plunges into blues abysses worthy of Jimi Hendrix; Love Lies unleashes hard rock fever drawn from Free and Mountain. Williams has the opportunity to showcase his lush guitar style and a vocal register that is as seductive as it is dramatic, perhaps demonstrating that he wasted a career.
Singer and keyboardist Gitane Demone recorded two EPs, A Heavenly Melancholy (Cult Music, 1992) and Lullabies For A Troubled World (Cult Music, 1993), later compiled on Facets Of Blue (Cleopatra, 1993), featuring dance music more suited to a cocktail lounge than a rave. Never Felt So Alive (Cleopatra, 1994) is a semi-pornographic record credited to Demonix, and the second part of those sessions was released on The Lost Mixes (Dark Vinyl, 1999). After the live album With Love And Dementia (Cleopatra, 1995), Dream Home Heartache (Triple X, 1995) was released, credited to Demone and Williams, an album of elegant and sophisticated songs. Am I Wrong (Apollyon, 1998) pushed her further away from goth and closer to classic-format acoustic ballads. Facets Of Blue (Apollyon, 2001) is a double-CD anthology of Gitane’s career, plus a few rarities.
Throughout all her ventures (in Premature Ejaculation, Shadow Project, and last year’s Christian Death, when Eva O was still present), Williams’ career was never short of good music. What he lacked was the “political” savvy to become a star. Williams always remained the same showman: he sang like an exorcist, with a distinctly medieval inflection.
Rozz Williams committed suicide on April 1, 1998, at the age of 34.
Valor Kand's Christian Death released: Insanus, Ultio, Proditio, Misercordiaque (1990), featuringn the English Abbey Choir and the Commonwealth Chamber Orchestra, Sexy Death God (1994), the live Amen (1995), Prophecies (1996)
and the monumental concept album Pornographic Messiah (Sad Eyes, 1998).
The Bible (Holy Trinity, 1999) contains live performances and rarities.
Born Again Anti Christian (2000) seemed to close the story because
Kand and bassist Maitri formed another band, Lover of Sin, which debuted with
Christian Death Presents Lover of Sin (2002).
However,
Christian Death returned, a quartet with Valor Kand, Maitri, drummer Nate Hassan and organist Tila, and released
American Inquisition (2007),
The Root of All Evilution (2015) and
Evil Becomes Rule (2022).
