Christian Death- Only Theater of Pain

Something interesting I’ve noticed about our information saturated and thoroughly post-modern society is that pretty much every musical genre that has been popular over the last four decades or so is currently trendy again to some degree.  This is notable because it represents a major change in mass attitudes as in previous decades there were almost always a handful of musical styles that were popular and acceptable, and another handful that were nearly universally disdained (folk music in the 70’s, disco in the 80’s, cock rock in the 90’s, etc.).  There are probably several reasons for the re-emergence of pretty much everything (perhaps western civilization has exhausted it’s share of good musical ideas?) though I’m sure one of them has to do with the amount of access we now have to free music. 

Regarding the re-established credibility of basically every kind of popular music, I want it to be clear that I haven’t said (yet) that this is necessarily a good thing; I certainly don’t condone retro movements of any kind.  However, I must admit, that it’s not all bad.  If nothing else, the level of access makes the task of establishing and understanding the historical context of a specific genre, style, or artist significantly easier.  For many, I imagine this is nothing short of a godsend.  I know it certainly would have been for me growing up, as I’ve always been deeply interested in where musical styles evolved from, and how they came about, and I remember how tough it was digging to try and find out about the largely obscured past.  So, while the modern obsession with musical trends of the past may not be doing much in the way of creating or promoting new or distinct music, when it comes to learning your history, it’s just fantastic.

So, what I’ve been trying to get to this whole time is that for many years, Christian Death were one of those bands that had been sort of canonized and everyone had heard of, but by the late 90s, ironically right around the time goths started popping up in every high school in America, many of their releases were out of print or difficult to come by.  But now, over ten years later, they’re being revived and praised, and rightly so I might add, as the originators of ‘deathrock’, a barely extant subgenre which combines goth rock with hardcore punk.  And I must say I’m quite glad, as this record puts the entire idea of ‘goth’ in perspective for me better than anything ever has, and by that I mean that this record is just amazing from start to finish, and I feel like I know now exactly what great goth music actually sounds like (and despite what the high schoolers will tell you, it’s not like Marilyn Manson or anyone in clown make-up).

As previously mentioned, the band’s style has a heavy dose of early SoCal hardcore melody (Rikk Agnew of the Adolescents was the guitarist on this record), complimented with very breathy, overly dramatic vocals, spooky, reverbed out guitars, and the occasional synth.  The band also displays debts to less expected influences from time to time including funk, gamelan music, and tape collage.  The lyrics address all manners of things sexual, deadly, and religious, with equal parts overwrought emotionality and twisted humor.  The lyrics are actually one of my favorite things about this record, and it’s safe to say that is a major rarity.

In short, this record is damn near perfect if you’re into this type of thing (I’ve played it for many who certainly are not).  So go steal it here.