There are all sorts of rumours surrounding this mini-album. Either way, it's an
Andrew Eldritch (of
Sisters Of Mercy)
project. Some rumours indicate that Eldritch
due to some dispute with Wayne Hussey kicked the entire band some time
after their album
First And Last And Always.
The kicked out members then formed the Sisterhood, a name chosen
to indicate from where they came. It is said that this pissed Eldritch off a lot
- why should they be allowed to use such an excellent band name? So, he registered it
himself (I have no idea of where; the rumour was unclear about this). When they used
it anyway he sued and was supposedly given the amount repeated over and over in 'Jihad'
(which in itself indicates some sort of feud by the name alone) in some settlement.
The former Sisters members then used the name The Mission instead, and were quite
successful under this new name. Nowadays, I think only Wayne remains in that band.
So, what does this album sound like then? Well, it's got a very distinct Sisters Of Mercy
feel to it - it's more melodic than
First And Last And Always and with
more synths, like a sort of a sneak preview of what was to come later on
Floodland. As a matter of fact, 'Colours' from this album
was later re-made for 'Floodland' in an almost identical arrangement, but with slightly
darker and rougher (and perhaps more hostile?) vocals. It's a fairly slow drum-heavy tune with very powerful synth chords
and calm deep vocals.
Speaking of vocals: I was fairly certain that Eldritch himself did the vocals
for this project, but apparently he got some vocal help from
James Ray, whose voice is nearly as good
as Eldritch's own, only slightly less rough.
The way I see it, this entire mini-album is just an extension of 'Floodland';
just as excellent, but not enough songs on it. 'Jihad' doesn't have much vocals (apart from
the female speaking the numbers mentioned above and the occasional "Jihad" shout), and
'Finland Red, Egypt White' is just spoken words taken directly from the tech specs sheets of
some machine guns and explosives, to a synth bassline and drumbeat. Very good, but they're
not exactly songs in the strict sense of the word. 'Giving Ground' and 'Rain From Heaven' are sort
of a mix between synth pop and goth rock; slow, dark, synthey, melodic - and not to forget, with
an great deep dark rough voice. They're both in the vein of 'Colours'.
So, even if Andrew Eldritch was a true bastard and a pain to work with, he sure could turn
out some very good music, which is really all I care about in this case.
