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Long before Trent Reznor brought his brand of densely textured, hard-hitting Goth rock to the world, The Sisters Of Mercy were creating the mould with albums such as FLOODLAND. Here, front man Andrew Eldritch and company mix styles with a dark and gloomy palette. Songs are built with punishing and/or danceable drum machine tracks, guitars that alternately moan and crash, touches of '80s keyboards, and Eldritch's deeply resonant, undertaker voice, for a sound that made the Sisters one of the leading lights of the '80s Goth movement.
"Dominion/Mother Russia," the album's opener, presages industrial goth with its epic, thunderous rhythm track, wiry guitar lines and a chorus that treads that fine line between dance pop and death metal. Especially notable here is the inclusion of the band's best known single "This Corrosion," a multi-layered goth-pop gem held together by a eerie back-up choir and a driving dance beat. Though the stylistic focus of the album varies from the chilling piano balladry of "1959," to the battering ram, chamber-of-horrors hypnosis of "Lucretia My Reflection," FLOODLAND is probably the band's most cohesive and accessible album.
Live Recording
Engineers: Larry Alexander, Roy Neave, Andrew Eldritch.
Sisters Of Mercy: Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming); Patricia Morrison (vocals, guitar, keyboards).
Producers: Andrew Eldritch, Larry Alexander, Jim Steinman.
Alternative Press (11/01, p.104) - Included in AP's "10 Essential Goth Albums". Alternative Press (7/95, p.87) - Ranked #43 in AP's "Top 99 Of '85-'95" - "...FLOODLAND remains the blueprint for first-time goth rockers....Riding in on lolloping percussion, crashing out on funereal drumbeats, FLOODLAND employs everything from the kitchen sink onwards, a vampire bat out of gothic-rock hell, and the occasional presence of producer Jim Steinman only adds to the chaos..."
Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland Songs
Floodland Music Review
Average Rating: (4.6 out of 5 stars)   Classic Sisters By 1987, Andrew Eldritch had risen from the goth underground which he had been mired in (to his dismay) for much of the 80's, and he had successfully shaken off the limp hippy influences of the insufferable Wayne Hussey to emerge bigger and better than ever with Floodland, a work wholly and completely his own. This disc is unquestionably one of the most brilliant and epic pieces of recorded music to come out of the 1980's. One of the best things about it is-- try to describe it. You can't. You can't because it doesn't sound like anything else before or since. Submitted by a reviewer (Oakland, CA, USA)  Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Not bad - but missing something deeper People either tend to think that Floodland is the best thing since sliced bread or a piece of bombastic pretentious overcooked tripe. I tend to sway either way. In certain moods, this is a really good album, at other times its too heavily compressed, overdone production - put simply, its glittering surface harshness starts to really grate on me. Certainly the instrumentation is lush, the arrangements ecquisitely crafted and the lyrics charmingly mysterious. But underneath it all, as especially evident on the acoustic 1959, something's missing. 1959 is a beautiful track and sounds like it ought to tug on your heart-strings and send a shiver down your spine, but it just never gets there. And this is where the very noisy bombastic pomp of Dominion/Mother Russia, This Corrosion and Lucretia especially tends to want to overwhelm you with its incessant and unrelenting assault on the aural senses. It's only towards the end, when things settle down a bit, with Driven Like The Snow and Neverland that the album truly shines. Driven Like The Snow is sublimely evocative of dark, snow covered Caucasian landscapes and Neverland is a short, bittersweet shining jewel telling the tale of a broken mercenary. This is a good album, but the production on Vision Thing is much stronger, even though it's not liked as much by many fans. Submitted by dduprie (Melbourne, Australia) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
A Masterpiece
Featuring dark brooding vocals from Andrew Eldrich, lush synths and irresistable dance beats on most songs, Floodland is no doubt the best album The Sisters Of Mercy ever released, and one of the best albums to come out of the 80s.
This is a must have for anyone who likes gloomy dance music. On any given 'goth' club night across the country at least one song will get played from this album. Most likely This Corrosion...and the only complaint I have is that this song, as great as it is, goes on way too long.
Sadly, the Sisters Of Mercy couldn't match the creativity of Floodland and were never as good again. Submitted by a reviewer (nj,usa) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Flooded with Genius Andrew Eldrich proves that he is truely a genius with this, the second release by The Sisters of Mercy. The goth/industrial hammerings of "Lucretia, My Reflection" pre-date most modern industrial music, while "1959" sounds like it probably influenced Smashing Pumpkins' frontman, Billy Corigan. The Sisters have a masterpiece with "This Corrosion". Certainly a must own for any goth/rivethead or even any '80s pop fanatic. Submitted by a reviewer (Greendale, WI) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
energizer even dead man can feel this energy stream Submitted by hhh (chicago,ill,usa) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 0 of 1 found this helpful. This review is for a different format.
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