History Music / TheSistersOfMercy

* IAmTheBand: Eldritch. Especially on ''Floodland,'' where the personnel list is basically him, Patricia Morrison, a session guitarist named Eddie Martinez, the New York Choral society, and some additional producers (including no less than Jim "Bat out of Hell" Steinman!).

Somewhat more importantly, they also have ''Some Girls Wander by Mistake,'' a compilation of (most) of the singles and [=EPs=] they released during the early '80s before they actually had a recording contract. It contains many of their best (and a few of their worst, and they'll tell you that) songs. None of these albums sound anything like each other, except for Eldritch's [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] ish vocal style. ''Some Girls'' was about icy, mechanical drum machine beats coupled with deep bass and high end, minimal guitar riffs ("Alice" is notable because... Well, because it's awesome, but also because the riff is almost always mistaken for Music/{{ACDC}}'s "Thunderstruck" from 8 years later. The riffs are both one string wonders using the same string). Note that Eldritch plays the drums quite horrendously on "The Damage Done," although most the other stuff on the the album use a drum machine. Most of the Sisters' imitators (and they have many) tend to use the early ''Some Girls Wander by Mistake'' stuff as their template.

* IntercourseWithYou: "Some Kind of Stranger" turned from a love song to one of these. There's also "Bury Me Deep" and "You Could Be the One," a very ironic song of this category.

* CoverVersion: "1969" by Music/TheStooges, "Gimme Shelter" by Music/TheRollingStones (on ''Some Girls Wander By Mistake''), "Sister Ray" by the Music/VelvetUnderground, "Ghost Rider" by Music/{{Suicide}}, the old staple "Louie Louie," "The Sisters of Mercy" by Music/LeonardCohen (a live staple), "Emma" by Hot Chocolate (a bonus track on the 2006 copy of ''Floodland''), and "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton is another live favourite.

''Vision Thing'' is a fairly straight (except maybe for "Ribbons") guitar rock album with a political bent that tends to split fans down the middle. It's currently the band's last studio release (barring two new-ish tracks on the compilation album ''A Slight Case of Overbombing'' and the gag album ''Go Figure'' released in '97 under the name SSV to escape a record contract) after Eldritch started arguing with his record label. This means their last studio album was released in 1990 and their last released studio recording came out in 1992 (or 1997 depending on your stance on the SSV project, but the band has kept on trucking on and off since then, still primarily centred around Eldritch and Doktor Avalanche.

Somewhat more importantly, they also have ''Some Girls Wander by Mistake,'' a compilation of (most) of the singles and [=EPs=] they released during the early '80s before they actually had a recording contract. It contains many of their best (and a few of their worst, and they'll tell you that) songs. None of these albums sound anything like each other, except for Eldritch's [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] ish vocal style. ''Some Girls'' was about icy, mechanical drum machine beats coupled with deep bass and high end, minimal guitar riffs ("Alice" is notable because... Well, because it's awesome, but also because the riff is almost always mistaken for Music/{{ACDC}}'s "Thunderstruck" from 8 years later. The riffs are both one string wonders using the same string). Note that Eldritch plays the drums quite horrendously on "The Damage Done," although most the other stuff on the the album use a drum machine.

''Vision Thing'' is a fairly straight (except maybe for "Ribbons") guitar rock album with a political bent that tends to split fans down the middle. Most of the Sister's imitators (and they have many) tend to use the early ''Some Girls Wander by Mistake'' stuff as their template.

---> "There's something about the American public taken as a whole that requires some sort of animal at the back thwacking things. I can't understand it. I've always thought that The Doktor was a much more ruthless and monstrous idea."

* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Andrew believes so, which is why he uses Doktor Avalanche, believing that it's more ruthless and monstrous.

Oddly enough, the most depressing song they've ever done was a ''Hot Chocolate'' cover[[labelnote:Note]]If you're wondering, the song in question is "Emma", which, being about a girl who kills herself because she can't achieve her dreams, was pretty damn depressing to start with.[[/labelnote]]

Oddly enough, the most depressing song they've ever done was a ''Hot Chocolate'' cover.

''Vision Thing'' is a fairly straight (except maybe for "Ribbons") guitar rock album with a political bent that tends to [[BaseBreaker split fans down the middle.]] Most of the Sister's imitators (and they have many) tend to use the early ''Some Girls Wander by Mistake'' stuff as their template.

In the temple of love, hear my name.''\\

In the temple of love, hear my name.\\

* [[CrazyCatLady Crazy Cat Man]]: Eldritch. Well, not quite.

* IncrediblyLamePun: "Ribbons" goofs on the title of a classic pop song with the lyric "Love is a many splintered thing."

* CoverVersion: "1969" by Music/TheStooges, "Gimme Shelter" by Music/TheRollingStones (on ''Some Girls Wander By Mistake''), "Sister Ray" by The Music/VelvetUnderground, "Ghost Rider" by Music/{{Suicide}}, the old staple "Louie Louie" and "The Sisters of Mercy" by Music/LeonardCohen (a live staple), "Emma" by Hot Chocolate (a bonus track on the 2006 copy of ''Floodland''), "Jolene" by Music/DollyParton is another live favourite.

*** Even more so in Music/{{Triana}}'s cover of the song: Full 7 minutes of "Heartland." Just try to sing along and not lose your breath along the way. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxX7E0ocQwk]]

The band's lineup is ever changing, with the exception of Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Doktor Avalanche (a drum machine). Past members include, but are not limited to: Ben Gunn (who ran away to play in a band called ''Torch'' in 1983), Gary Marx (who ran away to form ''Ghost Dance'' in 1985), Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams (who ran away to form ''The Mission''), Patricia Morrison (who ran away after Andrew didn't pay her for playing on ''Floodland''), Tony James (ex-Music/GenerationX and Music/SigueSigueSputnik, who ran away after ''Vision Thing'').

The band's lineup is ever changing, with the exception of Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Doktor Avalanche (a drum machine). Past members include, but are not limited to: Ben Gunn (who ran away to play in a band called ''Torch'' in 1983), Gary Marx (who ran away to form ''Ghost Dance'' in 1985), Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams (who ran away to form Music/TheMission), Patricia Morrison (who ran away after Andrew didn't pay her for playing on ''Floodland''), Tony James (ex-Music/GenerationX and Music/SigueSigueSputnik, who ran away after ''Vision Thing'').

[[caption-width-right:250: [[SarcasmMode Clearly not GothRock.]]]]

[[caption-width-right:250: [[SarcasmMode Clearly not goth rock.]]]]

The Sisters of Mercy are a rock band formed in Leeds, [[UsefulNotes/{{Britain}} England]] in 1977, when guitarist Gary Marx and then-drummer Andrew Eldritch "just wanted to hear themselves on the radio." Widely regarded as GothRock by their fans, but Eldritch denounced this label himself, preferring to call The Sisters an "Industrial Groove Machine."

The band's lineup is ever-changing, with the exception of Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Doktor Avalanche (a drum machine.) Past members include, but are not limited to: Ben Gunn (who ran away to play in a band called ''Torch'' in 1983), Gary Marx (who ran away to form ''Ghost Dance'' in 1985), Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams (who ran away to form Music/TheMission), Patricia Morrison (who ran away after Andrew didn't pay her for playing on ''Floodland''), Tony James (ex-Music/GenerationX and Music/SigueSigueSputnik, who ran away after ''Vision Thing'').

!!Discography:

You could also count ''Gift'', which was released under the pseudonym "The Sisterhood" in 1985 by Eldritch, Morrison, Avalanche, Lucas Fox, James Ray and [[Music/{{Suicide}} Alan Vega]] in the midst of the legal dispute between Eldritch on the one side and Hussey and Adams on the other. The album secured Eldritch's legal right to continue as "The Sisters of Mercy" while Hussey and Adams were forced to rename their band to "The Mission" ("The Mission UK" in the US, as there had been another band with that name.)

Somewhat more importantly, they also have ''Some Girls Wander By Mistake'', a compilation of (most) of the singles and [=EPs=] they released during the early '80s before they actually had a recording contract. It contains many of their best (and a few of their worst, and they'll tell you that) songs. None of these albums sound anything like each other, except for Eldritch's [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]-ish vocal style. ''Some Girls'' was about icy, mechanical drum machine beats coupled with deep bass and high-end, minimal guitar riffs ("Alice" is notable because... well, because it's awesome, but also because the riff is almost always mistaken for Music/{{ACDC}}'s "Thunderstruck" from 8 years later. The riffs are both one-string wonders using the same string.) Note that Eldritch plays the drums quite horrendously on "The Damage Done," although most the other stuff on the the album use a drum machine.

''First and Last and Always'' was made at a tumultuous time in the band's career, which involved Andrew Eldritch out of his mind on amphetamines for large chunks of the sessions, stringing himself out until he had to be hospitalised, heaps of material being left by the wayside (some of it later reworked by Marx and Hussey to be used in Ghost Dance and The Mission respectively,) and culminated in guitarist Gary Marx leaving the band in a huff around the time of the album's release. For this album, they tried for a warmer sound with more sophisticated guitar-pop and less challenging lyrics. It's also the most stereotypically gothic of the releases, and has a large cult following for it.

''Floodland'', produced when the band was reduced to Andrew Eldritch, a drum machine, the New York Choral Society and whoever else was around (Patricia Morrison on bass and a session guitarist for "This Corrosion,") is heavily synthesized, lushly (and bombastically) produced, and can be summed up as "industrial gothspel." It's also the one that depends most on Eldritch being a singer and a lyricist. It's their best selling album.

''Vision Thing'' is a fairly straight (except maybe for "Ribbons") guitar rock album with a political bent that tends to [[BaseBreaker split fans down the middle]]. Most of the Sister's imitators (and they have many) tend to use the early ''Some Girls Wander By Mistake'' stuff as their template.

Oddly enough, the most depressing song they've ever done was a Music/HotChocolate cover.

* OneWomanWail: The late Music/OfraHaza provided one in the re-arranged (i.e. the famous) version of "Temple of Love."

The band's lineup is ever-changing, with the exception of Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Doktor Avalanche (a drum machine.) Past members include, but are not limited to: Ben Gunn (who ran away to play in a band called Music/{{Torch}} in 1983), Gary Marx (who ran away to form Music/GhostDance in 1985), Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams (who ran away to form Music/TheMission), Patricia Morrison (who ran away after Andrew didn't pay her for playing on ''Floodland''), Tony James (ex-Music/GenerationX and Music/SigueSigueSputnik, who ran away after ''Vision Thing'').

!!Associated Tropes:

** My Heartland heartland heartland, my Heartland heartland heartland, my Heartland heartland heartland...
*** Even more so in Music/{{Triana}}'s cover of the song: Full 7 minutes of "Heartland." Just try to sing along and not lose your breath along the way. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxX7E0ocQwk]]
* CityOfCanals: Eldritch lived in UsefulNotes/{{Hamburg}} while writing ''Floodland'', and named the album that in reference to the city's excess of water.

* CoverVersion: "1969" by Music/TheStooges, "Gimme Shelter" by Music/TheRollingStones (on ''Some Girls Wander By Mistake''), "Sister Ray" by The Music/VelvetUnderground, "Ghost Rider" by Music/{{Suicide}}, the old staple "Louie Louie" and "The Sisters of Mercy" by Music/LeonardCohen (a live staple), "Emma" by Hot Chocolate (a bonus track on the 2006 copy of ''Floodland''), "Jolene" by DollyParton is another live favourite.

* EpicRocking: "Some Kind of Stranger," "Dominion/Mother Russia," "Flood I," "This Corrosion," "Flood II," "Driven Like the Snow," "Colours," "Never Land (Full Length)," "More," "I Was Wrong," "Phantom," "Temple of Love (Extended Version)," and the extended version of "Lucretia My Reflection."

* IAmTheBand: Eldritch. Especially on ''Floodland'', where the personnel list is basically him, Patricia Morrison, a session guitarist named Eddie Martínez, the New York Choral society, and some additional producers (including no less than Jim "Bat out of Hell" Steinman!)

* IncrediblyLamePun: "Ribbons" goofs on the title of a classic pop song with the lyric "Love is a many-splintered thing."

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly 3-5, though a sizable amount of [[NewSoundAlbum Vision Thing]] goes up to a 6. Also, "1959," being a piano ballad, is a 1.
* NewSoundAlbum: The more straightforward rock-oriented ''Vision Thing'', leading to quite a bit of {{They Changed It Now It Sucks}}.

* OneWomanSong: "Marian," "Alice."

* RashomonStyle: Just ''try'' getting a straight answer what Patricia Morrison did on ''Floodland'', or even whether she played bass on it after all -- Eldritch claims she didn't appear on the album after all, while Morrison says she did but Eldritch re-recorded some of her parts.
* RecordProducer: With the exception of ''First and Last and Always'', which was produced by David Allen (whose work Eldritch and Marx have criticised,) Eldritch has had a production credit on all their other albums, which he shared on ''Floodland'' with Larry Alexander and Music/JimSteinman (whose main contribution was recording the gospel choirs for "This Corrosion" and "Dominion/Mother Russia;" Eldritch said Steinman didn't care about anything else and had no other input.) Steinman returned on ''Vision Thing'' to co-produce and co-write "More" (and later borrowed that song's riff and part of the chorus for ''Theatre/BatmanTheMusical''), and Chris Tsangarides is credited for "When You Don't See Me," but the rest was self-produced.

* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Sisters lyrics are always about cars, drugs, women, and wars. And Andrew Eldritch himself was an amphetamine user for a good while, leading to the writing of [[strike:"Amphetamine Logic."]] every song he ever wrote prior to Floodland.
* SopranoAndGravel: The combination of Eldritch's Darth Vader vocals and gospel choirs, especially on "Dominion/Mother Russia," "This Corrosion," and "More."

* SurprisinglyGentleSong: The piano ballad "1959" on ''Floodland'', and to a lesser extent "Something Fast" on ''Vision Thing''.

The Sisters of Mercy are a rock band formed in Leeds, [[UsefulNotes/Britain England]] in 1977, when guitarist Gary Marx and then-drummer Andrew Eldritch "just wanted to hear themselves on the radio." Widely regarded as GothRock by their fans, but Eldritch denounced this label himself, preferring to call The Sisters an "Industrial Groove Machine."

The Sisters of Mercy are a rock band formed in Leeds, England in 1980, when guitarist Gary Marx and then-drummer Andrew Eldritch "just wanted to hear themselves on the radio." Widely regarded as {{Goth Rock}} by their fans, but Eldritch denounced this label himself, preferring to call The Sisters an "Industrial Groove Machine."

The band's lineup is ever-changing, with the exception of Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Doktor Avalanche (a drum machine). Past members include, but are not limited to: Ben Gunn (who ran away to play in a band called Torch in 1983), Gary Marx (who ran away to form Ghost Dance in 1985), Wayne Hussey and Craig Adams (who ran away to form The Mission), Patricia Morrison (who ran away after Andrew didn't pay her for playing on ''Floodland''), Tony James (ex-Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik, who ran away after ''Vision Thing'').

They were on a hiatus between 1993-1996, and they've been back together ever since. People don't seem to know this, however, because Andrew Eldritch refuses to release any of the new material he's written and recorded in the past 17 years - enough new songs to fill a couple of albums. They still tour frequently though, for what it's worth, and play these new songs live often.

You could also count ''Gift'', which was released under the pseudonym "The Sisterhood" in 1985 by Eldritch, Morrison, Avalanche, Lucas Fox, James Ray and [[Music/{{Suicide}} Alan Vega]] in the midst of the legal dispute between Eldritch on the one side and Hussey and Adams on the other. The album secured Eldritch's legal right to continue as "The Sisters of Mercy" while Hussey and Adams were forced to rename their band to "The Mission" ("The Mission UK" in the US, as there had been another band with that name).

Somewhat more importantly, they also have ''Some Girls Wander By Mistake'', a compilation of (most) of the singles and [=EPs=] they released during the early '80s before they actually had a recording contract. It contains many of their best (and a few of their worst, and they'll tell you that) songs. None of these albums sound anything like each other, except for Eldritch's Darth Vader-ish vocal style. ''Some Girls'' was about icy, mechanical drum machine beats coupled with deep bass and high-end, minimal guitar riffs ("Alice" is notable because...well, because it's awesome, but also because the riff is almost always mistaken for [[Music/{{ACDC}} AC/DC]]'s "Thunderstruck" from 8 years later. The riffs are both one-string wonders using the same string). Note that Eldritch plays the drums quite horrendously on "The Damage Done", although most the other stuff on the the album use a drum machine.

''First and Last and Always'' was made at a tumultuous time in the band's career, which involved Andrew Eldritch out of his mind on amphetamines for large chunks of the sessions, stringing himself out until he had to be hospitalised, heaps of material being left by the wayside (some of it later reworked by Marx and Hussey to be used in Ghost Dance and The Mission respectively), and culminated in guitarist Gary Marx leaving the band in a huff around the time of the album's release. For this album, they tried for a warmer sound with more sophisticated guitar-pop and less challenging lyrics. It's also the most stereotypically gothic of the releases, and has a large cult following for it.

''Floodland'', produced when the band was reduced to Andrew Eldritch, a drum machine, the New York Choral Society and whoever else was around (Patricia Morrison on bass and a session guitarist for "This Corrosion"), is heavily synthesized, lushly (and bombastically) produced, and can be summed up as "industrial gothspel". It's also the one that depends most on Eldritch being a singer and a lyricist. It's their best selling album.

Oddly enough, the most depressing song they've ever done was a Hot Chocolate cover.

* AuthorTract: "Vision Thing" being a song about American politics. What do you expect from a song named after a famous GeorgeHWBush quote?

*** Even more so in Triana's cover of the song: full 7 minutes of "Heartland". Just try to sing along and not lose your breath along the way. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYyV8x5vu3M]]

* [[CrazyCatLady Crazy Cat Man]]: Eldritch. Well, not quite.

* EpicRocking: "Some Kind of Stranger", "Dominion/Mother Russia", "Flood I", "This Corrosion", "Flood II", "Driven Like the Snow", "Colours", "Never Land (Full Length)", "More", "I Was Wrong", "Phantom", "Temple of Love (Extended Version)", and the extended version of "Lucretia My Reflection".

* IAmTheBand: Eldritch. Especially on ''Floodland'', where the personnel list is basically him, Patricia Morrison, a session guitarist named Eddie Martinez, the New York Choral society, and some additional producers (including no less than Jim "Bat out of Hell" Steinman!).
* {{Incoming}}: bellowed by Eldritch at the start and end of "Ribbons".
* IncrediblyLamePun: "Ribbons" goofs on the title of a classic pop song with the lyric "Love is a many-splintered thing".
* IntercourseWithYou: "Some Kind of Stranger" turned from a love song to one of these. There's also "Bury Me Deep" and "You Could Be the One", a very ironic song of this category.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly 3-5, though a sizable amount of [[NewSoundAlbum Vision Thing]] goes up to a 6. Also, "1959", being a piano ballad, is a 1.

* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Ribbons".

* OneWomanWail: The late Ofra Haza provided one in the rearranged (ie. the famous) version of "Temple of Love."

* PrecisionFStrike: There's an especially poignant one in "Driven Like The Snow."
* RashomonStyle: Just ''try'' getting a straight answer what Patricia Morrison did on ''Floodland'', or even whether she played bass on it after all - Eldritch claims she didn't appear on the album after all, while Morrison says she did but Eldritch re-recorded some of her parts.
* RecordProducer: With the exception of ''First and Last and Always'', which was produced by David Allen (whose work Eldritch and Marx have criticised), Eldritch has had a production credit on all their other albums, which he shared on ''Floodland'' with Larry Alexander and Music/JimSteinman (whose main contribution was recording the gospel choirs for "This Corrosion" and "Dominion/Mother Russia"; Eldritch said Steinman didn't care about anything else and had no other input). Steinman returned on ''Vision Thing'' to co-produce and co-write "More" (and later borrowed that song's riff and part of the chorus for ''BatmanTheMusical''), and Chris Tsangarides is credited for "When You Don't See Me", but the rest was self-produced.

* SopranoAndGravel: The combination of Eldritch's DarthVader vocals and gospel choirs, especially on "Dominion/Mother Russia", "This Corrosion" and "More".

''Vision Thing'' is a fairly straight (except maybe for "Ribbons") guitar rock album with a political bent. Most of the Sister's imitators (and they have many) tend to use the early ''Some Girls Wander By Mistake'' stuff as the template.

* TheRashomon: Just ''try'' getting a straight answer what Patricia Morrison did on ''Floodland'', or even whether she played bass on it after all - Eldritch claims she didn't appear on the album after all, while Morrison says she did but Eldritch re-recorded some of her parts.