Sisters Of Mercy: Andrew Eldritch (vocals, guitar, keyboards, programming); Patricia Morrison (vocals, guitar, keyboards).
Producers: Andrew Eldritch, Larry Alexander, Jim Steinman.
Engineers: Larry Alexander, Roy Neave, Andrew Eldritch.
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.
Professional Reviews
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..."
