Christian Death
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Christian Death is a band name that originally applied to a Los Angeles death rock group during the post punk era in the early 1980's, but after some major line up changes (which resulted at one point, during the mid 1990's, in two bands with the name Christian Death), it became the name of a band popular within the British/European Goth scene during the late 1980's, despite there not being a single member left from the original Los Angeles death rock band. That later incarnation evolved into a hard rock group during the 1990's while, at the same time, members from the earlier incarnation got back together performing more traditional goth and death rock.
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Original Group
After getting involved in the Los Angeles punk scene and playing in a few local bands, vocalist Rozz Williams founded Christian Death in October 1979 at age 16 (born Roger Painter - in Pomona California - 6 May 1963) with James McGearly (Bass), George Belanger (drums), and a guitarist named Jay brought in from a previous band Rozz had been in called Daucus Karota. The band name was originally a satirical play on words derived from the designer brand 'Christian Dior'. They played their first show with 45 Grave, another LA deathrock band, and soon developed a following.
While Rozz and Christian Death were in effect playing what would eventually be considered pioneering gothic rock (or Death Rock, as it was being called in the US at the time), the band were actually not all that aware of the developing gothic rock scene on the other side of the Atlantic and had not yet heard Bauhaus or any of the other goth bands. They had mostly been into local west coast punk like the Germs and Ally Cats as well as early 1970's glam rock like Bowie, T Rex, and the Stooges (though these glam rock artists also had a big influence on British goth). They also had a liking for some of the British post punk bands around at the time like the Fall and Wire, as well as old 60's hippy music like the Doors and Jefferson Airplane.
Despite inluences from west coast punk, by the beginning of the 1980's, the group were not too happy with the local LA punk scene, especially the crowd that liked Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, claiming that much of that audience hated punk a few years earlier and were all about beating up punks, but started cutting their hair short and beating up hippies instead after punk became more cool.
In february of 1981, the band went on hiatus and Rozz Williams concentrated on a side project with Ron Athey called Premature Ejaculation, but Christian Death got back together that summer, with guitarist Rikk Agnew (from The Adolescents) replacing Jay. A compilation album featuring several local punk and death rock acts, Hell Comes To Your House (1981) was released that year. The track that Christian Death contributed, Dogs, came from studio sessions financed by McGearly. The songs from those sessions would later be released in France as the Deathwish EP (1984).
Their appearance on the Hell Comes To Your House compilation got them signed to Frontier Records, which released their debut album Only Theatre Of Pain in March 1982. This album featured death rock anthems such as "Spiritual Cramp" and "Romeo's Distress". The album received critical acclaim from the music press and got condemned on a religious television program about supposed "satanic influences". Over in England, despite the album not being very available at first, Only Theatre of Pain would have a stong influence on many of those goth groups that had come after Bauhaus, including Sex Gang Children and Death Cult.
Drug use and internal fighting started to lead to the band falling apart. By late 1982, Rikk Agnew and George Belanger left the band and were replaced by Eva Ortiz (guitar and backing vocals) and China (drums). After their first gig with Pompeii 99, Michael Montana replaced Eva on guitar. Christian Death and Pompeii 99 had planned on doing a bunch of shows together in Europe, but by the end of 1982, Christian Death had broken up.
Rozz Williams and Pompeii 99
By 1983, Rozz Williams joined up with some members from Pompeii 99, which featured Valor Kand (guitar), Gitane Demone (keyboards and vocals), and David Glass (drums). Constance Smith (bass) was brought in to complete the line up.
Rozz wanted the new group to be called Daucus Karota but Only Theatre Of Pain was being released in France (1983) and the promoters there wanted a band called "Christian Death" to perform in Europe to support the albums release. There was some protest within the group about this, especially from Rozz, but Valor Kand ended up supporting the decision to keep the Christian Death name and had his own ideas for doing so. The name "means different things to all of us" he would say a year later. For him, the name promoted martyrism as a positive example. The French album cover for Only Theatre of Pain featured a painting "Andromaque" by Georges Rochegrosse depicting the Romans practicing Christian death.
The rest of 1983 saw them performing around Los Angelos and appeareing on a TV show Media Blitz where they mimed to a couple tracks from Only Theatre Of Pain. They performed in Paris on 12 February 1984 and continued their European tour until June. They were stranded in Europe until the promoters offered to send them to Rockfield Studios in Wales to record a second album.
The second album Catastrophe Ballet featured a change in Rozz's style. While Only Theatre of Pain and the Deathwish EP had Rozz presenting a rhythmic spoken word style with an almost androgynous pitch in his voice, Catastrophe Ballet has his voice deepen, showing more influence from David Bowie and Lou Reed. Rather than the shock lyrics from the first album, now Rozz showed an interest in Surrealism and the Dada movement and this reflected in the music. Gitane shared these same interests as Rozz and the synergy between them helped cultivate the musical change. Constance Smith left the band following the recording of the album and, in live shows, was replaced by Dave Roberts from Sex Gang Children.
While in England, they were received by British audiences better than they thought they would be. Sex Gang Children and Speciman had warned them that British audiences, especially at the Batcave, were not very exiting and never asked for encores. However, Christian Death did get a good response and the audience did want encores from them. At this time, many people were quick to label them with the goth movement. However, the group tended to pride themselves on doing their own thing. Their sound and look (their imagery being Rozz's idea) was something they had developed before the goth scene at places like the Batcave had opened up.
After the recording of Catastrophe Ballet, the group ran out of money and Rozz got his mother to send him a plane ticket back home, leaving the Pompeii 99 members stranded in Europe, working odd jobs. The rest of the group returned to LA in the autumn of 1984, reunited with Rozz, they recorded their third album Ashes, released in 1985, which featured guest musicians Randy Wilde (bass), Eric Westfall (violin, accordion synth), Bill Swain (tuba), Richard Hurwitz (trumpet) and Michael Andraes (clarinet). The album closed with Of The Wound, featuring Sevan Kand (the baby of Valor and Gitane) crying to a haunting score.
They toured the States in 1985 to promote Ashes with Jeff Williams (bass) and Barry Galvin (guitar) joining the line up. The tour ended with the Path of Sorrows extravaganza at Los Angeles' Roxy Theatre on 6 April which featured films, a banquet, a program, and Rozz changing costumes four times during the show.
Valor's Christian Death
After this American tour, Rozz left the band. Valor and the other remaining Pompeii 99 members had already planned an Italian tour, and made an agreement with Rozz to rename the band "Sin And Sacrifice". However, during the Italian tour, since Valor had taken over on vocals, many fans thought Valor was Rozz. Later in 1985, when the remaining members were low on cash and stranded in Italy, they released an EP The Wind Kissed Pictures under the name For Sin And Sacrifice Must We Die A Christian Death. Aside from Valor Kand, Gitane Demone, and David Glass, other contributions to this EP were Barry Galvin (guitar), Johann Schumann (bass), and a childs voice, once again, contributed by Sevan Kand.
After the release of The Wind Kissed Pictures EP, Valor, Gitane, and David Glass went back to the name Christian Death, despite Rozz's wishes, and had allegedly been performing songs from Only Theatre of Pain, despite the fact that none of them had been involved in the making of that album. The new band was also turned into a corporation with the Christian Death Society in 1985. All shareholders had to be screened and display a "sympathetic affection" for this "society" before being sold shares.
The new Christian Death, under Valor's leadership, managed to make enough money off The Wind Kissed Pictures EP to get them out of Italy and into a small one bedroom place in England, where Valor had citizenship, since he was born in Australia. After arranging for a couple of concerts, they managed to get some more studio time back at Rockfield Studios in Wales, where Catastrophe Ballet had been recoreded. Here they recorded Atrocities.
Released in 1986, this was the first full length Christian Death album without Rozz Williams. Without the surrealist and dadaist lyrics of Rozz, Atrocities, a concept album, was meant to reflect the time and place of World War II.
Containing the same line up as the Wind Kissed Pictures, the quality of Atrocities owed a lot to guitarist/songwriter Barry Galvin (aka Bari Bari). Much of the sound of Christian Death on Atrocities and the Wind Kissed Pictures was due to Galvin's guitar style and composing skills. Unfortunately, Galvin, along with Johann Schumann, left the group upon the completion of Atrocities and both went on to form Mephisto Waltz. After Christian Death recorded The Scriptures (released in 1987), David Glass also left and, during the 1990's, ended up joining Mephisto Waltz.
In 1988, Valors' Christian Death toured with Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, a goth group from Leeds, England. There was a great deal of tension between these two groups and Valor ended up getting arrested for punching the other groups manager. Gitane Demone left Christian Death in 1989, and her former lover Valor, for an attempted jazz career. This left Valor Kand as the last Pompeii 99 member with the Christian Death name.
In 1990, Valor formed the Christian Death Militia, who's aim was to protect everyone involved in the Christian Death Society.The vocals and lyrics for the song I Hate You, off the All The Hate LP in 1989, were provided by Sevan Kand, who was about five years old at this time, inspired by a fight with a boy twice his age called Jamie who pushed him into a bed of stinging nettles.
Aftermath
Around 1992, Valor recruited a new bassist Maitri, and re-established his Christian Death as a rock outfit with the album Sexy Death God.
During the late 1980's to mid 1990's, Rozz Williams and Rikk Agnew played some reunion shows with the name Christian Death. Rozz also put out a couple new albums on Cleopatra Records under the Christian Death name with his wife Eva O supplying guitar and back up vocals during the 1990's. One of those albums, The Iron Mask, is interestingly a reference to the Alexandre Dumas novel about an usurper who imprisons the rightful heir to the throne. Valor became enraged at the use of his now trademarked name 'Christian Death'.
On 1 April, 1998, Rozz Williams committed suicide by hanging. He did not leave a suicide note and it is not known why Rozz would have wanted to take his own life, though it is known that he was struggling with a heroin addiction. Valor immediately seized control over all Christian Death material made by Rozz Williams on Cleopatra records.
Valor continues to put out new material under the name Christian Death. Though his current incarnation of the group is a lot heavier and has lost a lot of the gothic style for a more metal sound, this is shown on their last album Born Again Anti-Christian (2000) which features members of goth metallers Cradle Of Filth, including Dani Filth himself.
The new millennium saw Valor's bassist Maitri establish a side project called Lover of Sin. Though Valor does not perform in this project, he did produce and co-write their self titled debut album released in late 2002. Since the album was released as Christian Death Presents Lover of Sin, the promoters for Lover of Sin's 2003 world tour wrongly billed them as Christian Death. This put fans under the impression that this was yet a new incarnation of the group that not only lacked Rozz and the other original members, but even lacked Valor and the other Pompeii 99 personnel.
Selected Discography
With Rozz Williams:
- Only Theatre Of Pain (1982)
- Deathwish (EP) (1984)
- Catastrophe Ballet (1984)
- Ashes (1985)
- The Decomposition of Violets (live album) (1986)
- The Iron Mask (old songs rerecorded) (1992)
- The Path Of Sorrows (1993)
- The Rage Of Angels (1994)
- Iconologia (Live) (1994)
- Best of Christian Death
Valor's Group:
- The Wind Kissed Pictures (EP) (1985)
- Atrocities (1986)
- Jesus Christ Proudly Presents (collection of live singles) (1987)
- The Scriptures (1987)
- Sex And Drugs And Jesus Christ (1988)
- The Heretics Alive (live) (1989)
- All The Love All The Hate (Part 1 - All The Love) (1989)
- All The Love All The Hate (Part 2 - All The Hate) (1989)
- Insanus, Ultio, Proditio, Misericordiaque (previously unreleased songs) (1990)
- Jesus Points The Bone At You? (singles compilation) (1991)
- Past Present And Forever (Wind Kissed Pictures EP w/ additional tracks)
- Sexy Death God (1994)
- Amen (2 cd live) (1995)
- Prophecies (1996)
- Pornographic Messiah (1998)
- The Bible (compilation) (1999)
- Born Again Anti-Christian (2000)