I’ve been on a post-punk/deathrock kick lately. It all started with The Drowning Craze, which then took me to a band called Part 1 who I like a lot. I have more bands to check out, but Christian Death popped up after knowing that name for years and reading about Rozz Williams’ Pig on here. I first heard a shitty remix of “Spiritual Cramp” in high school and never gave them a second thought. A friend started talking about them and saying their early stuff was more on the punk side. I listened to the original version of “Spiritual Cramp” and a few others from “Only Theatre Of Pain” and actually liked it. I then looked them up on wikipedia. Interesting that there’s 3 different bands with the name. Any recommendations? Is the stuff with Valor Kand on vox worth checking out?
I haven’t gone beyond the Rozz stuff. Only Theater of Pain is a good one, but I think Catastrophe Ballet (the follow up) is a lot more polished without losing the seedy underbelly. Good stuff.
I like 45 Grave a lot. There’s a weird pseudo-Nazi/Satanist band with Anton LaVey’s daughter called Radio Werewolf that’s always intrigued me.
You might also check out the first couple of Gothic Rock compilations that were released in the U.S. on Cleopatra. I think they’re still in print.
“Only Theatre of Pain” is the most singular MUST HAVE Christian Death album. Get that one first and then you can worry about what else to try. I’ll share some further thoughts on Valor later, but for now, let me just say that it is always safe in the C.D. circles to proclaim how awesome Rozz is and what a butthole Valor is. It comes in handy and you don’t even have to know anything about the band or their music, you’ll instantly get gothy street cred with the bitches.
Just walk up to any chick rockin’ a Christian Death shirt. “Cool shirt. Fuck Valor!” and she’ll be all, “OMG, I know. Right?” Then you just say, “Yep. Totally. Seriously, Rozz is the shit though! I totally miss him.” At this point you guys are halfway towards buying scented candles and matching bondage collars and going home to watch “The Hunger” together.
So why exactly is Valor a butthole?
In all truth, some of the 80’s Valor CD stuff is actually kind of cool. The band was still cool and edgy and had that cool 80’s deathrock sound. But mid-90’s and beyond . . . holy crap are they a giant pile of dookage now. The most generically processed industrial gothic metal turdwipe you can imagine.
I actually first discovered Christian Death in the Valor era before really knowing anything about the band. My homies and I bought “Sex, Drugs, and Jesus Christ” because the cover art looked all hardcore. And there were other covers with swastikas and stuff on them, so why wouldn’t we like it? But Valor was always trying to be shocking and controversial . . . and eventually you realize that this is an aging and boring man who is neither and is just embarrassing.
If you’re gonna try some Valor stuff, try to at least stick with the 80’s and don’t venture into the modern day. It will only make you angry. Unless you thought Morbid Angel’s last album was a breath of fresh air . . . in which case, maybe it’s your thing.
No, seriously. You thought RELAPSE was an awful album cover? Look at THIS masterpiece!
Wanna hear some recent Christian Death? I just pulled up the first track that came up from their latest . . . enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fp9vlLNq-o
Anyway, aside from the fact that Rozz is super cool and Valor eats crap, do yourself a favor and go buy SOUTHERN DEATH CULT’s (Ian Astbury’s band before The Cult . . . or before Death Cult if you wanna get all thorough) self-titled LP instead. If you’re dabbling with 80’s deathrock, post-punk, or whatever, that is an album that is unforgivably overlooked but should be owned and obsessed over by everyone.
This is rock and roll sexy at its finest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVfUlh9dDF0
So why exactly is Valor a butthole?
Here, let me put this into pictures.
Rozz looked like this:
Valor looks like this:
Any questions?
HAHAHAHA!!! Valor’s trying too hard just by the pics alone. That newer song sounded like a really really bad PIG song (PIG as in Raymond Watts, not Rozz’s movie.) But which 90’s C.D. are you referring to? Rozz had his version til '95 when Valor got the rights to the name.
My friend found Southern Death Cult at Amoeba in Hollywood during our Ozzfest trip 3 years ago. Kinda funny seeing Astbury with a mohawk, but I was digging his Native American moves. He’s way into that Native stuff. I think he’s actually a member of a tribe.
I like 45 Grave a lot. There’s a weird pseudo-Nazi/Satanist band with Anton LaVey’s daughter called Radio Werewolf that’s always intrigued me.
You might also check out the first couple of Gothic Rock compilations that were released in the U.S. on Cleopatra. I think they’re still in print.
Radio Werewolf, hahaha!!! Great stuff.
Their music was kind of old timey gothic sounding stuff with organs and such. Kind of cool in doses.
But their hilarious self-absorbed schtick was what made them really great, most notably on talk shows. They managed to always stay in character.
Back to the topic of Valor —
Like you noted, Eureka, he just “tries too hard”. He comes across as cheesy and fake because . . . well, he’s cheesy and fake.
Rozz was weird and effeminate and creepy, but, it just seemed so natural. There was never anything forced, fake, or contrived about Rozz. I’m always the first to make fun of stupid goth stuff and all their faggitry, but Rozz is just a hauntingly beaufiful little creature. His dramatics and theatrics seemed to all be a legitimate and true extension of his innermost self.
Valor on the other hand . . . . yuck. Stupid gypsy scarf wearing jerri-curled douchebag. His schtick is as boring as his music . . . .
Rozz without Christian Death:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FbG0idI6xM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n5nW9UDgqo
Christian Death without Rozz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-8ElVjcyiE
Surely I don’t need to continue this anymore, do I?
But which 90’s C.D. are you referring to? Rozz had his version til '95 when Valor got the rights to the name.
I only mentioned Valor’s stuff on the 80’s albums.
Let me make this simple:
ANYTHING WITH ROZZ: Anything with Rozz (Christian Death, Shadow PRoject, Daucus Karota, Premature Ejaculation, etc.) is going to be interesting, pleasing, or possibly brilliant. You might pick and choose what you like best or don’t like at all but you won’t be flushing your money down the toilet.
80’s VALOR CHRISTIAN DEATH: It’s a crapshoot. There’s some cool stuff, but it’s typically cool IN SPITE OF Valor, not because of him.
90’s AND BEYOND VALOR CHRISTIAN DEATH: It is poo. Complete poo. If you want to see if you like the poo, go ahead and try it. But it’s poo. Awful. Cheesy. Generic. Fake. But the bottom line is . . . it’s complete crap.
Yeah, Rozz Williams was the quintessential mopey, sad little goth boy. You can make fun of that if you want, but that’s just who the guy WAS, right down to the core. You can’t even accuse him of being contrived because he pretty much invented it.
Valor looks like a football player wearing a goth Halloween costume. And his attempts at shock are just so eye-rollingly obvious. “We’re so hardcore, our album is Jesus and he’s shooting heroin! What do you think of THAT, preacher man!”
Yeah, Rozz Williams was the quintessential mopey, sad little goth boy. You can make fun of that if you want, but that’s just who the guy WAS, right down to the core. You can’t even accuse him of being contrived because he pretty much invented it.
Valor looks like a football player wearing a goth Halloween costume. And his attempts at shock are just so eye-rollingly obvious. “We’re so hardcore, our album is Jesus and he’s shooting heroin! What do you think of THAT, preacher man!”
Amen.
I just now saw that second Valor pic. THAT CHICK IS FUCKING HOT!!! That looks like Buckethead on the cover of Pornographic Messiah. I know it’s supposed to be an alien, but it was Buckethead at first glance. I couldn’t really get into those other 2 songs you posted with Rozz, but he actually has a pretty good voice.
This is my favorite song so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_b653M7c_Y
Anyone seen the movie Pig from 98 by Nico B and Rozz?
I saw it sometime back. About 8 years back it was actually on YouTube. It was kind of cool. An artsy black-n-white pseudo snuff film with a creepy vibe. It was pretty slow moving though, and certainly not something you’d want to watch on a repeated basis. More like one of those slow moving artsy things you watch and then go, “Yep. Done.”
Kind of a must-have, I guess, for serious Rozz or C.D. Collectors, but nothing I would hunt after as a casual fan or curious experimenter.