Christian Death
Only Theatre of Pain (25th Anniversary Remastered Edition)

THE REVIEW

A partial disappointment this remastered version of "Only Theatre of Pain," the cornerstone album of all American death rock and one of the most significant gothic works ever. Birth act of the original Christian Death, confessional and purgatory for the tormented soul of young Rozz Williams, an excellent training ground for the highly talented Rikk Agnew, the album is so important and well-crafted that you can find dozens of excellent reviews of it everywhere online. The more or less botched remasters of subsequent titles, curated by Valor, date back to a few years earlier: that of "Catastrophe Ballet," for instance, is from 2007, with terrible things like a demo pompously presented as "unreleased Rozz Williams track" added at the beginning and mixed with the first original song, thus losing all the magic and suggestion provided by the opening of that album. It was fair to expect a more accurate job for the Christian Death masterpiece, which, moreover, is the only one in which Valor, having nothing to do with it, couldn't have a say. And after such a long wait, here it is, released in late spring 2011, with the purported artwork by Rozz Williams restored on the cover.

Of course, the tracklist has been respected, and this is something, although it may seem little, given that Valor's blunders are far from common in record reissues. The remastering work is certainly good, with a noticeable increase in dynamics for an album that already enjoyed it initially thanks to the exquisite production by Thom Wilson. What is perhaps missing is a more incisive work on the sounds... it's well known, for instance, that the introductory bell in the first Cavity - First Communion distorts (i.e., saturates, loses definition) on the third strike, and here it continues to distort beautifully. Additionally, the hiss of the original '82 tapes here is even increased, possibly due to probable re-equalization not subjected to filters or Dolby. There's also a defect verified with many other cd buyers: an almost inaudible moment of "audio blackness", perceived more as a drop in sound rather than true silence, at 2'41" of the tenth track, Resurrection - Sixth Communion. Finally, the work done on the EP "Deathwish" is not very understandable, here added at the end of the album as in the standard cd edition: certainly the one most in need of improvements, yet the sound doesn't seem to be drawn from the original tapes but from a good vinyl recording, with related background noise, although reduced and almost imperceptible. Finally, are we sure the cover represents Rozz's original work? It rather seems a graphic reworking, complete with a title change from the previous "theatre" to the American form "theater" (note that the primitive English form is preserved on the spine of the cd).

In short, for one of the dirtiest and most decadent albums of the '80s, no one wanted a polished and refined cleaning of the sounds, their pasteurization to the point of making them uniform and innocuous, but within the scope of a work that has nevertheless led to a general improvement, one might have expected more. A missed opportunity? Or should "Only Theatre of Pain" be listened to more distorted and mashed than it could ever be? Well, maybe yes ;)