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Rating: “… my secret fear of being alone
I sit and clasp my hands
I sit and make love with myself
I have blood on my hands
I have blood on your hands
blood on our hands blood… ”
In memory of Rozz Williams.
It could only end tragically for a life laden with excesses and deep physical and intimate wounds. The usual mix of alcohol and cocaine to give courage, a rope to do the rest. The end of a sensitive boy, even in his extreme provocations. The earthly chapter of Roger Painter could only close in this manner.
He couldn't overcome loneliness, the loss of a dear friend, the depression that consumed him, and perhaps also the deep dismay for not being able to take possession of the creation he had formed and which was unjustly taken from him.
Because Christian Death is Rozz Williams, there is little debate here. If it weren't for him, America likely wouldn't have known darkwave, much to the delight of the radical Catholic lobbies that persecuted him at the time, burning his records outside the venues where he performed, similar to what the Nazis did with the works of non-aligned artists, and harassing him relentlessly with media tabloids and various anathemas.
Rozz rode the wave of that uproar, exponentially increasing his sacrilegious provocations against religion, towards which he harbored a visceral hatred perhaps dating back to the times of the rigid Baptist observance his parents tried to instill in him as a child. Feeding off the invectives from puritan U.S. society, Rozz took the stage heavily made-up, dressed as a bride, simulating communion and making sexually explicit gestures towards sacred images like no one had ever done before, in such a blasphemous and irreverent manner that no one has managed to approach his excesses to this day, with all due respect to Marylin Manson. But such excesses were not limited to performances on stage but inexorably reverberated into his private life, between psychotropic consumption and various quarrels that continuously undermined the band's stability. This instability caused the complete disintegration of the lineup following their debut album “Only Theatre of Pain” and the replacement of guitarist Rikk Agnew with Valor, who later stripped him of the paternity of the name “Christian Death”, marking perhaps the beginning of Rozz's artistic decline.
The album's title (chosen by Rozz himself, who also created the cover) encapsulates what life probably was for its author, in a premonitory vision of the one he decided to end at just over thirty years old. An anguished, claustrophobic, and intense work that mirrors the restless soul of its master. A concentration of dark-punk and gothic overtones of boundless pain where Williams's majestic and excruciating voice stands out, burning with emotion and tenebrous depth, the neural center of “Only Theatre of Pain”.
Cursed music, steeped in anti-religious references, but of absolute fascination. Classics like “Cavity – First Communion”, with its guitar distortions and icy rhythms, “Figure Theatre” with its punk nihilism, the biting and malevolent “Burnt Offerings”, the obsessive and satanic refrain of “Stairs – Incertain Journey” (be Satan, who art in heaven, be Satan hallowed be thy name, be Satan thy kingdom come, be Satan thy will be done, be Satan as in heaven so on earth.... be Satan), the diseased and furious “Romeo’s Distress”, will remain in the annals of gothic rock history. The theater of cruelty closes with “Prayer”, which is nothing more than the Lord's Prayer recited backwards by Rozz Williams and Rikk Agnew, in one last striking example of sacrilegious provocation for what is undoubtedly one of the most blasphemous albums in rock history.
This dark character, with behaviors as extreme as they clashed with the sweetness of his face, decided to end it all a few years ago, reaching out to the one he had so opposed and insulted in life. However he is considered, Rozz left us two great albums (the present and the subsequent “Catastrophe Ballet”) and a whole series of shocking exploits that will surely be remembered for a long time, increasing the mystery surrounding his figure.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Figurative Theatre (02:44)
In the shallow holes of a thousand eyes
in the knee-deep graves of future survivors
The fleshless guests live off children of the past
Their aging fingers cast the Shadow of Death
Their razor sharp tongues invite to relax
as they slip the skin of your eyelids back
invasive spectators get into the act
with roses and candles
silver knives and spoons
persona read women dance with priests on a side road
your vision perspectives are turning to stone
cabaret slide show starts shooting their loads
Act one is the end, the show
now begins...
Their razor sharp tongues invite to relax
as they slip the skin of your eyelids back
invasive spectators get into the act
with roses and candles
silver knives and spoons
Breath ballet prancers spin on porcelain backbones
a child's muddled cry turns into hilarity
ungracious freeloaders leave their dead on a doorstep
Flowers of doom bloom in prosperity
luxuries of past days are
luxuries of our days
luxuries of past days
luxuries of our days
04 Mysterium Iniquitatis (02:48)
Sevlesmeth pleh ohw esoth spleh dog
Sevlesmeth pleh ohw esoth spleh dog
Dog!
Ereth si on ytic fo dog
Ereth si on ytic fo dog
Ytic fo dog
It's only theatre of pain
It's only theatre of pain
It's only theatre of pain
It's only theatre of pain
Only theatre of pain
Only theatre of pain
Only theatre of pain
Surrogate mother
Surrogate father
Uoy era ym olich
Uoy ma I
Uoy era em
Uoy era em
It's only theatre of pain
It's only theatre of pain
Only theatre of pain
Only theatre of pain
Peru resh!
Peru resh!
Peru resh!
Peru resh!
Peru resh!
Peru resh!
Peru resh!
Peru resh!
Ahis zyxur li peru resh
Ahis zyxur li peru resh
Ahis zyxur li peru resh
Ahis zyxur li
Reficul!
07 Spiritual Cramp (02:58)
Incurable disease on the day of rest
I'm walking on water in a sea of incest
I've got the image of Jesus embedded in my chest
I can't leave home without my bullet proof vest
Killing myself for the perfect honeymoon
Fighting with scorpions tied 'round my neck
I hear the pitter patter of a killer on the loose
Children use their fingers instead of words
Crosses burn our temples on slaughter avenue
It takes too much time for me to say I refuse
Time is digging graves for the chosen few
Children dig the graves of me and you
Describe the illness, I'll prescribe the cure
start your two day life on a two day vacation... (x2)
Spiritual cramp going for my ribs
Those gangsters toting guns are shooting spikes through my wrist
Children use their fingers instead of words
Fingers bury children under the boards
I can die a thousand times, But I'll always be here
With the powder skull secrets of forgotten years
The hangman noose is drenched with bloodstained tears
My hands are the killers that confirm my fears
Jesus wont you touch me, come into my heart
Where the Hell are you, when the fire starts?
I'm using my fingers instead of words... (x2)
On a mission of the father to reduce the gates of hell
The ivory bone eyed mother's flesh is starting to swell
I'm setting twenty-two tables for the funeral feast
Satan is by far the kindest beast...
08 Romeo's Distress (03:17)
ROMEO'S DISTRESS (Rozz / Rikk)
Burning crosses
on a nigger's lawn
burning dollars
what's a house without a home?
dance in your white sheet glory
dance in your passion
talk about sugar on the six fingered beast
conversation about the holes in your hands
walk through the garden
of men's desires
conversation about
the kingdom of fire
What's that moving in the basement?
What's that moving in the attic
Who's that walking in the shadow
Who's that walking in the streets
(chorus)
Kiss on my hand
After dark
hand for a kiss
a dark inside my hand
Kiss on my hand
After dark
Kiss on my hand
Romance in sequence
Harmful to the blind
Burning hearts
through the top of your skull
Dance in your white sheet glory
Dance in your passion
your days are numbered
with creations in your pocket
Your days are numbered with the love in your eyes
Love?
What's that moving in the basement?
What's that moving in the attic?
Who's that lying on the altar?
Who's that lying in the streets?
(chorus)
Pull down the Sheets
Take off your clothes
Get out of bed
I'm so tired
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Other reviews
By brrrk
The remastering work is certainly good, with a noticeable increase in dynamics... What is perhaps missing is a more incisive work on the sounds.
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... but one might have expected more.
