THE place for your Sisters-related comments, questions and snippets of Sisters information. For those who do not know, The Sisters of Mercy are a rock'n'roll band. And a pop band. And an industrial groove machine. Or so they say. They make records. Lots of records, apparently. But not in your galaxy. They play concerts. Lots of concerts, actually. But you still cannot see them. So what's it all about, Alfie? This is one of the few tightly-moderated forums on Heartland, so please keep on-topic. All off-topic posts will either be moved or deleted. Chairman Bux is the editor and the editor's decision is final. Danke.
I know some of you are going to see Solstafir at Graspop Metal meeting soon. I love these guys to bits, and as I was just listening to their music and browsing online for interviews with them, and pitying myself for not being able to go to Graspop, I came across this little gem:
NCS: [...] Was that always true? Everyone describes your older stuff as being clearly black metal.
GP: I guess from the outside it seems like that. But we started the band in ‘95 and we were already listening a lot to British ‘80’s Goth rock, Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim, The Cult. Like on our debut, Till Valhalla, there’s some influences that when we listen to it, we’re like, “Oh yeah, there’s that Smashing Pumpkins riff,� but I guess it’s very well hidden. I think it was Nicke Andersson from Entombed that said stealing music from other bands is okay, just make sure you steal from other genres and hide it well. [...]
Interesting genre-defying stuff, but whereas I can hear the Pumpkins "whoosh" (for want of a better, more technical term) on sections of some of their more symphonic tracks, I'd be interested to hear if anyone can spot any Sisters riffs buried deep in the mix on a specific track.
I have to admit I liked them better in the early days when they played more pagan black metal, but as they 'follow the trends' of mellowing after the years (AND become better musicians ) I cannot blame them.
Look at what happened to Ulver and Ihsahn for example, some of you Porcupine Tree fans should check these bands out!
Izzy HaveMercy wrote:
Look at what happened to Ulver and Ihsahn for example, some of you Porcupine Tree fans should check these bands out!
IZ.
I had a look at those bands, but what I found was too - I don't know, I lack the terminology, too "melodic" maybe?, even for me. I also checked out Bathory and whatnot, because if Solstafir (and everyone else) wear Bathory shirts then that must mean Bathory are good. But what I found wasn't really my cup of tea.
Depends on which phase of the Bathory history you got into. The old stuff up to "Blood Fire Death" is Black Metal, from "Hammerheart" onwards it's Viking Metal, something like a Scandinavian version of Manowar
Ihsahn is well-known for his role in Black Metalband Emperor, and Ulvers first output was also Black/Death
I always smile when people discover Anathema and Paradise Lost in my cd-collection and they go "Ooh, Anathema is sooo good, what a heavenly voice! And Paradise Lost is almost Depeche Mode!"