My Own Sisters of Mercy to Suicide Connection
So... How does one end up buying the Sisters Of Mercy, and then Suicide later on?. It was the year 1998 and I had just spent 2 whole years educating myself to a so-called informatics-assistant (Computer-nerd in a firm), with the "terrible" results that my grades were too low. I have spent my classes surfing the Internet, chatting over Alamak and doing serious research into roleplaying games, industrial music, esoteric chaos magick and weird post-punk instead. To aid me further in my quest for music wisdom, I was further helped with the Danish A-Z Encyclopedia of Rock book. Which mentioned the genres (and sub-genres) for the various bands mentioned within. Therefore it was easy to pin down the gothic-rock thing, and of course, Sisters of Mercy was one of the very first.
As it turned out, I was lucky in locating (amongst porn magazines and trashy comics) the Some Girls Wander By Mistake compilation with the Sisters in the local used-record store in town (Silkeborg) called Læsehesten. And of course, I was thrilled. Nonetheless, some of the very best recordings by the best band with the gothic-rock tag was stored onto this single Compact Disc. I loved it to bits, even the primitive and raw first singles. Perfect music for my dark cellar room! (Parents house). I thoroughly examined the booklet for additional information and was more-than-happy to find the written text about the compilation on the very last page, describing the early days and how the legendary cult band would come to be. BUT, it also mentioned bands and early influences!. They mentioned Möterhead (which I quickly ignored), thuggish proto heavy-metal, not me. They mentioned Stooges, I was thinking it was just garage rock (Naughty me!), Hawkwind (hippie-rock?). But last but not least, they mentioned Pere Ubu and Suicide.
They just had cool sounding band names, plus it was bands that I haven´t heard before. And of course, I thought that Suicide was the first band that I should check out. I mean, whoever calls their band Suicide and then go-on and inspire the likes of the Sisters?!. So, before I received the final boot from the college (Terrible grades) I was again lucky in locating the re-released version of Suicide´s first album in Pladeshoppen, which was one of the hottest spots for locating alternative music in town.
The album artwork just STOOD OUT amongst the boring looking indie/alternative-rock albums. The simple white background with the blood-smeared logo. I decided to give it a listen. My first thought when I heard it was... That I have NEVER heard anything as ugly and raw as this, the kind of stuff that hardcore punks will piss in the pants over. It just wasn´t music as most of us know it, pure minimal-primal mood music. I only heard the first track (Ghostrider) and bought it right after. It was a Friday, and I spent the whole weekend listening to it. And now it´s 2018, and I am STILL listening to it. Absorbing it, digesting it. Who could believe that there could be so much meat on that minimal recording?. I can tell you, amongst one of the purest demonic-possessed released recordings ever done!
Wikepedia (Suicide):
Wikipedia (Sisters of Mercy):