ALBUM REVIEW: Evil Becomes Rule – Christian Death
Goth is still an incredibly popular subculture in alternative communities, and has been ever since its beginnings in the early 80s. This popularity has increased with the introduction of social media, as photos on Instagram and videos on TikTok including ‘goth’ in the hashtags garner a lot of likes and views. Even so, it’s great to see bands considered the staples of the goth genre like BAUHAUS, THE CURE, and KILLING JOKE continue to create music and perform for baby bats and elder goths alike. One such band, CHRISTIAN DEATH, are another staple in the goth/death rock community, with their debut album Only Theatre Of Pain often cited as America’s first goth record. Now 40 years later, the band have made their 15th record, Evil Becomes Rule. Does it continue the legacy their name brings, or falter in pain?
From the beginning, the album exudes gothic ambience and rich lyrical poetry. Throughout all 11 tracks, the beautiful death rock musicianship carries each song’s theme and melody to deliver different and amazingly unique tracks. For example, New Messiah’s drum rhythms keep that steady pace as the foundation of the song, but also provide a nice groove that drives the other instruments. The guitars are serene and beautiful, whilst the lyrics are stunning, deep, and rich. The vocal interplay between the male and female singers in all of the songs is stunning, both as a call and response to the lyrics, but also to compliment each other musically and thematically.
Death rock is emphasised by its influence from horror and this is reflected in a lot of moments in the album. From the mysterious opening track, The Alpha And The Omega, to the haunting overture that is Abraxas We Are, even adding instruments like a glockenspiel in New Messiah and strings in tracks like Beautiful and Evil Becomes Rule, the spooky and unnerving atmosphere works perfectly in all tracks to make it operatic and grandiose. Closing the album with Who Am I parts 1 and 2 is perfect placement as the vocal lines are strong and beautifully mixed with the guitar and string parts, as well as being mysterious and rich, especially with the goth rap in Who Am I Part 2.
Overall, CHRISTIAN DEATH have shown that even 40 years down the line they have not lost their touch on the goth genre and continue to perfect what they already established whilst pushing the boundaries by creating new and unique sounding songs. Every element within each song would make any goth fan happy, but should also attract new fans to the subgenre. People cite CHRISTIAN DEATH as one of the best from the 80s beginnings of the subgenre and the subculture, and Evil Becomes Rule proves that they are still one of the best in 2022. A perfect goth record to make even the darkest of the darkly-inclined happy.
Rating: 9/10
Evil Becomes Rule is out now via Season Of Mist.
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