A previous post looked at the opening salvo from The Sisterhood, the ‘Giving Ground’ single released in early 1986. That same year the full on attack in the form of ‘Gift’ was released in the summer months. It has now returned to active duty with a long-promised re-release on CD, after many, many years in the wilderness.
These battle-like euphemisms on my part are quite deliberate given the album’s history. If you are not familiar with the story then let me direct you to the Wikipedia entry on The Sisterhood which is well worth your time as an account of the fascinating arms-race in the immediate split up of The Sisters Of Mercy after their debut album release. ‘Giving Ground’ won the race to claim the name, ‘Gift’ further poisoned the well, its title an immaculately double-edged choice by Andrew Eldritch.
At the time, I was quite fascinated by this album as it pitched the whole Sisters Of Mercy sound much closer to my synth-loving inclinations if the time. Of course, it’s not The Sisters Of Mercy – but it does have the guiding hand of Eldritch at the tiller. Often repetitive and hypnotic, would it still stand up well now, something ahead of its time, or is it no more than some hastily constructed sonic hand grenade with no purpose beyond a scorched earth policy against the ex-Sisters that eventually assume the monicker of The Mission?
It still works for me – the opening ‘Jihad’ needs no words beyond its title to make clear what it has set its sights upon. The ‘two, five, zero, zero, zero’ vocal contribution of Patricia Morrison more than abstract intonation when you read about the race to claim the extant publishing reward up for grabs, in an ironic tease. ‘Colours’ would later emerge in slightly fuller form as a Sisters Of Mercy track, but I prefer this original take. The Doktor Avalanche clattering rhythm bed takes the tempo down after the initial high-speed assault of ‘Jihad’. This version differs slightly from the original release as it no longer fades out and comes to an abrupt end.
Side two of the original album opened with a new version of the previous single, ‘Giving Ground’. Looking back at the post dedicated to that single, the album version is quite different – and this appears to be yet another variant, with various slight differences comparing on close listening with the original. When this re-issue was announced I had rather hoped that it would include the single versions as bonus tracks, but it’s not to be, those single versions remain extant.
‘Finland Red, Egypt White’ is likely the most impenetrable track on the album and likely the most easily accused candidate for the charge of swiftly assembled tosh chucked out to spike the guns of The Mission – it’s spoken word abstract repetition of text from an AK-47 rifle munitions manual is strangely seductive, though of no more sense than reciting the Leeds to Pudsey bus timetable- but it’s the good Doktor that is the main focus of attention here, clattering overground, leading the aural assault.
The closing track is the bleakly melancholy and mesmerising ‘Rain From Heaven’, again with Doktor Avalanche commencing proceedings, though joined not only musically, in what is likely the album’s most melodic turn, but by the ‘Chorus of Vengeance’, an uncredited assemblage that repeats the ‘We forgive as we forget, As the day is long, As the day is long, Rain from Heaven’ lyric until the end. At least, on the original album version, because this track is where another variation has been introduced on this album, with it playing out for over a minute longer than the origin take, again coming to cold stop rather than fading out into the distance.
This time round, the CD comes packaged in a digipak format and the disc itself is pure black, rather than having a silver surface. G*th or what?!
Buy it online: https://viveleshop.com/blogs/news/the-sisterhood-gift