Created on: July 19, 2006, 08:13am Description: This cult is dedicated to the late 20th century poet, Rozz Williams. Though more remembered for the deathrock band Christian Death, Rozz was more than just the music. He was one of the last pure artists you will find in the archives of history. He passed away on the 1st of April, 1998 at the age of 34.
We love you rozz
About Us
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Christian Death" formed in 1979, and is a band name that originally applied to the pioneering Los Angeles deathrock group. The band was fronted and founded by Rozz Williams, featuring guitarist Rikk Agnew. Christian Death are most notable for their album ''Only Theatre Of Pain'' which received great critical acclaim and was a major event in the birth of the deathrock subculture within the United States and beyond.
After some major line up changes, resulting at one point during the mid 1990s, in two bands with the name Christian Death, the name was taken by Valor Kand, who had played as a replacement guitarist in one incarnation of Rozz Williams' band. This version does not feature a single member of the original band, though it has been around since 1985 continuing on today.
Original group
After becoming interested in punk music and playing in a few local Los Angeles bands, vocalist Rozz Williams founded Christian Death in October 1979 at the young age 16 with bassist James McGearty, drummer George Belanger and a guitarist named Jay, who brought in from a previous band Rozz had been in called Daucus Karota. The band name was originally a satirical play on words derived from the designer brand "''Christian Dior''". The first Christian Death performance in front of a live audience was at a Castration Squad gig in 1980, when Castration Squad invited Christian Death on stage to play a couple songs. Throughout 1980 and the following year the band would play many shows with 45 Grave, another L.A. deathrock group, though they also played shows with standard punk bands like Social Distortion and The Adolescents around this time.
While Rozz and Christian Death were in effect playing what would eventually be considered pioneering gothic rock or deathrock, as it was being called in the United States at the time, the band were not actually aware of the developing British gothic rock scene on the other side of the Atlantic at the same time and had not yet heard Bauhaus or any of the other bands from this movement. Influence wise Christian Death had mostly been into punk like The Germs and Sex Pistols as well as early 1970s glam rock, rock, and proto-punk such as David Bowie, T. Rex, The Stooges, the New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, and KISS. They also had a liking for some of the British post punk bands around at the time like The Fall and Wire (band)|Wire, as well as 1960s psychedelic rock exemplified by The Doors.
Despite being in the same area as the emerging west coast hardcore movement, by the beginning of the 1980s, the group were not happy with the local scene, especially the crowd that liked Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, claiming that much of that audience hated punk rock a few years earlier and were all about beating up punks, but started cutting their hair short and beating up hippies instead after punk became more popular in the United States. Christian Death dismissed the followers of this movement as "''hillbilly punks''" in an interview.''
During February 1981, the band went on a hiatus and Rozz Williams concentrated on a side project with Ron Athey called Premature Ejaculation, but Christian Death got back together that summer, with a new guitarist; Rikk Agnew formerly of The Adolescents replacing Jay. A compilation album featuring several local punk and deathrock acts called ''Hell Comes To Your House'', it was released in 1981. The track that Christian Death contributed, ''Dogs'', came from studio sessions financed by McGearty. The songs from those sessions would later be released in France as the Deathwish EP three years later.
Only Theatre of Pain
Their appearance on the ''Hell Comes To Your House'' compilation helped to get Christian Death signed to Frontier Records, which released their debut album Only Theatre Of Pain in March 1982. This album featured deathrock anthems such as "Spiritual Cramp" and "Romeo's Distress". The album received critical acclaim from the music press and got condemned on a religious television program regarding alleged "satanic influences". In England, despite the album's initially limited availability, ''Only Theatre of Pain'' would have a strong influence on many of those gothic rock groups who had come after Bauhaus appeared, including Sex Gang Children and Death Cult, the latter of which featured a young Ian Astbury.
Drug use and internal fighting started to lead to the band's decay. By late 1982, George Belanger and Rikk Agnew were gone from the band and were replaced by Eva Ortiz on guitar, she had previously took part in ''Only Theatre Of Pain'' as a backing vocalist and a new drummer named China. After their first gig with local band called Pompeii 99, Michael Montana replaced Eva on guitar. Christian Death and Pompeii 99 had planned on touring together in Europe, occasioned by the Continental release of ''Only Theatre of Pain'' on French label ''L'Invitation au Suicide'', but by the end of 1982, Christian Death had broken up.
Rozz Williams and Pompeii 99
By mid 1983, the issue of the Christian Death and Pompeii 99 European tour still stood. Though Rozz Williams had been stuck at his mother's house for six months without a band, he had made the acquaintance of Pompeii 99 and found certain common artistic ground with them. As a result, the core members of Pompeii 99; Valor Kand, Gitane Demone and David Glass decided to end that band and join up with Williams. A bassist Constance Smith was brought in to complete the lineup.
Williams wanted to revive the name Daucus Karota for the new group but the head of label ''L'Invitation au Suicide''; Yann Farcy, was insistent that a band called "Christian Death" play the scheduled shows in Europe to support ''Only Theatre Of Pain"s release there. There was some protest within the group about keeping the Christian Death name for the new band, especially from Rozz, but the old moniker ultimately remained in place. The name "means different things to all of us," Valor Kand would assert a year later. For him, the name promoted martyrism as a positive example. The French album cover for ''Only Theatre Of Pain'' featured the painting "Andromaque" by Georges Rochegrosse, depicting the ancient Romans method of "Christian death."
Before their departure for Europe, the band performed around Los Angeles and appeared on TV show ''Media Blitz'' where they mimed to a couple tracks from ''Only Theatre Of Pain''. They finally performed in Paris on 12 February 1984 and continued their European tour until June. They experienced significant financial difficulty and were effectively stranded in Europe until the promoters offered to send them to Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales to record a new album.
Catastrophe Ballet
This album, Catastrophe Ballet, featured a change in Rozz's vocal delivery. While ''Only Theatre of Pain'' and the ''Deathwish'' EP had Rozz presenting a rhythmic spoken word style with an almost androgynous pitch to his voice, ''Catastrophe Ballet'' showed a richer, less harsh side to his stylings, with more influence from David Bowie and Lou Reed. Rather than the occult-oriented lyrics from the first album, the singer showed a new-found interest in Surrealism and the Dada movement. Gitane Demone shared these interests, and the synergy between them helped cultivate the musical change from the old band's murky, dark punk to a more elegant, romantic strain of guitar-driven rock, though a tribalistic drumming was also added into the mix. Album notes (to later reissues if not the original release) give all compositional credit to Valor Kand,O supplying guitar and back up vocals during the 1990s. This was after the release of the two Shadow Project studio albums featuring the couple. The first of the new Christian Death albums, ''The Iron Mask'', is interestingly a reference to the Alexandre Dumas novel about an usurper who imprisons the rightful heir to the throne. This was a clear jab at Valor Kand, who Williams now viewed as a thief for taking his band's name. Kand became enraged at the use of his now trademarked name 'Christian Death'.
After recording two more studio albums under the Christian Death name with Eva O, titled, "''The Path Of Sorrows''" and "''The Rage Of Angels''", Rozz Williams committed suicide by hanging on 1 April, 1998. He did not leave a suicide note and it is not known why Rozz would have wanted to take his own life. It is assumed that his suicide was related to his struggle with a long time heroin addiction, however Rozz had been clean since 1994. He was suffering from alcoholism at the time of his death.
Kand continues use of Christian Death name Following Williams' death, Kand immediately seized control over all Christian Death material made by Rozz Williams on Cleopatra Records. In 1998 and 1999 two European and one American tour was done for the "''Pornographic Messiah''" album. During both European tours the line up was: Valor on vocals and guitar, Maitri on bass and backing vocals, Fernando Medina playing the drums and Wim Leydes as a lead guitarist. Both Fernando Medina and Wim Leydes left the band after these tours.
Also members of the crew on these tours had enough tension for a while and decided to move on. Wim Leydes (also known as Cryscendo) started together with Sonja Kraushofer what became Persephone and have co-wrote material, recording three albums which were released via Trisol Records. Fernando Medina is currently a freelance drummer in Boston. Although both members were also in the song "''Cavity''" on the first track of "''The Bible''" live album, both members were not mentioned in the credits.
Valor continues to put out new material under the name Christian Death, though his current incarnation of the group is a lot heavier and has lost a lot, if not all of the gothic rock/deathrock style for a more metal sound, this is shown on their last album ''Born Again Anti-Christian'' released in 2000, which features members of black metallers Cradle Of Filth, including vocalist Dani Filth.
The new millennium saw Valor's bassist Maitri establish a side project called Lover of Sin. Though Valor does not perform in this project, he did produce and co-write their self titled debut album released in late 2002. Since the album was released as ''Christian Death Presents Lover of Sin'', the promoters for Lover of Sin's 2003 world tour wrongly billed them as Christian Death. This put fans under the impression that this was yet a new incarnation of the group that not only lacked Rozz and the other original members, but even lacked Valor.
Christian Death 1334
During the latter part of 2006 it was announced that the original members of Christian Death (minus the deceased Williams). Would be performing together with Williams' wife; Eva O as a vocalist. The line-up consist of; James McGearty, CHRISTIAN OMAR MADRIGAL IZZO =DRUMS, Eva O and Jamie Pina.
The band will be recording new material and touring, local los angeles shows to come in april. Also a new album to come. The "''1334''" part of the name is in reference to a number Williams frequently used in relation to the black death.
Discography
Christian Death Death Wish EP (Fr. L'Invitation au Suicide) 1981 Only Theatre Of Pain (Frontier) 1982 Catastrophe Ballet (Fr. L'Invitation au Suicide) 1984 Ashes (Nostradamus) 1985 The Decomposition of Violets (Contempo Records) 1990 The Iron Mask (Cleopatra) 1992 Skeleton Kiss EP (Cleopatra) 1992 The Path of Sorrows (Cleopatra) 1993 Iconologia (Triple X) 1993 Sleepless Nights: Live 1990 (Cleopatra) 1993 Invocations: 1981-1989 (Cleopatra) 1993 The Doll's Theatre (Cleopatra) 1994 The Rage of Angels (Cleopatra) 1994 Tales of Innocence: A Continued Anthology (Cleopatra) 1994 Death in Detroit (Cleopatra) 1995
Shadow Project Shadow Project (Triple X) 1991 Dreams for the Dying (Triple X) 1992 Dead Babies/Killer (Triple X) Cassette 1992 In Tuned Out — Live '93 (Triple X) 1994 From the Heart (Hollows Hill Sound Recordings) 1998
Premature Ejaculation PE - Pt.1 (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1981 PE - Pt.2 (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1981 A Little Hard to Swallow (Malaise Music) Cassette 1982 Living Monstrocities/Descent (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1985 Body of a Crow (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1986 Death Cultures (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1987 Assertive Discipline (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1988 Death Cultures III (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1988 Night Sweats (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1988 Blood Told in Spine (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1988 Death Cultures (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1989 Anesthesia (Dark Vinyl Records) 1992 Necessary Discomforts (Cleopatra) 1993 Estimating the Time of Death (Triple X) 1994 Error genetico (artificial hearing) 1995 Dead Horse Riddles (Malaise Music) Cassette 1994 Wound of Exit (Hollows Hill Sound Recordings) 1998
Daucus Karota Shrine EP (Triple X) 1994
Heltir Il Banchetto Dei Concri/VC-706 (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1989 69 Rituals (Happiest Place on Earth) Cassette 1989 Neue Sachlichkeit (Triple X) 1994
EXP S/T (Hollows Hill Sound Recordings) 1996
Rozz Williams and Gitane Demone Dream Home Heartache (Triple X) 1995
Rozz Williams Every King a Bastard Son (Cleopatra) 1992 The Whorse's Mouth (Hollows Hill Sound Recordings) 1996 Live In Berlin (Hollows Hill Sound Recordings) 2000 (Bootleg, not an official release) Accept The Gift of Sin(live album) (Hollows Hill Sound Recordings) 2003
