SISTERS OF MERCY (Live)

at The O2 Academy, Leeds, U.K., March 10, 2020

SISTERS OF MERCY (Live at The O2 Academy, Leeds, U.K., March 10, 2020)
Photo: Mick Burgess

With enough smoke to contravene at least six sections of the Clean Air Act, masters of the dark and melancholic, Sisters Of Mercy, returned to their home town of Leeds for a rare show on UK shores.

Subdued lighting, swirling smoke and dark silhouettes, created one atmospheric show featuring songs from across their illustrious back catalogue from the mournful ‘Marian’ and the swirling, melodrama of ‘First and Last and Always’ from the debut album through to ‘More’ and ‘Ribbons’ from their 1990 swansong release, Vision Thing.

A mysterious looking Andrew Eldritch, bedecked in shades, held the attention with that rich, dark voice that combined the majesty of David Bowie with the depth and sorrow of Leonard Cohen both mournful yet grandiose in scope on ‘Alice’ and ‘Dominion/Mother Russia’.

Not satisfied with rolling out a collection of vintage cuts and classics Sisters of Mercy teased the crowd with hints of what is to come with brand new songs ‘But Genevieve’, that boldly opened the show and ‘Black Sails’, both harking back to those darker days of the 80s.

Long term guitarist Ben Christo and new addition Dylan Smith added some muscular riffs while the iconic Dokter Avalanche drum machine, the only other original “member” alongside Eldritch, taking care of the rhythm section.

As a more acoustic based ‘I Was Wrong’ and ‘Flood II’ soothed and caressed the big, bold bombast of ‘Lucretia My Reflection’, ‘Temple Of Love’ and ‘This Corrosion’ thrilled the crowd to their deepest, darkest core.

Review and Photos By Mick Burgess

Author

  • Mick Burgess

    Mick is a reviewer and photographer here at Metal Express Radio, based in the North-East of England. He first fell in love with music after hearing Jeff Wayne's spectacular The War of the Worlds in the cold winter of 1978. Then in the summer of '79 he discovered a copy of Kiss Alive II amongst his sister’s record collection, which literally blew him away! He then quickly found Van Halen I and Rainbow's Down To Earth, and he was well on the way to being rescued from Top 40 radio hell!   Over the ensuing years, he's enjoyed the Classic Rock music of Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple; the AOR of Journey and Foreigner; the Pomp of Styx and Kansas; the Progressive Metal of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, and Symphony X; the Goth Metal of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica, and a whole host of other great bands that are too numerous to mention. When he's not listening to music, he watches Sunderland lose more football (soccer) matches than they win, and occasionally, if he has to, he goes to work as a property lawyer.

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