The Sisters Of Mercy - This Corrosion (2015) [Hi-Res]

"This Corrosion" was originally announced as a 1986 single by the Sisterhood, a follow-up to the independent chart-topping "Giving Ground." In fact, it would be another year before the song was finally released, by which time it, and the band, had undergone a major revision.

Reverting to the Sisters of Mercy name, Andrew Eldritch was now paired with bassist Patricia Morrison and producer Jim Steinman, and "This Corrosion" emerged as grand as such ingredients demand. Summed up by Eldritch as a tale of "power in the face of misery," "This Corrosion" was released in September 1987, sailing in on the waves of a vast operatic chorale (the 40-piece New York Chorale Society) and defying even the sourest listener not to feel a slight fission of excitement and awe. The lyric, aimed at the former bandmembers who had split to form the Mission, is one of Eldritch's most pointed, but there was so much more to "This Corrosion" than simply another bout of superstar sniping. There was its "glorious stupidity," as Eldritch smirked, and a gleeful sense of "bombast" that rendered it one of the most impressive-sounding records of the age. ~ Dave Thompson