Christian Death’s ‘Prophecies’ turns 30 on 18 July
Christian Death released the album “Prophecies” on 18 July 1996 through Jungle Records and Cleopatra Records. The gothic rock album turns 30 this year.
Christian Death released the album “Prophecies” on 18 July 1996, issued in the UK by Jungle Records and in the US by Cleopatra Records. The gothic rock and industrial album, built around themes drawn from the writings of Nostradamus, turns 30 this year under the band’s Valor Kand-led lineup. Candlelight Records USA reissued the album on CD in 2003.
The ten-track album runs 52:54 and opens with “Without,” followed by “Is This the Will of God,” “Alone,” “The Great Swarm of Bees,” “Into the Shitworld,” “The Pig Half Man,” “Thunderstorm,” “The Black Ones,” “Black Empire” and closing track “Nineteen Ninety Nine.” Valor Kand arranged and engineered the album and provided guitar, vocals and orchestration, working from sessions recorded in Boston, New York and Rotterdam. Bassist Maitri contributed vocals and arranging, guitarist Flick added additional guitar, and Steven “Devine” Wright played drums, with Yääl and Kirk Yano handling additional engineering. “Prophecies” followed the double live album “Amen,” released the previous year, and arrived roughly a decade into Kand’s tenure as frontperson following Rozz Williams’ 1985 departure from the band.
About Christian Death
Christian Death formed in Los Angeles County, California, in October 1979, founded by vocalist Rozz Williams with guitarist John “Jay” Albert, bassist James McGearty and drummer George Belanger. The band began as a punk act indebted to the Germs before slowing its sound and incorporating religious symbolism. After a shifting early lineup, Williams was joined by guitarist Rikk Agnew of the Adolescents, along with McGearty and Belanger; this lineup recorded the band’s debut album, “Only Theatre of Pain,” released on Frontier Records on 24 March 1982 and widely regarded as foundational to the deathrock and gothic rock styles that followed.
The lineup dissolved after the debut, and by the band’s second album, “Catastrophe Ballet” (1984), Williams had been joined by Valor Kand of Pompeii 99 on vocals and guitar. Following the group’s third album, “Ashes” (1985), Williams left the band and Kand became frontperson, with no original members remaining. Kand’s lineup released “Atrocities” (1986), “The Scriptures” (1987) and “Sex and Drugs and Jesus Christ” (1988), the period that produced the band’s biggest UK Independent Chart successes with the singles “Sick of Love,” “Church of No Return” and “Zero Sex.” The two-part concept album “All the Love All the Hate” followed in 1989. Bassist Maitri joined in 1991, first performing with the band that July in Florence, Italy, and the lineup went on to release “Insanus, Ultio, Proditio, Misercordiaque” (1990), “Sexy Death God” (1994) and the live album “Amen” (1995) before “Prophecies” arrived in 1996.
Rozz Williams pursued his own version of the band during this period, billed as “Christian Death featuring Rozz Williams,” releasing “The Iron Mask” (1992), “The Path of Sorrows” (1993) and “The Rage of Angels” (1994) on Cleopatra Records before his death in April 1998. Kand’s Christian Death continued with “Pornographic Messiah” (1998) and “Born Again Anti Christian” (2000), touring Europe with Cradle of Filth, and released “American Inquisition” in 2007. Kand and Maitri also formed the black metal and deathrock act Lover of Sin, issuing “Christian Death Presents Lover of Sin” in 2002. A PledgeMusic-funded album, “The Root of All Evilution,” followed in 2015, and the band released the single “Blood Moon” ahead of the studio album “Evil Becomes Rule” in May 2022. Co-founder John Albert died in May 2023. The band announced a US tour billed as the “Baby Bats Parade” for June 2026, three decades after “Prophecies” first arrived under Kand’s leadership.
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