Review Summary: The Sisters of Mercy sophomore effort finds a band completely changed but still in top form. The band regrouped with Craig Adams on bass, while Eldritch's drumming was replaced by a drum machine, leaving him to concentrate on vocals. The drum machine was christened "Doktor Avalanche", and all of its numerous successors kept this moniker. Eldritch took over lyrics-writing, Doktor-programming, and record-producing duties, while co-writing the music with Marx and (occasionally) Adams. The band's broke. I haven't worked out yet how a band can tour for a year at the Sisters' level and be broke at the end of it [...], but I have parted company with the people managing the band in London. If I have to pay them off it will make us more broke for a while. [15]

a b c Andrews, Mark. "Shine Like Thunder: The First Golden Age of The Sisters of Mercy". The Quietus . Retrieved 8 May 2020. European Hot 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol.4, no.50. 19 December 1987. p.18. OCLC 29800226– via World Radio History. The Sisters of Mercy ceased recording activity in the early 1990s, when they went on strike against East West Records, who they accused of incompetence and withholding royalties, and had pressured the group to release at least two more studio albums; instead, the label released the album Go Figure under the moniker SSV in 1997. Although the Sisters of Mercy were eventually released from their contract with East West, they have never been signed to another label nor released any new material. They have continued to perform new songs live. Sutherland, Steve (5 September 1987). "His Master's Voice". Melody Maker. Archived from the original on 23 March 2016 . Retrieved 9 April 2018. In late 1997, the contract with EastWest was terminated, after the company agreed to accept material recorded under the SSV name instead of two albums for which the Sisters of Mercy had contractual obligations. The company agreed to accept the material (techno-like droning featuring mumbling vocals by Andrew Eldritch, without drums) without listening to it first. The recordings were never officially released and circulated only through pirate MP3s.

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Because Sisters of Mercy have only made three albums—“three very good albums,” Eldritch interrupted a journalist to specify—there is a lot of weight on each one. I’d pinpoint Floodland as their greatest, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. In fact many feared the story had ended when the band disassembled years before its release. Guitarist Gary Marx left to form Ghost Dance; Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams formed the Mission. Eldritch now stood alone (or alone with the drum machine, which he named Doktor Avalanche). In the UK press especially, the breakup was documented with a venom that painted their work firmly in the past tense. “We’d done what we wanted to achieve,” Hussey said. “In doing that we’d lost the original essence of it…. We’d lost the joke of it. Because that’s what it was originally meant to be. A joke.”

a b c d "The Mekons' Jon Langford on His Brief Sisters of Mercy Stint". CLRVYNT . Retrieved 19 November 2016. Matrix / Runout (Runout side A, variant 12, stamped, "X 15 D" etched): R/S Alsdorf 242232-1-AX 15 D Regarding the title Floodland, Eldritch realised that, after writing all the songs for the album, the theme of water came up repeatedly. He attributed the theme's recurrence to the amount of water within Hamburg, where he was writing these songs. [18] Michael Bonner of Uncut viewed Eldritch as casting himself in a role where he is a "jaded observer, watching cynically as he and the world slouch towards Armageddon," adding that the songs are bonded together by "images of the apocalypse that straddle the gap between the personal and the political." [25] This Corrosion” was ultimately featured on the second studio album from The Sisters of Mercy, and the band pared down to the core two-piece of Andrew Eldritch and Patricia Morrison, creating a record that re-defined the sound The Sisters of Mercy stood for.

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After what was dubbed the "Sisterhood fiasco" by Sounds, [10] Eldritch decided to continue under the name the Sisters of Mercy, feeling as though doing so would improve the name's reputation after the previous fallout. [6] He also thought that it would have been nonsensical to change the name, as he still wrote songs the same way as before. [2] Eldritch, who in 1985 first moved to Bramfeld and then to St. Pauli, began to compose a new album while in Hamburg, under the Warner Elektra Atlantic (WEA) label. [11] The demos for the album were mainly recorded with a Casio CZ-101 synthesiser, acoustic guitars and a new drum machine. At the time, Eldritch was attempting to find a MIDI drum machine of a modest price that featured a "tighter snare drum" sound. [12] At the end of 1980, the single "Damage Done/Watch/Home of the Hit-men", was recorded and released. [9] On the single Marx played guitar through a practice amplifier and Eldritch was on drums that he had bought from Langford. [8] The duo each wrote and sang on a song: Eldritch on "Damage Done", Marx on "Watch". [9] The band name was influenced by Robert Altman's film McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971), which featured the Leonard Cohen song "Sisters of Mercy" from his album Songs of Leonard Cohen, "because [calling ourselves] the Captains of Industry wouldn't have been as funny". [10] The original incarnation of Doktor Avalanche was a BOSS DR-55 ("Doctor Rhythm"); the Doktor was later replaced by a Roland TR-606, soon followed by a TR-808, and, briefly, a TR-909. On one album, First and Last and Always, an Oberheim DMX bore the Doktor name. [31] The band's singles were regularly featured in UK independent charts; some became single of the week in various UK indie magazines. John Ashton of the Psychedelic Furs produced the early classic "Alice". The Reptile House E.P. is another example of early Sisters work and marks the maturing songwriter Eldritch (who wrote, produced and [reportedly] played all instruments on it). When Adams and Hussey left the band, they were replaced by the American singer and bass guitarist Patricia Morrison of the Bags and the Gun Club. [12]