Sisters of Mercy get down and dirty at the Roundhouse Review | Music | Entertainment

Opening with an explosive start, the thumping drums feel like a blow to the chest. This iconic Camden venue is the perfect setting for this seminal post punk band with swirling smoke billowing from the stage filling the industrial space.

An avid audience made up of mainly hard-core fans with a kind of cult following all dressed in black leathers and vintage band T-shirts watched in deep anticipation.

Before the start of the set a billowing black sheet fell from the stage, creating a very dramatic entrance. Sisters of Mercy’s remaining original member and singer Andrew Eldritch prowled the stage and launched into the hit song I Will Call You.

His distinctive deep baritone voice with its melancholic tone is still full of strength and power. Crunching guitar sounds from Ben Christo get the audience moving, in addition to his dramatic posturing.

They make full use of the venue’s light show with every song featuring a different colour with the band dramatically showcased in the moody light and smoke effects.

An unusual use of their drum machine named ‘Doktor Avalanche’ ensured a ferocious sound, and almost industrial beats resonated through the room.

There was little time for small talk and niceties as the band launched through their massive back catalogue of hits.

It was disappointing not to hear from the band on stage, never normally reticent, such as when they notably rejected the Goth music scene “I’m constantly confronted by representatives of popular culture who are far more goth than we, yet I have only to wear black socks to be stigmatised as the demon overlord.” said Andrew in an interview in 2001.

The encore started with the dramatic Lucretia My Reflection, written for their original bassist Patricia Morrison with the crowd chanting along “ I hear the roar of a big machine”. Temple of Love lifted the tempo, this was the bands biggest hit reaching number 3 in the charts in 1992 and still getting the crowd going over 30 years later, testament to the band’s longevity as they prove tonight.