Dear God, allow me to show gratitude for my fortunate eyes of truth. Lord, how long shall the wicked triumph . . . These loathsome parasites that cling to the cross, the cloth, and the skin, soaked in the blood of man, not the body of Christ. This is heresy. I admit in no way approval. "Heresy", Valor/Christian Death, Sex, Drugs, and Jesus Christ (1989).

I saw the concert flyers go up when working at Masquerade (now the Ritz), in Tampa's Ybor City, Florida in 1989.The original Christian Death line-up was going to play a show. At that point I wasn't yet familiar with the group, but I had a room-mate who was. When I told her, she was ecstatic. Because I worked at the club could get in free with total club access, ended up hanging outside tripping with friends all night, only entering during the show once to use the toilets. I heard them, saw them, thought, "so that's Christian Death," and went back outside. I've regretted that to this day.

A couple of months later, I was again tripping. As I lay by myself on a friend's sofa in Orlando watching shadows from a lava lamp climbing the wall across the room, I finally listened to Christian Death's Sex, Drugs, and Jesus Christ, with its growling, grinding bass-line intro. There was no looking back: I was hooked. Having been raised in a strict religious upbringing, attending the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, every Sunday and many days in between (basically Catholicism without the pope) and not finding it to my liking, Christian Death said everything my youthful, rebellious, anti-forced anti-Christian attitude wanted to, but hadn't yet articulated. I bought Christian Death's first album, Only Theater of Pain (LSR Records,1980), a short time later while spending three months in a work release program for the Florida State penal system, and found Christian Death saying and singing what I was feeling, expressing the anger, frustration and my desire to violently shove establishment views right back in the establishment's face.

Atrocities (LSR Records, 1990) was one of the albums I'd most often play when first shooting up heroin. I discovered All the Hate (Prophets/Jungle Records, 1989), the second half of a two album set, in London, where I'd moved after a soul-crushing break-up in Rotterdam.

Unsurprisingly, Christian Death had managed to record an album I could entirely relate to. Due to some cosmic synchronicity a few years later, All the Love (Prophets/Jungle Records, 1989) the first half of this double album, nearly fell of the record store shelf in New York City, just when I'd begun what is now an ongoing four-and-a-half year relationship. Hell, (Prophet Records, 1982), the title of their second full-length album, pretty much sums up my life to this point.

First formed (briefly as the Upsetters) in 1979 when, depending on your source, frontman Rozz Williams was a mere 16, or 17 years of age, the original line-up of Christian Death (Rikk Agnew, George Belanger, and James McGearty, with backing vocals by Eva O and Ron Athey, plus Rozz), didn't last long, breaking up soon after the release of Only Theater of Pain. Then Rozz met Valor Kand and Gitane Demone of Los Angeles band Pompeii 99, and reformed Christian Death, which took them to Paris and Wales to write and record Catastrophe Ballet (1982) which infamous rock 'n' roll photographer Leee Black Childers shot the cover photo for. After releasing Ashes in 1985, Rozz left the band to form Premature Ejaculation, Shadow Project, and Heltir. Meanwhile Valor and Gitane continued touring and recording as Christian Death, leading to acrimony and lawsuits. In 1989, the original line-up toured as Christian Death as well. Many more albums (both terrible and great) were released by Valor's Christian Death, and a couple by Rozz's group too. Rozz Williams committed suicide in California on 1 April 1998, leaving Valor to carry on as the singular Christian Death.

Jesus won't you touch me, come into my heart. Where the hell are you when the fire starts? On a mission of the father to reduce the gates of hell. The ivory bone-eyed mother's flesh is starting to swell. I'm setting twenty-two tables for the funeral feast. Satan is by far the kindest guest.
~~ "Spiritual Cramp", Rozz/Christian Death, Only Theater of Pain (Frontier Records, 1980).

As my fellow disinformer Alex Burns noted,

If you're part of a restrictive social environment that has Judeo-Christian values, what better way to "rebel" than to adopt what you think is the "evil" symbol? (especially if you get your ideas from Hollywood films and rock music.) This phenomena is documented by sociologist Jeffrey Victor's Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend (Chicago: Open Court, 1993), and Robert D. Hick's In Pursuit of Satan: The Police and the Occult, and Larry Kahaner's Cults That Kill (New York: Warner Books, 1988).

I must admit, I not only like the music of Christian Death, finally getting to a gig by Valor's Christian Death at Limelight (New York City) in 1994, I also very much appreciate their style and verve, being drawn to a group that so openly flaunts such anti-Judeo-Christian tendencies. (My parents never have said anything about that [Christian Death] poster of [Jesus shooting up] on my wall, though I did catch them giving it disconcerted sidelong glances once or twice during their visit.)