Christian Death
The “Concise” Biography
Of an otherwise continuing story,
Once plagued by riots, protests, death threats, arrests, album burnings on US Christian TV, a nationwide investigation by German church officials, albums and performances banned, shadow bans, censorship, infighting, attempted suicides and actual suicide, in spite of all this and more, Christian Death is Alive.
Christian Death is one of the world’s most controversial bands with a most controversial name. It is the first band to use the word Death in a name.
Created as a word play on ‘Christian Dior”, by “Rozz Williams”, the band’s first singer and lyricist…. In 1983, after some underground local recognition in Los Angeles, live shows and recordings for the first album (See Discography Below), the band broke up completely.
A year later, Rozz joined the Los Angeles band, “Pompeii 99″, formed by band leader, lead vocalist and guitarist “Valor”. During negotiations for a record deal in the UK and Europe for Pompeii 99, Valor was also in contact with a French label with a solid offer, however, after hearing the name Christian Death, the label CEO had added one more condition, “to re-use Christian Death”.
Rozz and Valor objected to changing the name. But the label made them an offer they could not refuse. So after signing contracts between the label and band and between Rozz and Valor, Pompeii 99 was re-named as Christian Death.
After the band’s third album and first tour, Rozz split from the band, reneging his rights and responsibilities of the partnership, leaving Valor holding the reins .
7 Years later, Rozz made a comeback, releasing several recordings under the name Christian Death. (those “unofficial” recordings are not included in Discography below).
Rozz later tragically committed suicide in 1998.
Enter “Maitri”, female vocalist and bass player, the second most continuous member of Christian Death. Originally from Holland, Maitri moved to London where she was first introduced to Christian Death. Her first official debut as a permanent member was on the album “Sexy Death God”(See Below) and the subsequent tour with Type O Negative. She has been a key figure in the band ever since, performing on all the later albums, including: “Pornographic Messiah”, “Born Again Anti Christian” which features performances from several members of UK Black Metal band “Cradle Of Filth” as well as a subsequent European tour with Cradle Of Filth, which also featured former members of Cradle Of Filth as members within Christian Death.
With a cast of dozens of changing members, and as one journalist put it “A revolving door of members”, Christian Death with Valor and Maitri, has done multiple headline tours in the USA, Canada, Mexico, most countries in Europe, South and Central America, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.
In the beginning, Christian Death have done support tours and or concerts with the likes of Specimen and Siouxsie and the Banshees to Kiss and more recently performances at the Cruel World Festival in Los Angeles with Blondie and Morrissey and others, attended by approx. 100,000 people and the 2023 Darker Waves festival on Huntington Beach California, attended by upwards of 30,000 people, with The B52s and New Order (a band that Pompeii 99 once also performed with).
In 2024, with over a quater million suscriber listeners a month on Spotify, Christian Death, with Valor , Maitri, Chuck “Chains” Lenihan, on Guitar (ex Crumsuckers, Genitorturers, Canivore AD) and Steve Kilroy on drums, will embark on upcoming tours in Europe in May and Late summer in South America.
The new album “Evil Becomes Rule” and subsequent videos from the album will be the focus of concerts in 2024 now planned in Europe, South America and the USA.
“The founding fathers of American goth rock, Christian Death took a relentlessly confrontational stand against organized religion and conventional morality, with an appetite for provocation that made Marilyn Manson look like Stryper. Regardless of who was leading or performing in the group, Christian Death set themselves up to shock, both in their cover art and their lyrics, which wallowed in blasphemy, morbidity, drug use, and sexual perversity. Their self-consciously controversial tactics set them apart from the British goth scene, having more to do with L.A. punk and heavy metal, and thus the band dubbed its sound “death rock” instead; however, their sensibility was ultimately similar enough that the “goth” designation stuck in the end.”
– Steve Huey Rolling Stone-
“One of the top ten Goth bands of all time “- Rolling Stone