CXV. Shadow Project | Dreams For The Dying

SHADOW PROJECT

Dreams For The Dying

©Triple X. US, 1992.

‟Sounding like the band imploding, this might be the nastiest & most twisted Rozz Williams album since 'Only Theatre Of Pain'. But Rozz wasn't the only driving force in Shadow Project. Eva O. was just as important and for this album she wrote not only some of her best songs, but some of the band's best. 'Static Jesus' might be the definitive Shadow Project song. Her vocals here seem to be chasing the spookier side of Diamanda Galas, and though she might fall short, it is pretty damn interesting. Rozz, likewise, is trying to be Bowie circa Low or Diamond Dogs, and again, though he's not always successful, his vocals are at their most assured.

The band manages the quite rare trick of playing several 7 minute songs without sounding like an edit is needed. 'Knight Stalker' is presumably a tribute to handsome Satanist rapist/murderer Richard Ramirez (makes sense in a sick way, we all know how much Rozz loves serial killers, AND the guy's easy on the eye), Zaned People is an unusually equal collaboration between Rozz and Eva, Thy Kingdom Come is held up by beautiful and scary Paris atmospherics... all the tracks are well developed and interesting, though I'm not crazy about 'Funeral Rites'. Worth investigating for even a casual fan of Goth music.‟

Team Vampire 

CII. Eva O | Past Time

EVA O

Past Time 

©Cleopatra. US, 1993.

‟Goth chanteuse Eva O. is perhaps best known for her contributions to the Rozz Williams version of Christian Death, though she also worked with several other bands and managed a solo career as well. Born Eva Ortiz, she grew up in a strongly Catholic military family, spending the majority of her childhood in Las Vegas. She had a troubled childhood and found solace in playing the guitar, eventually moving to Los Angeles to pursue rock & roll. In 1980, she founded a punky, all-female hard rock group called the Speed Queens, who were inspired in part by the Runaways. Wanting to take music more seriously than some of her bandmates, she soon left to form the Superheroines with bassist Jill Emery. This group earned a following on L.A.'s so-called death rock scene of the early '80s, which also included goth-flavored bands like .45 Grave and Christian Death. In fact, the Super Heroines made their recorded debut alongside those bands on 1981's Hell Comes to Your House compilation, and O. supplied the female backing vocals on Christian Death's debut album, Only Theatre of Pain.

The Super Heroines recorded two albums of their own, Cry for Help and Souls That Save, for the small local label Bemis Brain over 1982-1983. A third album was begun but never completed, and O. officially disbanded the Superheroines in 1987, when she married original (and, by this time, former) Christian Death singer Rozz Williams. The couple moved to San Francisco and started the goth rock outfit Shadow Project, moving the group back to Los Angeles in 1990. In the meantime, Williams -- who'd founded Christian Death but left in 1985 -- revived the name to compete with the current version of Christian Death, and made O. the guitarist and female vocalist.

Thanks to those two projects, O.'s recorded legacy expanded substantially in the early '90s. Shadow Project issued two studio albums (1991's Shadow Project and 1992's Dreams for the Dying) plus a live set, In Tuned Out; the Williams-led Christian Death, meanwhile, released an album of re-recordings of early material, The Iron Mask, plus two albums of new material, 1993's Path of Sorrows and 1994's The Rage of Angels. Around this time, O. grew interested in a solo career, and to help grease the skids, Cleopatra issued the 1993 career retrospective Past Time, which featured material from her days with the Speed Queens, the Super Heroines, and Christian Death, as well as three new solo songs.

Released in 1994, O.'s proper solo debut was a shocking revelation for many longtime fans: she had converted to Christianity, and crafted a born-again concept album titled Demons Fall for an Angel's Kiss. Credited to the Eva O. Halo Experience, it featured prominent musical support from producer Johnny Indovina. O. eventually divorced Rozz Williams, who had been battling heroin addiction, but the two remained close, and reunited as Shadow Project for the mostly acoustic album From the Heart in 1998; sadly, Williams committed suicide that April. The following year, O. issued her second proper solo album, Damnation, on the small Massacre label; it continued her Christian spiritual preoccupation.‟

Fields Of Haze