Christian Death

Reacting against his strict Southern Baptist upbringing, Rozz Williams formed the confrontationally named Christian Death in Los Angeles in 1979. A dark beacon of the city’s newly minted death-rock scene, the band transmuted outsider proto-punk and glam influences into the bleary, gothic dirges heard on 1982’s Only Theatre of Pain. After a few more albums and lineup changes, Williams exited the band in 1985, eventually passing away in 1998. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Valor Kand took the reins for decades to come, presiding over cathartic doom and gloom alongside bassist/singer Maitri Nicolai on albums like 2007’s American Inquisition and 2022’s Evil Becomes Rule. Despite changing eras of underground American music, Christian Death maintained its anti-religious message while merging shadowy threads of industrial, rockabilly and other genres into a deeper vision of goth.