[Roll Your Own Life] The Music That Shaped Me (Part 15)

The Whores of Babylon - Metropolis (1994)

I have to thank our good friend "Metal" Steve (as we know him) who we first met at our local comic shop. Absolute legend that he is, and a recognisable face in the local metal scene with a collection of albums that would make even the most hardcore music collector jealous. Steve introduced us to a great deal of music that we would never have experienced that really stuck with me over the years. So much so, this entry AND the following two albums were all by artists that were recommended to us by Steve. Thanks man!

Steve knew I liked Nine Inch Nails and The Sisters of Mercy, and did his best (when he wasn't recommending extreme metal from bands whose names looked like thorn bushes) to find the coolest stuff we'd be interested in. One of these was a little known band called The Whores of Babylon.

Amazing album.

Dark and operatic, with fantastically epic elements that drew upon filmic scores (even incorporating dialogue from Hellraiser at one point), the album Metropolis came along just as we were starting to play the Kult RPG (which has a realm called Metropolis). So many elements of the album (falling angels, dark urban settings, biblical themes) resonated with the game, and it's a brilliant album on top of that.

I remember they came from Bristol and had ties to fellow Bristol musicians Portishead (Beth Gibbons appears on one of the Whores tracks if I remember correctly). I wonder whatever happened to Whores of Babylon? I'd have loved to have heard more...