Mors Syphilitica was an American

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

ethereal Ethereal may refer to: *Ethereal (horse), a horse that won Australia's Caulfield Cup as well as Melbourne Cup in 2001 *Ethereal wave, or simply ethereal, a subgenre of dark wave music *Wireshark, formerly named Ethereal, a free and open-source pack ...

band formed in 1995 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Lisa Hammer Lisa Hammer (née Houle; born April 4, 1967 in Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.) is an American filmmaker, actress, composer and singer and is the sister of director James Merendino (''SLC Punk!'').By Mike White, Cashiers Du Cinemart, (archived versio ...

(''née'' Houle) and Eric Hammer after the breakup of their prior band Requiem in White. Their music combined often-surreal lyrics with unusual instruments such as

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, as well more conventional instruments like

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

. Lisa Hammer's operatic vocals gave Mors Syphilitica's music a distinctive powerful, sweeping quality. On record, all of the instruments were played by Eric Hammer; in concert, they were accompanied by live drummers and bass players. Their first, self-titled 12" single (consisting of the song "Whispers in the House of Truth" backed with a cover of "The Damned Don't Cry" by Visage) on Sacrum Torch had a limited but successful release of 300 copies. Their three subsequent full-length albums were released by Sacrum Torch; the last album, ''Feather and Fate'', was distributed by

Projekt Records Projekt is a Portland, Oregon-based independent record label started by Sam Rosenthal in 1983. Projekt releases music in the styles of darkwave, ambient, shoegaze, gothic rock, ethereal, dream-pop, and dark cabaret. Projekt artists include Sam ...

, which gave Mors Syphilitica access to a much wider audience. The band did not conduct many interviews, preferring that their music spoke for itself rather than warranting explanation.

Discography

Albums

*''Mors Syphilitica'' (1996, Sacrum Torch) *''Primrose'' (1998, Sacrum Torch) *''Feather and Fate'' (2001, Sacrum Torch/Projekt)

Singles

*''Mors Syphilitica'' 12-inch single (1996, Sacrum Torch) Rock music groups from New York (state) American gothic rock groups Projekt Records artists Musical groups from New York City Ethereal wave musical groups {{US-rock-band-stub