🕯️ Temple of Love: How the Sisters of Mercy Brought Gothic Shadows to the Dancefloor

The Twelve Inch 183 : Temple Of Love (Sisters Of Mercy)

In just a few weeks Halloween will be here, and when it comes to picking the perfect party soundtrack, few genres fit better than goth. Think pale performers in black lace and leather, a touch of the macabre, and vocals that sound like they’ve drifted back from the grave, no other music feels quite as at home with the spooky season.

This week’s pick, “Temple of Love”, was an underground dancefloor staple in 1983. I carried it with me everywhere I played. The moment I saw a group of black-clad kids heading toward the booth, I already knew what they were going to ask for. At the time, I didn’t quite grasp the allure of goth, but over the years I’ve learned to appreciate it, especially through the later work of two of the scene’s most enduring names: The Sisters of Mercy and The Mission.

This week, we’ll focus on the former, revisiting their first big underground hit, a track that would (in a remix version) also be their last.

So, dust off your black gear, and let’s dive in.

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👋 Welcome, I’m Pe Dupre, thanks for stopping by.

This is The Twelve Inch, my newsletter about the history of dance music from 1975 to 1995, told one twelve-inch record at a time.

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🌑 Who Were The Sisters of Mercy?

The Sisters of Mercy formed in Leeds in 1980, the brainchild of Andrew Eldritch and Gary Marx. Their name, surprisingly, came not from religious imagery but from Leonard Cohen’s song “Sisters of Mercy”, a wink to Cohen’s poetic melancholy. From the very beginning, they cultivated a darkly theatrical image: black clothes, fog-filled stages, and Eldritch’s unmistakable baritone voice.

They emerged after the first wave of goth bands, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and soon became leaders of a second wave that gained momentum in 1983–84. In many ways, that wave was a reaction against the slick optimism of “New Pop” acts like ABC, The Human League, and Spandau Ballet. And yet, goth and New Pop shared one trait: both embraced glamour and star power, moving away from post-punk’s anti-mystique stance.

The Sisters, however, didn’t see themselves as a goth band at all. They called themselves a rock band, or perhaps we should say, a parody of one. Where other post-punk groups rejected rock’s clichés, the Sisters leaned into them. The twist was their use of a drum machine instead of a drummer. That choice gave their songs a relentless, mechanical pulse that made them more danceable than most guitar-driven bands of the time. Whether the parody was intentional or not, no one, not even the band themselves, could ever quite say where the joke started or ended.

What also set them apart was ambition. Eldritch never wanted to stay a cult figure on the UK’s fringes. He aimed for the big stage. That drive carried the Sisters from their independent beginnings on their own label, Merciful Release, to a major deal with Warner Music.

🥁 Doctor Avalanche: The Most Reliable Band Member

The Sisters of Mercy were never known for a stable line-up, guitarists drifted in and out, and entire factions splintered into rival bands. But one member never left: Doktor Avalanche, their ever-present drum machine.

The Doktor’s first form was a BOSS DR-55 (“Doctor Rhythm”), later upgraded to a Roland TR-606, then a TR-808, and briefly a TR-909. On the album First and Last and Always, an Oberheim DMX carried the title. In more recent years, the “Digital Doktor” has lived inside a custom-built laptop designed by Eldritch and assembled by an English military software and hardware company.

Doktor Avalanche even “runs” the advice column on the band’s official website. 😁

As Eldritch once explained:

“It’s certainly easier touring without a drummer. The laptop has one version of the Doktor; the other version is pretty much the size of a drum kit, but a lot heavier – but it does come without an idiot. When we’re not doing the laptop scenario, we use the computer and the actual hardware samplers.”

Within the goth scene, the enduring joke became that “the drum machine had the longest career in goth rock.”

🎸 A Genre Between Shadows and Strobe Lights

So what genre did The Sisters of Mercy really belong to? On paper, they were filed under goth rock. In reality, Andrew Eldritch rejected the label outright. He was consistently outspoken about the goth scene, dismissing it as a media invention rather than an identity the band ever claimed. In interview after interview, he argued that “goth” was far too narrow a box for a group that drew on such a wide range of influences.

Their fans, however, had no doubts. You could spot them instantly: black, teased hair, ruffled Regency shirts, leather, and spiked dog collars.

As Eldritch once put it:

“I’m constantly confronted by representatives of popular culture who are far more goth than we, yet I have only to wear black socks to be stigmatised as the demon overlord.”

Meanwhile, clubs approached them from another angle. With Doktor Avalanche laying down steady 4/4 beats, DJs had something solid to work with. Dark yet danceable, tracks like Alice and Temple of Love slipped seamlessly into both goth nights and alternative dance floors, bridging the gap between post-punk guitars and electronic precision.

🔮 The Breakthrough: Temple of Love (1983)

Released in 1983, Temple of Love was a stand-alone single and the band’s first real breakthrough. Driven by pounding percussion, shimmering guitars, and Eldritch’s mesmeric baritone spouting cryptic, fevered lines, it was unlike anything else on the dancefloor.

I’ve often wondered what those lyrics are really about. On the surface: lust, power, surrender. But looking deeper is like tumbling into a rabbit hole. Interpretations abound. Eldritch wrote as if he’d been steeped in both Baudelaire and the tabloid press.

The single became a club hit across Europe, especially in Germany, where the Sisters quickly built a devoted following. In the UK, it topped the indie charts but never broke through to the pop Top 40. Still, that indie No. 1 was enough to turn heads in the industry, and it was Warner who eventually signed them.

🌍 Two Temples: 1983 vs. 1992

Why did Andrew Eldritch revisit Temple of Love in 1992? By then, The Sisters of Mercy were essentially on hiatus. To promote the compilation Some Girls Wander by Mistake, he re-recorded the track with Israeli-Yemeni singer Ofra Haza. In a 1992 interview with Canadian magazine Siren, Eldritch explained, in typically grand fashion, why Temple of Lovewas chosen: “Because it’s stunning, glorious and generally wonderful.”

According to him, the record company doubted that a back-catalog compilation would sell without something new attached. The remix was their compromise.

Ofra Haza’s soaring vocal added a powerful Middle Eastern intensity that transformed the song. “She did one take and we had to peel ourselves off the ceiling… and she did another, and we had to peel ourselves off the ceiling again. And so it went on. Awesome.”

The 1992 version went on to become the band’s biggest chart success, climbing into the UK Top 3. Fans remain divided but often embrace both: the original for its raw urgency, the re-recording for its sheer grandeur.

In theory, this remix should have set the stage for a new era. Instead, label politics derailed momentum. When the band was shifted within the Warner Music system, tensions boiled over. Eldritch responded by refusing further releases. To fulfill his contract, he delivered one final “album” under the name Feel No Pain, credited not to The Sisters of Mercy but to the “SSV Project.” Its full, infamous acronym read:

SSV-NSMABAAOTWMODAACOTIATW: Screw Shareholder Value – Not So Much A Band As Another Opportunity To Waste Money On Drugs And Ammunition Courtesy Of The Idiots At Time Warner.😁

🇺🇸 Did They Make It in America?

The Sisters of Mercy never became a household name in the US, but they carved out a niche on alternative and college radio. Tracks like This Corrosion and Lucretia My Reflection got MTV airplay, and their tours drew respectable crowds. Still, they never crossed into the pop mainstream like Depeche Mode or The Cure.

One of their most notorious outings was a joint tour with Public Enemy. Both bands drew very different fanbases, and the clashes often turned ugly. Some shows ended in fights; others were canceled altogether.

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Eldritch, however, remembers it differently:

“That was fun, but difficult. Detroit wouldn’t even let us play, claiming Black and White together meant trouble. We said, ‘You’ve got it backwards.’ But they wouldn’t hear it. It still takes bravery to do something like that. Now everything’s been sliced into demographics, radio wouldn’t touch it.”

💃 The Sisters and the Dancefloor

So why do the Sisters matter in the story of dance music? Because they proved that “goth” could be danceable. Their songs turned up not just in smoke-filled basements in Leeds, but in European clubs where DJs were experimenting with synthpop, EBM, and early house.

Think of Temple of Love as a bridge: guitars and shadows on one side, pounding beats and flashing strobes on the other. Without bands like The Sisters of Mercy, the link between post-punk rock and the club culture of the late 1980s would be far weaker.

They even had a Jim Steinman produced epos

📀 Legacy of the Temple

By the early 90s, The Sisters of Mercy might had stopped releasing new music, but their influence endured. You hear their DNA in industrial dance acts, in darkwave DJs, and even in modern techno producers who sample their icy basslines.

The Doctor still beats on, Eldritch continues to tour under the Sisters name, with Avalanche upgraded to the latest tech. In the end, maybe that’s the real story: while humans falter, the machine keeps the dance alive.

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💬 Your Turn

Do you remember the first time you heard Temple of Love—was it the raw 1983 original or the grand 1992 Ofra Haza version? Did you dance to it in a club, or did it stay a soundtrack for late-night headphones?

Share your memories below—I’d love to hear how the Sisters of Mercy crossed your path.

Further reading (or should I say watching)

There are a number of interesting video’s/links :

1. The promo video

So You Wanna Hear More ?

I thought you would !

It’s fun to write about music but let’s be honest. Music is made to listen to.

Every week, together with this newsletter, I release a 1 hour beatmix on Mixcloud and Soundcloud. I start with the discussed twelve inch and follow up with 10/15 songs from the same timeframe/genre. The ideal soundtrack for…. Well whatever you like to do when you listen to dance music.

Listen to the Soundtrack of this week’s post on MIXCLOUD

Or on Youtube :

So what’s in this week’s mix ?

The set opens with the original 1983 mix of The Sisters of Mercy’s “Temple of Love,” leading us into the gothic rock/new wave soundscape of the early 1980s, where guitars collide with relentless dance beats.

You’ll hear Devo, The Cure, Ultravox, Yello, Soft Cell, along with Joy Division, X-Mal Deutschland, and Echo & the Bunnymen. I’ve slipped in the French version of Department S’s classic “Is Vic There,” and Berlin Express’ “Die Russen Kommen,” a reminder of how some early-eighties alternative gems still feel strikingly current.

The finale comes courtesy of an American trio: Billy Idol, Until December, and Slow Children, closing out this week’s aural assault.

Enjoy! 🎶

Next week I’m zooming in on one of the big voices of the disco era. I kinda expected her to have a big career after her big disco hits, but it didn’t work out. I want to know why. Next week we’ll discuss Linda Clifford