Sisters of Mercy — This Corrosion

JUL 01 1987 · 12:00

Sisters of Mercy — This Corrosion (1987) Director: Stuart Orme Era: Gothic Rock Apex (1987) - Peak of UK post-punk theatricality; Sisters of Mercy's commercial breakthrough era coinciding with the maximalist Floodland album campaign on WEA Records Tier-1 preservation priority. 'This Corrosion' (1987) is among the most culturally significant music videos in the gothic rock canon — a genre-defining visual document that has maintained active cultural currency for nearly four decades through club play, film licensing, and continued critical reappraisal. Its production represents a convergence of a seminal band, a landmark producer, and a skilled director at a historically significant moment in UK alternative music. Essential for any archive focused on 1980s British post-punk, gothic subculture, or music video as an art form. Context: Released September 1987, 'This Corrosion' arrived at a pivotal moment when gothic rock was transitioning from UK underground cult status toward mainstream chart visibility. Produced by Jim Steinman — known for orchestral pop bombast with Meat Loaf and Bonnie Tyler — the track and its video represented a deliberate aesthetic escalation by Andrew Eldritch, weaponizing theatrical excess as both artistic statement and commercial strategy. The video's cathedral imagery, messianic staging, and darkness-saturated palette codified a visual grammar for the gothic genre that influenced music video production throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. The song's lyrical content — a pointed critique of former bandmates who departed to form The Mission — added an intra-scene political dimension that resonated deeply within the UK goth community. The single reached No. 7 in the UK and No. 6 in Ireland, marking the band's widest commercial reach to date. Director notes: Directed the official promotional music video for 'This Corrosion' (1987) for WEA Records Ltd., released on VHS under Warner Music Vision. The video was produced to accompany the lead single from the Sisters of Mercy's second studio album Floodland, and was subsequently included in the band's official video compilation SHOT, and later in the revised collection Shot Rev 2.0 (1993). The production employs a stylized cathedral setting with dramatic practical lighting, fog, and wind effects, matching the cinematic and operatic scale of Jim Steinman's production of the song. Promo versions of the video were distributed in 1987.