Plague Mass (1984 End of the Epidemic) [Live]

Track Listings

1. There Are No More Tickets To The Funeral [Live]

2. This Is the Law of the Plague [Live]

3. I Wake up and I See the Face of the Devil [Live]

4. Confessional [Live]

5. How Shall Our Judgement Be Carried Out upon the Wicked [Live]

6. Let Us Praise the Masters of Slow Death [Live]

7. Consecration [Live]

8. Sono l'Antichristo [Live]

9. Cris d'Aveugle: Blind Man's Cry

10. Let My People Go

Plague Mass (1984 End of the Epidemic),Diamanda Galas,Elektra / Wea,Electronic/Avant-Garde/Minimalist Music,Experimental,No Wave,Pop,Popular Music,Rock

Tracks:

There Are No More Tickets To The Funeral
This Is The Law Of The Plague
I Wake Up And I See The Face Of The Devil
Confessional (Give Me Sodomy Or Give Me Death)
How Shall Our Judgement Be Carried Out Upon The Wicked? (With Excerpts From Revelations 19:11-14...
Let Us Praise The Masters Of Slow Death
Consecration
Sono L'Antichristo
Cris D'Aveugle
Let My People Go
Bonus Track 1
Bonus Track 2
Bonus Track 3
Bonus Track 4

Customer Reviews:

A Haunting Masterpiece!.......2007-04-10

This is a requiem mass,for all people throughout the world who have died of aids.A disease created by right wing republican fascists to kill off the gays,blacks,and all the undesirables,according to those sick nazi a--holes.This cd is a beautiful and sometimes frightening performance by galas for all who have suffered needlessly.Galas brother had died of aids,and she knows many other who have died,from that horrific disease!In this performance she also takes a stab at all those right wing chrisitan bigots who misinterpret the bible to make others suffer,and to make others slaves!This is one unnerving and passionate,and powerful album.The acoustics are amazing,and her operatic voice is massive and cuts like steel through a cathedral!

This is garbage........2007-01-19

I have tried to keep an open mind towards Diamanda Galas. I have an appreciation of all things "musical" ranging from Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" to Throbbing Gristle's "Heathen Earth" to the works of Laurie Anderson, early Swans, Lydia Lunch, even Neil Young's "Arc". But this and most of her other works are crapola posing (not too well I might add) as "music" or "art" and they are neither. Even dear, sweet Yoko(an obvious influence), sounds like Beverly Sills compared to this caterwauling, shrieking spawn of Satan. I guess I just don't get it. Give me "Cambridge 1969" any old time :)

How could anyone sit through an entire disc of this? I think Diamanda needs an exorcism or something.

Good God, man.

Frightening!.......2006-10-04

Two words describe this cd- DISTURBING and CREEPY. I can only listen to certain sections of this cd because there are times when Diamanda's voice gets to that chilling, blood curdling point that I'm about to experience an anxiety attack. But the irony of it all is that there is something about her performance that wants you to remain and continue to listen to her. There's just that fascination factor that keeps me enthralled. I just skip to the parts I can't handle. Also I can only listen to this cd in the daytime-too frightening to listen to at night! This was a live recorded concert at Saint John of the Divine Cross(I've forgotten-maybe in error?)in NYC. Her message of how the Regan administration ignored the relevance of AIDS in it's early days(lack of funding for research)and it being considered a gay disease and the igorance it accompanied; to how it is akin to the black plague to contemporary times. She takes you through sections set up as a mass; with each section having a purpose and meaning. Diamanda shreiks at the ignorance of the plague and how it eats away at it's host.

The eight legs of the Devil will not let my people go........2004-03-04

In 1991, on the month of October, Diamanda Galas ascended the stage of New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. There, she performed and recorded what may be the most memorable sound ritual ever to be heard by audiences. Both harrowing and angelic, "The Plague Mass" is a vocal exorcism birthed by a modern banshee. In most of the tracks, her operatic screams echo off the walls of the church, piercing the brain like flying shards of stained glass. Other moments allow her to disturb listeners with her hoarse, beastly hisses. However, Galas's intention was not merely to shock the religious. Instead, she turned the Holy Bible inside out in order to address the rampant suffering caused by AIDS. At a time when this disease was ruled as a divine punishment for gays and lesbians, Galas chose to spit gospel curses to every Christian responsible for persecuting and ostracizing HIV-infected patients. With candles flickering in the darkness, she speaks in manic tongues, vomiting forth a gospel hurricane that showed compassion to AIDS victims and unforgiveness to the viciously pious.
In "Were you a Witness?," Galas first expresses her anger towards America's mass media. It's apparent that the many deaths caused by the disease (including those of famous musicians like Freddy Mercury and Liberace) were treated like exhibits in a sensationalistic tabloid circus. She faces the money-hungry reporters and warns, "To all cowards and voyeurs, there are no more tickets to the funeral." "This is the Law of the Plague" incorporates several Psalms and Chapter 15 of the Old Testament. Here, in front of the rolling roar of dragon drums, Galas cackles in the role of a corrupt judge; a sanctimonious fascist who vehemently labels AIDS patients as "unclean." With a blood red light looming over her, Galas takes an appalling look at society itself. It's one where doctors, priests, and politicians deliberately leave HIV patients for dead just to avoid scandal and hatred. In addition, the singer labels the Devil as an impotent homophobe who can only be aroused by human suffering. "I Wake Up and See the Face of the Devil" allows Galas to portray the average victim. With a mind ravaged by dementia, she lies helplessly in a sterilized hospital room as a stern cleric forces her to confess her sins. The members of the clergy are warped into dirty angels that hover over the morgue like buzzards. Later, as the heartbeat percussion rises in its volume, Galas rips out some Revelations text. Predicting the arrival of the Antichrist, she leads 3,000 of his armies to massacre all devoted Christians who slaughtered and oppressed people with HIV. In an alarming fury, Galas spews a bitter poem concerning how anyone carrying the virus is shamelessly denied access to medical care, insurance, and surgery. She validly declared Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome as a form of homicide, making her audience aware of how infected men and women are robbed of their dignity. From there, in the track "Sono L'Anticristo," she proudly labels herself the son of Satan, since the Antichrist was as much of an outcast on Earth as Jesus. Then, "Cris D'Aveugle: Blind Man's Cry," a text originally written in 1873 by Tristan Corbiere, becomes a sad and spiritual communion played by a demonic symphony. In the Frency language, Galas leads her choir into a pit of despair, an afterlife that gives no love or comfort after HIV. As the bell tolls, Galas decrys the scourge of injustice. It's one in which family members killed by AIDS aren't properly buried because even the morticians are too afraid to embalm the corpses. During this song (as well as others on this album), her whispers get increasingly suffocated through a pair of hemorrhaged lungs, fading into a grim silence. Finally, the raw emotion of the blues tune, "Let My People Go" spills over the grim notes of a grand piano. Nothing is more terrifying than a virus that destroys the body's ability to defend itself. Galas believed that once AIDS strikes another host, that individual is doomed to suffer a lifetime of sorrow and cruelty. While comparing the illness to a sentence of life in prison, she expresses that person's depression in one sentence: "The Devil has designed my death, and he's waiting to be sure that plenty of his black sheep die before he finds a cure."
I recommend this album to anyone craving the works of a powerful, controversial artist. Diamanda Galas is a sonic martyr that liberates the soul from mainstream bondage.

All Music Guide Review.......2003-11-08

"Galas, who has been known for both her own work and as a singer of extremely demanding modern scores, has created this heart-wrenching cry about the physical suffering caused by the AIDS plague being compounded by the shameful arrogance of self-appointed moralists. Maintaining an incredible intensity and depth for over an hour's solo vocal (recorded live at The Cathedral of St. John The Divine, NYC, with suitably minimal band and electronics backup), Galas proceeds through Mahalia Jackson-influenced spiritual singing, saxophone-like wails, to dramatic dialogues in many dialects and languages ("there are no more tickets to the funeral") to engrossing Portugese "fado" singing to taking on the attributes of Satan (in "Sono L'Antichristo," I Am The Anti-Christ) in order to challenge the concept of a vengeful, instead of compassionate deity (and society), much as Nina Simone did in her controversial song "God is a Killer" in the 60's... the Mass ends with the heart-felt lyrics "I go to sleep each evening now dreaming of the grave and see the friends I used to know calling out my name. O Lord Jesus, do you think I've served my time?""