Earlier this week, goth-rock pioneers the Sisters of Mercy announced their first U.S. tour in a long 15 years. The spring trek is scheduled to coincide with their somewhat unusual appearance at Vegas' nu-metal renaissance fest, Sick New World, where the band will be sharing the stage with wildly different-sounding acts like Korn, System of a Down and Deftones. Sisters of Mercy — who came to prominence in the 1980s — are definitely one of the outliers on the lineup that spotlights metal and hard-rock bands from the 90s and 2000s, but as it turns out, it was one of the metallic headlining acts who not only convinced them to play the fest, but to extend their U.S. stay into a fully-fledged tour.
In a new interview with BrooklynVegan, Sisters of Mercy co-founder/vocalist Andrew Eldritch revealed that it was System of a Down's profound love for the band that made them want to return to America for the first time since 2008. Also, he and his bandmates have noticed that the metal community in particular has been especially fond of the Sisters of Mercy in recent years.
"These things go in cycles," Eldritch said of his band's popularity. "But it's noticeable that we're getting a lot of respect and love from, particularly, the metal community at the moment, so our currency is strong. It seems to be cool to like the Sisters at the moment. These things come and go."
One metalhead who they're really feeling the love from is System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian, who Eldritch credits with facilitating their spot on the Sick New World lineup. Once they were confirmed for that festival, they figured they might as well stick around for an entire tour's worth of dates, giving U.S. fans an experience they've been missing out on for well over a decade.
"As I mentioned before, there's a lot of love from the hard-rock/metal community for us right now," Eldrtich said. "And, if Serj likes you, you pay attention.
"Not the most recent time that we played in Australia, but the previous time, we did some shows and then we went to see System of a Down at an arena gig. Serj spotted me in front of the stacks and the whole band immediately launched into one of my very old songs as a way of saying hello. They played 30 seconds of 'Marian' [from Sisters of Mercy's 1985 debut, First and Last and Always] and I was just blown away by the love. You would be."
