Sisters of Mercy - This Corrosion

What this video is

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…

Why it matters

A canonical artifact of UK gothic rock at its commercial and artistic zenith. The video synthesizes the genre's core visual vocabulary — monumental architecture, chiaroscuro lighting, religious iconography, operatic performance staging — into a single definitive reference text. Alongside the…

The director

British director and producer born February 7, 1942 in Derby, Derbyshire, England. Worked across music video, TV drama, and film. Television credits include Inspector Morse, Foyle's War, Doc Martin, Ivanhoe, and the Genesis: Three Sides Live concert film.…