Beyond the Graves of Passion is the second album recorded by the Deathrock

Deathrock

Deathrock is a term used to identify a sub-genre of punk rock incorporating horror elements and spooky atmospherics, that emerged on the West Coast of the United States in 1979.-Characteristics:...

/Gothic rock

Gothic rock

Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...

 band Theatre of Ice

Theatre of Ice

Theatre of Ice were an early Deathrock band that formed in the Nevada desert in December 1978. Initially formed to record a soundtrack for a horror movie, the members instead evolved into what some claim was the first Deathrock band...

. It was recorded in 1982 and 1983 in an actual haunted house, and released on Demented Mind Mill Records in 1983. The album had the effect of polarizing their audience into two camps; those that considered them to be basically a kitsch

Kitsch

Kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...

y novelty act and those that thought they were prophets from the underworld and began following the band from show to show. Ultimately the album failed to gain much attention outside of their cult following. Several bizarre altercations between the band and their devotees led to the band formally disbanding in 1983. One of the most famous altercations led to the band being abducted by a group of crazed fans who believed the band could aid them in summoning demons.

Musicians

• Brent Johnson - Vocals & Guitars
• John Johnson - Guitar & Synthesizer
• Mark Johnson - Drums & Things
• John Baradet - Percussion
• Eric Johnson - Continuity
• Shareen Sorensen - Violin & Keyboards

Track listing

1. "Red Asphalt"
2. "Fox"
3. "Steps Toward Sanity"
4. "The Creature"
5. "It's All For Fun"
6. "The Hour Has Come"
7. "The Classics"
8. "Going Nowhere"
9. "Termination"
10. "But To Love You"
11. "In Our Haunted World"
12. "The Apparition"
13. "Miron"
14. "It Doesn't Matter"
15. "Bizarre Thoughts"
16. "Funeral Games"
17. "It's Time For You"
18. "Moon Dance Daze"
19. "Chill Factor"
20. "A Haunting Melody"
21. "From the Tomb"

Reviews

• OPtion Magazine
  Option (music magazine)
  Option was a music magazine based in Los Angeles, California.-History:Originally called OPtion, it, along with Sound Choice, were the dual successors to the earlier music magazine OP, published by John Foster and the Lost Music Network and known for its diverse scope and the role it played in...
  
  , Los Angeles - Horror rock recorded in a haunted house somewhere in the Nevada Desert. 21 songs which bubble around with no pauses; voices, guitars, drums and things, violin (essential in ghost music), and keyboards. Cover is a skull with a skeleton hand holding a pistol to the earplace, from a deserted Nevada ghost town. -- Robin James.

• Untune the Sky, Las Vegas, Nevada
  Las Vegas, Nevada
  Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
  
   - This album is chock full of scary stuff! These brothers from the desolate and incredibly boring Fallon, Nevada
  Fallon, Nevada
  -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 7,536 people, 3,004 households, and 1,877 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,474.1 people per square mile . There were 3,336 housing units at an average density of 1,095.2 per square mile...
  
   have produced some pretty demented and diverse music using whatever instruments and line-up that sounded best at the time. They seem driven by an environment that includes a dead animal disposal site, haunted cemeteries, child molesters and serial killers. This album has "festered" on me. I first dismissed it as pseudo intellectual pud-whacking–I now embrace it as one of he best albums of the decade.

• Artitude Magazine, New York
  New York
  New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
  
   - Recorded in a haunted house located somewhere in the Nevada
  Nevada
  Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
  
   desert, theses songs are both trashy and serious. Concerned mostly with the topics of death and fear in a somewhat overstated manner, this is saved by its sense of humor and by its relative sincerity. The humor comes in the way that the main themes are repeated in each song - hence the sincerity, in the group's single-mindedness. The music itself is somewhat-trashy, grating rock, sometimes sounding strangely normal and sometimes a bit more unconventional.

• Cause and Effect, Indianapolis, Indiana
  Indianapolis, Indiana
  Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
  
   - The newest release by Theatre of Ice further refines their doom-gloom horror-rock sound. More songs about corpses, graveyards, zombies, blood, teen suicide and dead things. 21 new horror rock classics. Scream your head off. Theatre of Ice is the winner of the 1983 Most Obnoxious Band of the Year Award.

• Unsound Magazine, San Francisco, California
  San Francisco, California
  San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
  
   - One song intersects with the next in this never ending tragedy on ice. 21 songs comprise this haunting album. I think a lot is missed because of the recording quality, although it adds to the macabre nature.

• Wild Planet, Nebraska
  Nebraska
  Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
  
   - B-movie gloom and doom splatter rock! Unlike a lot of groups in this genre, Theatre of Ice don't sound derivative, and their sound is varied, ranging from bleak industrial soundscapes to moody post punk. Sure, there are obvious influences, Siouxsie, Chrome
  Chrome (band)
  Chrome was an experimental rock group founded in San Francisco, California in 1976.Chrome took part of their inspiration for their rough and sometimes chaotic music from proto punk pioneers like The Stooges. The sound of the group was often coarse and featured heavy elements of feedback and...
  
  , Suicide
  Suicide
  Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
  
  , Throbbing Gristle
  Throbbing Gristle
  Throbbing Gristle were an English industrial, avant-garde music and visual arts group that evolved from the performance art group COUM Transmissions...
  
  , Velvet Underground and others. But Theatre of Ice takes these influences and distle them into their own distinctive sound. Beyond the Graves of Passion is simultaneously the scarier and the more accessible of their two albums, the sound has been refined and even includes some haunting (sorry) melodies, even some spacey synth pieces. A must for fans of the macabre!

• SPAMM, Sacramento, California
  Sacramento, California
  Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
  
   - This album is much more evolved than The Haunting
  The Haunting (1982 album by Theatre of Ice)
  The Haunting was the first full length album by the American deathrock/gothic rock band Theatre of Ice, recorded in 1981, and released in 1982.The recording sessions took place in a supposedly haunted house somewhere in the deserts of Nevada...
  
  . It seems as though Theatre of Ice now not only know what they want to do, but they can also transform those ideas into music. Music that hints of industrial throb, maniac hardcore, rough edged pop, and just plain weird shit. Once again, as with their prior release, you have to be kinda warped to truly appreciate such assaults to the mind. Great!

• Factsheet Five
  Factsheet Five
  Factsheet Five was a periodical mostly consisting of short reviews of privately produced printed matter along with contact details of the editors and publishers....
  
  , Massachusetts
  Massachusetts
  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
  
  - Imagine 4 brothers in Nevada. The Johnson boys are into horror and music. They think fear is God's gift to mankind. So what do they do? They start a band and make some of the scariest music ever. Whether you call this, industrial or horror rock, the point is that these guys do it well, and are more accessible to the average listener than most industrial music. Their albums could be the soundtracks to your worst nightmares, but they're not oppressive–there are lots of lyrics to pick out and lots of short and medium length songs so the albums never get boring. "It only took a second to cut of her head/I watched it as her golden hair turned to red".