History of Deathsex Bloodbath

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Deathsex Bloodbath are a Coventry band formed in 1998. Initially a garage rock band, the group's sound expanded to include influences from punk, glam, riot-grrl, industrial and sleaze-rock. The band are widely considered one of the most influential bands of their era.

Formation and early history
Main article: The Scarlet Letters

Ben Coupland met Rhianne Morgan in 1998. At the time, Morgan was playing drums in an industrial band, Sweet Tooth, who Coupland would watch regularly and eventually befriend. Coupland and Morgan started spending time together independently of Sweet Tooth gigs, during which time Coupland learned that Morgan could also play guitar and bass. Around the same time, both members met Caitlin Lambert, who was working in musical theatre in Birmingham. Morgan was working in a laboratory with Nicola Popescu, while Coupland worked in temporary roles in offices.

Although Coupland had never been in a band before, and showed little aptitude for playing guitar, he invited Morgan to form a band with him via letter. Morgan agreed and the band soon recorded a demo in her parents' attic. To play the songs live, Morgan recruited Lambert on lead guitar and Popescu on drums, taking for herself the role of bassist.

The origin of the band name is unclear and the band have repeatedly given contradictory explanations; the similarity to the James St James memoir 'Disco Bloodbath' appears to be coincidental, as the book was released in August 1999. Whatever the source, the band were playing regularly under the name by mid-1998 and had adopted similarly schlocky monikers: Sadogasm (Coupland), Masokiss (Morgan), Caitred Alabaster (Lambert) and Nicolas Harlot (Popescu).

Early performances were often messy: there were occasions where Caitred and/or Sadogasm were too drunk to play, the band would often fall over their leads or each other, props and costumes would backfire, fall apart or explode, and the band's confrontational personalities and music polarised audience opinion. Nonetheless, the abrasive act drew national attention and a baffled Kerrang! review of a London gig which Sadogasm abandoned to have sex with an audience member in the band's van attracted Mega Records, who signed the band to a multi-album contract. The band, however, was temporarily reduced to a trio as problems with Caitred's visa meant she was forced to return to the United States briefly.

1999-2000: The Inevitable Penis, Gangbangin' with Deathsex Bloodbath
Mega Records' signing of Deathsex Bloodbath raised some eyebrows in the industry. Some labels already regarded the band as not to be hired under any circumstances, and Alabaster was generally regarded as the only member with any natural ability ("Caitred puts the 'ability' in 'liability'"). Moreover, Mega Records was a major label competing with EMI and Mercury and known for 'safe' pop acts, while DSB showed little commercial potential. The band's notoriety, however, had made them a must-see act, which Mega Records shrewdly capitalised upon with television appearances highlighting the band's dynamic personas. A performance of 'Vibrator to the Chest' on Later With Jools Holland, for example, saw Sadogasm crawling across the set to shout "You're such a bunch of losers" at the Stereophonics. Sadogasm cut his arms and legs unwittingly crawling over broken glass, meaning that he was bleeding from more than one place by the time he finished the song.

The band's first album, The Inevitable Penis, was released in May 1999, by which point Alabaster had resolved her visa issues and returned to the UK to rejoin the band and tour the album. Television exposure had drawn attention from national newspapers; Masokiss refused to give further interviews after the Daily Mail implied that her father died heartbroken that she was transgender; in fact, her father's will left her money to transition. The Mail had already reviewed The Inevitable Penis as "Unutterably crass, juvenile rubbish by the sorriest collection of misfits in rock history”, much to the band's delight.

By the time of the band's second album, Gangbangin' with Deathsex Bloodbath, the band had become a cult favourite for disaffected teens, particularly those turned off by nu-metal. To the band's surprise, they were starting to receive individual fan mail, and early Internet news groups argued over their favourite member. The album was a critical disappointment and sales of the singles were poor, but live audiences were growing and Mega Records allowed the band a larger budget for their next album.

2002-03: The Infernal Desire Machines and Caitred's departure
The band were unusually industrious during the recording sessions for their third album; at one point it was proposed that the album could be a double album, only for Mega Records to send a terse fax demanding "no Billy Corgan shit." Refocusing, the band trimmed the album down to a single disc, named ''The Infernal Desire Machines of Deathsex Bloodbath. ''A critical and commercial smash, the album contains some of the band's best-known songs, including Real Dolls Destroy Humanity, The Scarlet Letters and Been to Kettering.

Realising how lucrative the band had become, Mega Records booked them on a lengthy tour, much to their detriment: Caitred, Masokiss and Sadogasm were struggling with various addictions; all of the band members were sick of touring, leading to interpersonal problems; and the band wanted time to pursue their other interests, which Mega Records wouldn't permit them to do.

By mid-2003, Caitred's alcohol problems were noticeable to even casual fans: during an appearance on 'CD:UK', she spent most of the performance asleep in front of the bass drum. At Big Day Out, she encouraged the audience to "download that fucking shit new Metallica album [St Anger]", much to the displeasure of the headliners, Metallica. Sadogasm and Masokiss appeased them, but felt compelled to defend Caitred to interviewers, which caused further friction between the two camps. When the band raised this with Caitred the next day, she suggested the best resolution would be "if you all went and fucked yourselves", punctuating the point by throwing a whisky bottle at them. Intervention from the band's tour manager and record label failed to resolve the conflict and it was agreed that Caitred should attend rehab and spend some time away from the band.

On leaving rehab, instead of returning to DSB, Caitred formed a new band, Alabastard. Deathsex hastily released 'Touring Spree', featuring one new track, in order to satisfy Caitred's contractual obligations with Mega Records. Much to Caitred's dismay, the new track was one of her compositions. Assuming a deliberate attempt to sabotage Alabastard, Caitred severed contact with the band.

2004-05: Deathsex Bloodbath IV and Masokiss’s departure
Deathsex returned to the studio in 2004 to record ‘Deathsex Bloodbath IV’, travelling to the Bahamas to record. Sessions were unproductive - with plenty of money available following the success of ‘Infernal Desire Machines’, there was no rush to complete the album. Moreover, the band were underprepared, having had little opportunity to write any songs, and were more interested in their extra-curricular interests: Harlot in his family commitments, Masokiss in magic and Sadogasm in his new girlfriend, model Patti Schreifels. After six months with little output, Mega Records lost patience and moved the band into a low-budget studio down the road from the label’s headquarters. The subsequent album was mostly recorded as a stripped down three-piece. This has been widely reported to be Masokiss’s creative influence: Sadogasm wanted to experiment with song cycles and orchestras in order to embrace the stadium audience they had attracted.

Although ‘Deathsex Bloodbath IV’, released with no singles and no advance tour, sold hugely in its first week, and the album is regarded as a favourite by many fans, critical reception was mixed. When the band toured the album, session guitarist Cassie Opiate was ill-received by an audience who compared her unfavourably to Caitred, and Opiate had a strained relationship with Masokiss. On New Year’s Eve, Masokiss informed Sadogasm that she wanted to finish her PhD and left the band.

2006-2010: Wilderness years
Without Masokiss or Caitred, fan loyalty to Deathsex Bloodbath dwindled. Sadogasm continued to make Deathsex Bloodbath records with Harlot and Opiate. Paz Lenchantin joined the band on bass for a few shows but was replaced by Claire Midia. The line-up released one album, ‘Doomsday Perverted’, in 2007, but it sold poorly and none of the singles made the top 40. Opiate remained unpopular with the audience and, dispirited by the reaction, left the band before the next album.

Sadogasm, Harlot and Opiate made another album, ‘The Principle of Evil Made Flash’, which experimented with electronica, dubstep and industrial. Sadogasm insists this sold well in Eastern Europe [citation needed]. Internationally, though, the subsequent failure of the album at a critical and commercial level left Mega Records in serious financial trouble. Belatedly realising the severity of the label’s difficulties and the implication on the band’s back catalogue, Sadogasm attempted to invest on the condition that the label sold him the copyright to the Deathsex catalogue, but despite putting in the money, the rights were not transferred. Sadogasm has since claimed that the money was invested in MySpace, Bebo and mini-disc technology. While touring, this time with replacement guitarist Marji Al-Habsi, the band were informed that the label had been bought out and that their contracts would not be renewed. The copyright position of the Deathsex catalogue remains unclear, and their back catalogue is currently unavailable.

Masokiss completed her degree and played in a supergroup, Forcefield. She spent some time living in Hong Kong, during which time she met Justin Appropriate. Although Forcefield has not toured since 2010, their website reports that their current bassist is Paz Lenchantin.

Caitred went to rehab, at which point she met Bailey Harris. Caitred encouraged Harris to learn to play an instrument as a way of dealing with her anger issues, and played briefly in a side-project with her called Lehevhev. The band “never got out of the bedroom”. Alabastard initially did well, but interest tailed off quickly. Seeking attention, Alabaster wrote ‘String Theory’, a notoriously unlikely autobiography claiming (amongst other unverifiable claims and outright lies) that Sadogasm had spent some of the band’s money on Anne Frank’s organs while not paying her money owed; that the band had spent £500 on funding a prostitution racket (in fact it was a tennis racket); that Sadogasm and Masokiss were secretly in love.

In the meantime, and in another galaxy, the Antiworld Deathsex Bloodbath, fronted by Switchblade, had become the world’s biggest band.

2010-13: Reformation of original line-up
In 2010, Alabastard had been dropped by their label for poor sales. Realising that Deathsex Bloodbath still had something of a career in remote parts of Eastern Europe, and that they were touring without a lead guitarist, Caitred rebuilt her relationship with Sadogasm. By late 2010, they were writing songs together again.

With Caitred back in the fold, Masokiss’s return seemed inevitable, and Sadogasm completed his year of Henry Kissinger missions by smoothing things over with Masokiss. Masokiss rejoined the band in October. By this point the band had taken on new management, who suggested the band release a cover of ‘Leader of the Gang’. Masokiss’s first action back in the band was firing the management.

Nicolas left the band in 2011, returning to science and allowing bellicose drummer Bailey Harris to fill the drumstool, taking the name Sororicide and making her first appearance with the band in 2013. Unusually, the band played as a three-piece (Sadogasm, Masokiss and Sororicide), with a polystyrene head credited as second guitarist.

2014 onwards: New recordings, new members and a series of supernatural events
In 2013, the band signed to Corporate Records and recorded a best-of EP, ‘Golden Showers: The Very Best of Deathsex Bloodbath’. While touring the EP in 2014, they recruited Justin Appropriate as lead guitarist and added Fluffer, Bloodbeth and Kyly Sexualised on visuals and dancing. The band also released a Christmas single, ‘One Christmas Night’ and recorded a song for Eurovision, ‘Dreams I Have Had (About People in this Room)’. The song was not selected, UK judges believing that Electro Velvet stood more of a chance of winning. They did not have more of a chance of winning.

Masokiss’s interests in magic and exploratory transdimensional experiments had been developing since her time in Forcefield, but were regarded as harmless by the band until late 2014, when Masokiss died and regenerated onstage. It seemed that Masokiss’s meddling with unseen forces had opened the floodgates to the band being assailed by mystical forces; all bets were off from then on.

In 2015, Caitred’s departure from the band and the band’s inability to replace her led to a desperation move by the band. Together, Sadogasm and Masokiss journeyed to Switzerland and created a portal into a parallel dimension they call the Antiworld. Voyaging through the dimension, they located and recruited Switchblade, who sang in the Antiworld’s version of Deathsex Bloodbath. Switchblade debuted in June 2015, a performance interrupted by a late challenge from her original band, who invaded our dimension to try and rescue her. Drummer Fratricide made additional attacks on the band later in the year, pretending to be a regenerated Sororicide, but without success. Conversely, bassist Submistress’s relationship with the band in this dimension seems friendlier, as her 2016 appearances filling in for Masokiss went without incident.

Deathsex moved to Ex-Gratia Recordings in 2016 and released their first recordings with Switchblade, the EP ‘Are You There God? It’s Deathsex Bloodbath’. The EP also featured Sororicide’s first appearances on vocals, on ‘Men’ and ‘My Fingers are Wet’. The EP launch party, inevitably, featured some metaphysical elements, as God made an appearance mid-set.

In 2018, the resurgence of Mega Records saw Deathsex fulfil a contractual obligation by releasing their next record on that label. The mini-album, Swipe Right with Deathsex Bloodbath, features appearances from Big Al and Mega Records CEO Donny Matrix and is considered the best of the Sororicide era.

2019: Final fantasies
In October 2018, a Halloween gig at the Old Grammar School in Coventry started the final chapter in the band's history. An attempt at raising eldritch evil beyond the cosmos - a standard Thursday night - seemed initially unsuccessful, but it transpired that the band had unwittingly caused Justin Appropriate to become possessed. Masokiss was forced to kill Justin with a cupcake, made by Sadogasm to a dubious family recipe.

This is all standard fare for DSB, but by March Justin was still dead, forcing Switchblade into the interdimensional portal to bring Cassie Opiate back as his replacement. Not leaving it there, Masokiss continued to experiment with resurrection, but outsourced the spell's execution to Sadogasm and Switchblade. Inevitably, the incompetent boozehounds fucked it up, leaving Justin as a hideous wraith fond of Ed Sheeran and acoustic guitars.

In April, Sadogasm, Sororicide, Switchblade and Masokiss invaded Justin's solo acoustic set at the Tin and (with the help of the audience) were able to return Justin to his normal self. There were still some mysteries though: during the evening, Switchblade matched on Tinder with Caitred Alabaster, and Sadogasm realised that Cassie Opiate was from the same dimension as him, not the same dimension as Switchblade. The mystery was solved when the Antiworld DSB emerged, now with Caitred as their singer, and informed Deathsex that they had been in the wrong dimension since 2011. Worse, DSB's 'home' dimension, Dimension 69, had fallen under a dark shadow: Chad Kroeger had become the emperor of the world, banning glitter, disco and mixed-gender feminist punk bands. The band were obliged to return to their dimension to overthrow Kroeger, probably with the help of the Antiworld, but not before playing one final song in this realm: 'Asphyxiwank'.