Album Anniversaries: The Specter of Crosses’ Debut Album Still Looms 10 Years Later
In their critically acclaimed first album, Crosses discover a soundscape that collapses the secular and religious border through obscure images of the sacred, seductive synths, and erotic lyricism.
In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.
Written by Lyndsey Segura
Image courtesy of Brian Ziff
Dark shadows cloak a faceless woman on Crosses’ self-titled first album cover. Three white crosses plaster across the center of this provocative, yet simple image. Clearly, Crosses are not afraid of confronting the dark or turning their faces toward the light. As the brainchild of Deftones’ frontman Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez, the duo imbues their roots in ‘90s rock and nu-metal into a hypnotizingly dark electronic sound. Formed in 2011 after Moreno recorded Deftones’ fifth record Saturday Night Wrist at Lopez’s studio, both men sought creative freedom outside their already-established bands' expectations. The pair’s first album treads the precarious boundaries between the sacred and profane, doom and salvation, and fact and fiction through enticing digital textures, sensual vocals, and otherworldly synths.
The explosive opening track, “This is a Trick,” immediately transports listeners into uncertain territory, with lyrics signaling deception and an aggressive vocal cadence conveying the frustration of mistrust. Weaved together with a percussive electronic beat and adorned with decorative sound effects, the song’s quick and jittery pulse complements Moreno’s angsty and exasperated vocal inflection as he identifies the “Glaze and glitch in your eye.” Crosses powerfully begin their first record with nervous tension by positioning listeners in a space constituted by the blurry line drawn between truth and falsity, setting a gloomy yet curious tone.
As the religious overtones of their name suggest, Crosses’ sensually synth-heavy production spurs a spiritual listening experience replete with ambiguous religious imagery, distorted vocals, and an assortment of ethereal electronic textures. Scattered throughout the album are fleeting references to the devout and the godless, creating a discordant tone typically resolved through a gradual cacophony of anxious yells overlain with forceful percussive effects. This is particularly apparent in “Bitches Brew,” the band’s most famous track, which testifies to the painfully formative power of love and even prayer. Seductively menacing synths abound, Moreno likens the force of love to possession, a thing that “crawls inside you, changing shape” and leaves you forever altered. The singer’s screeching pleas in the song’s bridge to “Say something / Pray to something” are reminiscent of heavier Deftones tracks like “Lotion” and speak to the spiritual experience of love.
Image courtesy of Sumerian Records
Love as an all-consuming spiritual force is among the album’s most recurring themes, with “Thholyghst” and “Option” offering more explicit declarations of its sacred and soul-altering qualities. “Thholyghost” expands on love’s personification in “Bitches Brew” by exploring the human essence, the soul, and how love brings us closer to our innermost being. Although it is, at its core, a song straddling the line between love and lust, “Thholyghost” also examines desecration, temptation, and power dynamics. With a simple, undeniably sultry riff and uncanny synths, Moreno introduces himself as “the ghost in the human shape,” who taunts his lover, a “godly servant,” into submission. Percussion and emphatic vocals build tension as the lyrics become increasingly declarative while these lovers “Get drunk on the waves / Reveal our souls.” There is a cathartic resolve that fades into a shadowy sound effect as the pair “Fall asleep and the graves / And seal our souls.” “Thholyghst” borrows the phantom imagery in “Bitches Brew,” emphasizing how love and lust are intoxicating and otherworldly forces. While the track emphasizes the transcendence of love, “Option” brings listeners back to worldly affairs, particularly marriage, while preserving its religious invocations. In this less percussive, more synth-focused track, “Option” is a passionate love song about the sacred covenant of marriage. Moreno confesses his wish that “God would surface / To retrieve His nails / And open your heart,” making his partner more receptive to spending forever as a union. In the chorus, poignant vocals expertly graze the borders of melodic and bold as Moreno imitates the recitation of sacred vows. “Option” acknowledges the divine forces working to bring two people together for eternity, while “Thholyghst” investigates how love transcends the material world by positioning two lovers in the spiritual realm.
On their first record, Crosses is just as preoccupied with death, doom, and destruction as they are with love and lust.“Nineteen Eighty Seven” is a hallucinogenic, melancholy reflection on the relics of a deceased mother with a single verse that repeats itself twice. Solemn beats and stately synths evoke the sounds of a funeral procession and contribute to an air of introspection, as Moreno muses on “A shoebox of ashes / A silver casket / A mother dressed for eternity’s breath.” The record’s final song, “Death Bell,” applies a more religious lens to death with allusions to the “golden gates” of heaven. Piano-driven and pensive, Moreno’s vocals are distant, muffled by feedback, and emulating the liminality of dying. Surrendering to the sacred as he’s “High inside your holiness,” the vocalist follows this unnamed entity “Into the light.” Mournful yet accepting, the song progresses with more beats and an increasingly mournful vocal cadence.
Crosses' debut project is as much a triumph in its intricate production as in its lyrical and vocal complexity. Moreno and Lopez masterfully meld metal and new wave into a cohesive, commanding electronic sound that manages to be both cunning and painfully sincere.. Crosses’ self-titled record remains a seminal work in electronic and heavy metal spaces, lauded for its seamless production, salacious lyricism, and spiritual imagery. Their latest release Goodnight, God Bless, I Love U, Delete. possesses an even more refined ambient sound and features The Cure’s Robert Smith and EI-P. Gloomy, sexy, and unafraid to wade into sacrilegious territory, Crosses is still the dynamic record today that it was on the day of its 2014 release.