Corpus Delicti

French goth rock band Corpus Delicti are distinguished by strong guitars, commanding vocals, and driving, even danceable rhythms. The group released a trio of albums during the mid-'90s (Twilight, Sylphes, and Obsessions) before switching to industrial for one release as Corpus, after which they disbanded and moved on to other projects. The band have continued to attract a growing cult following, and their scant discography has been reissued and anthologized several times, often including demos and other rare material. Corpus Delicti reunited for performances during the early 2020s, and The Complete Recordings 1992-1996 was released in 2022. Early versions of Corpus Delicti songs appeared on obscure cassette compilations during the late '80s, but the band properly formed and released their first demo tapes in 1992. The lineup consisted of vocalist and synth player Sébastien Pietrapiana, bassist Christophe Baudrion, drummer Laurence Romanini, and guitarist Franck Amendola. Debut album Twilight arrived in 1993, earning the group comparisons to Bauhaus and Christian Death. Jérôme Schmitt (guitars and synths) replaced Amendola and played on 1994's Sylphes and 1995's Obsessions. The band appeared on numerous goth compilations, including tributes to Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and David Bowie, while Cleopatra released two Corpus Delicti best-ofs, making their music available stateside for the first time. The band drastically changed direction with 1998's Syn:drom, an industrial album released under the name Corpus, which featured keyboards and programming by David Bachelet. The group split, and most of its members subsequently started other projects. Baudrion formed rhythmic noise act Kom-Intern, and he returned to goth and new wave-inspired rock with Press Gang Metropol, a group which also featured Amendola and Pietrapiana. Corpus Delicti's albums were reissued with bonus material by French label D-Monic, which later pressed them to vinyl for the first time, and La Déliquescence des Ombres, a band biography written by Tony Leduc-Gugnalons, was published in 2011. During the early 2020s, Corpus Delicti reunited, with drummer Laurent Tamagno (Hannah, M83) joining original members Pietrapiana, Baudrion, and Amendola. The band toured throughout Europe, as Cleopatra released the four-CD box set The Complete Recordings 1992-1996 and vinyl reissues of the albums.
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