Opium Den (band)

Opium Den
Origin	Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Genres	Gothic rock, ethereal wave, psychedelic rock, art rock
Years active	1992-1997
Labels	Hereafter Records, Persephone Records
Associated acts	The Lemmings, Amber Spyglass
Past members	Christian Gilbert Mike Dema Annette Farrington John DeGregorio

Opium Den was a 1990s gothic rock/ethereal wave band from Boston, Massachusetts, acclaimed for Christian Gilbert's Spanish/classical-influenced guitar playing and Annette Farrington's poetic lyrics. They also described their music as psychedelic rock and art rock.

The band released three albums: Diary of a Drunken Sun (1993), Secret Sky (1994) and the posthumous Clandestine (2005).

Opium Den was formed in the early 1990s by guitarist Gilbert and drummer Mike Demma, who were looking for a singer for a psychedelic band they wanted to form. Farrington (then known as Annette Kramer), previously of the Lemmings, had been touring with a Boston theater company, and soon joined them on vocals. Farrington said, "I felt theater was a dinosaur. I wanted to create something that was creatively stimulating and cutting edge. I was auditioning guitar players. Christian and Mike saw my ad and we got together. It was instant synergy". The quartet was completed with the addition of John DeGregorio on bass, acoustic guitar and flute.

Farrington explained the genesis of the band's name: "The name invokes a multilayered meaning the social context and the literal meaning of an opium den. I wanted to invoke the state of where I thought the social consciousness lay. As a nation we are asleep in an Opium Den, asleep to consciousness and clarity. The drug being, materialism, greed, lack of connection to spirit. But we also wanted to invoke the transformative nature of being in a state of altered consciousness. We grew up in an apocalyptic society. There was so much fear, internal and outer. We felt a need to express the emotional struggle of finding a way to maintain a sense of purpose and hope in our lives".

Opium Den released their debut album, Diary of a Drunken Sun, in 1993 by Hereafter Records. A review in the October 1993 issue of The New Review of Records said, "Dramatic female vocals and chorus-tinged guitar arabesques magically recall Kaleidoscope-era Banshees, early Cocteau Twins and on the closing masterpiece 'The Wishing Tree', the haunting stillness of the Cure's Seventeen Seconds.

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