Diamanda Galas is a singer with a 4-
octave range and an equally broad range of musical interests. She has created music ranging from
gospel to
country to
heavy metal (even in the course of a single
album). However, there are some constantly recurring themes in her work, mainly
religion (without
preconceptions, and generally quite
heretically) and the
human condition. She is not afraid to deal with the theme of
evil, which leads
conservative listeners to see her as a
Satanist. She also writes at least sometimes in
Greek -- and interestingly, she uses it for some extremely hateful lyrics, like "
Hex" from
The Sporting Life. She feels her stances are very
moral, but merely express refusal to refuse to think.
She was born in
California to
Greek parents of
Greek Orthodox beliefs.
The first time I read of Diamanda Galas was in
Mondo 2000 in the early
1990s. The first time I listened to one of her albums was yesterday (so the rest of the information here is a condensation of
Googling work in the last hour). Within about two hours of listening to her album, my
brother-in-law's borrowed
16mm projector broke. Coincidence?