Editing The Sisters of Mercy (section)

===''Floodland'' era (1987–1989)===  
Left to his own devices, Eldritch recorded ''[[Floodland (album)|Floodland]]'', marking a shift away from guitar-based rock toward atmospheric, [[Wagnerian rock]] and keyboard-oriented explorations pioneered on ''Gift''. The album was produced by Eldritch and Larry Alexander, with contributions from [[Jim Steinman]] on two songs, one of which is "[[This Corrosion]]".  

"This Corrosion" was a composition that Eldritch had already recorded (if not released) with his Sisterhood collaborators. The [[A-side and B-side|B-side]] featured "Torch," the last song from the previous line-up. Then-manager Boyd Steemson maintained that the chart success was no surprise for the band.  

{{quote|We knew we had something with This Corrosion. Max [Hole, Warners A&R exec] went into a meeting with a budget of £50,000. The label was unsure that they kept the right person: they thought maybe they should have gone with Wayne, since The Mission were out touring and making records. The record company said: "Well, £50,000, that's not bad for an album." And Max said, "No, that's for one song."<ref name="Boyd Steemson 2007"/>}}  

Eldritch later considered producer Steinman to have been more pivotal in securing funding for additional production than the songs themselves.  

{{quote|"[Steinman] was very good at getting the budget from [record label] Warners," Eldritch remembers. "We spent money on that record that otherwise we wouldn't have been able to. But most of it I made in a suburb of Manchester, and there weren't that many sessions where we went to New York and put extra flimflam on the songs. Unfortunately, if you ask middle-of-the-road type rock listeners what the Sisters sound like, they'll always think of the Steinman singles."}}
<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10782452|title=Andrew Eldritch, February 3, 2012|publisher=Nzherald.co.nz|date=3 February 2012|access-date=21 February 2012|first=Gavin|last=Bertram}}</ref>

The band did not perform live during this period but did mime on ''[[Top of the Pops]]'', among other shows. "This Corrosion," "[[Dominion (song)|Dominion]]," and "[[Lucretia My Reflection]]" were released as singles, with their videos compiled in the 1988 VHS release ''Shot'', alongside a video for "1959."