Guitarist Ben Gunn departed the band in October 1983 and was subsequently replaced by Dead or Alive member Wayne Hussey.

This created one of the band's most iconic line-ups, comprising Hussey with frontman Andrew Eldritch, guitarist Gary Marx, and bassist Craig Adams.

The sessions were prolonged due to Eldritch's drug use and extended time spent on writing lyrics, though recording was eventually completed in November 1984.

Similar to the band's previous releases, they used a drum machine when recording, this time utilising an Oberheim DMX nicknamed "Doktor Avalanche".

At the end of the year, through CBS Records, who were interested in signing the band, he was replaced by former Dead or Alive member Wayne Hussey.

The new band line-up played its debut concert on 7 April 1984,[2] which featured the newly written songs "Body and Soul", "Train" and "Walk Away".

After returning to the UK, Eldritch wrote a new song called "Wide Receiver", which was inspired by a term in American football and which he recorded on his own at home as a demo.

[citation needed] The rudimentary song wasn't used in the end, but Eldritch's solo demo recording appeared in early 1992 on a bootleg album.

[7] Eldritch was enthusiastic about the new material, and played some instrumental demos to Melody Maker journalist Adam Sweeting: "I think this stuff's gonna be incredible, like nothing we've ever done before".

[11] Marx sang an early draft of the later Ghost Dance lyric of "When I Call", which mentioned the name of a friend of the band's from Hamburg; Marianne.

"Black Planet" exists in the form of an early version with a Wayne Hussey lyric which he later used for the Mission songs "Dance on Glass" and "Naked and Savage".

Eldritch later sang his own version of "Garden of Delight" which remained unused as well: "There are a few bootlegs in existence of me trying to sing Wayne's words, and you can hear that I'm not convinced by them.

Eldritch, inspired by Gary Marx's original lyrics to "First and Last and Always", wrote new words to a Wayne Hussey composition which contained a few passages sung in German.

"Amphetamine Logic", according to Gary Marx, had the working title "Horned One Stabs", which indicates that this song was not recorded at Strawberry but at later sessions.

After the US gigs, the band went into Genetic Studios near Reading with producer Dave Allen as planned to complete the album with engineer Tim Baldwin.

But the sessions at Genetic Studios dissolved, according to Gary Marx, into "madness of Eldritch walking into walls between vocal takes and us generally losing the plot.

To coincide with the tour, a first single off the album was released on 8 October 1984, "Walk Away", which included a limited edition flexidisc featuring an "Amphetamix" of the song "Train".

[4] After the end of the tour, the band returned to Genetic Studios without bassist Craig Adams or producer Dave Allen to mix the album.

[10] On this occasion two new songs were recorded, "Blood Money" and "Bury Me Deep", which were produced by Eldritch and were intended as B-sides for the next single, "No Time to Cry".

[citation needed] Additionally, the band negotiated the release of a live video on PolyGram which was to be filmed on Gary Marx's birthday on 18 June 1985 at the Royal Albert Hall.

[28] Their content, with various references to drugs and separation, mirror Eldritch's condition at the time: "I was so shot when I wrote the lyrics on the album that there's no distancing of persona at all.

[30] The remaining trio, with Wayne Hussey shouldering all guitar parts, started another tour through Europe and the US on 12 April, which continued till 7 June.

This CD edition featured some bonus tracks such as an early demo version of "Some Kind of Stranger" with different lyrics, plus the b sides of the singles "Walk Away" ("Poison Door", "On the Wire" and "Long Train") and "No Time to Cry" ("Blood Money" and "Bury Me Deep").

On 24 July 2015, a 4-LP vinyl box set was released by Warner Music International that included the original version of the album with three EPs from the era, all with reproduced artwork in a slipcase.

"[38] Amy Hanson of AllMusic praised the album and its influence on the goth scene that was prominent in the mid 80s, praising the mood of the album, saying, "With static drumbeats and jangle-angled guitars backing Andrew Eldritch's atonic, graveyard vocals, the songs on First and Last and Always paid to play alongside the ghosts of myriad forgotten post-punkers as well as the band's own goth forebears."

She praised the moods within the album, observing, "From the opening air-fire claustrophobia of "Black Planet" to the melancholy "No Time to Cry,"" and concluded "Copied to death, its brilliance has never been replicated.

"[39] In a retrospective review, Julian Marszalek of The Quietus observed the lyrics, on the opening track "Black Planet" to be very on the nose, with regards to the political climate of the mid 80s along with the Cold War, saying.

"But while Eldritch is bang on the money capturing the zeitgeist, the music was something of a damp squib focusing as it does on Hussey's sound while paying scant regard to concepts such as memorable and powerful riffs."

and praised the sound of the album saying "With First And Last And Always, The Sisters Of Mercy delivered a document that fulfilled the promise of those earlier releases, ten tracks marked by Armageddon, women, drugs, cowboy hats and Marlboro Reds."

But regardless of what came next – and certainly the whip smart music that preceded it – The Sisters Of Mercy's debut album is a mighty full stop and crowning statement that's weathered the years well since its release.