Editing First and Last and Always (section)

==Legacy==
Despite the album and the band's significant impact on the goth scene in the 1980s, with the band being regarded as the second wave of the goth movement along with other bands such as [[The Mission (band)|The Mission]] and [[Fields of the Nephilim]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 May 2019 |title=The Waves of Gothic - World Goth Day |url=https://elektrospank.com/news/stories/119-the-waves-of-gothic-world-goth-day |access-date=28 August 2023 |website=ElektroSpank - FMA |language=en-gb}}</ref> Andrew Eldritch did not consider The Sisters of Mercy as [[gothic rock]] band, and instead wanted them to be classified as a continuation of 1960s [[classic rock]] music:

<blockquote>We come from 1969; we are the children of [[Altamont Free Concert|Altamont]]. We don't know who the fuck [[Alien Sex Fiend]] are and we don't want to know. Throughout our career, we've had to fight against the preconception that most of the public has of us as being something that sprang out of [[post-punk]]. We regard ourselves as having sprung from pre-1970s rock music, as the inheritors of that tradition and the only people with any chance of propagating it further.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Dickson |first=Dave |date=March 1985 |title=Mercyful Fate |magazine=Raw}}</ref>

I think the title track is gloomy but not the others. They may not be tremendously optimistic...gloomy and doomy suggest an air of apathetic resignation, which I don't think we're prone to.<ref name="Du Noyer"/></blockquote>

In 2012, a retrospective by the ''[[Sonic Seducer]]'' magazine called the album a "pillar of the goth culture" and included it in a list of "10 Key Albums for the Gothic Scene".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Gnuch |first=Kym |year=2012 |title=10 Alben mit Schlüsselcharakter für die Gothic-Szene |language=de |magazine=[[Sonic Seducer]] |volume=Special edition |issue=1}}</ref> The band have also been credited as a goth band on various lists of this nature.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Distefano |first=Alex |title=10 Best Goth Bands |url=http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2015/06/the_10_best_goth_bands.php |access-date=28 August 2023 |website=Phoenix New Times |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=24 April 2023 |title=30 Best Goth Bands of All Time (Most Popular) |url=https://middermusic.com/goth-bands/ |access-date=28 August 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Top gothic rock artists |url=https://www.last.fm/tag/gothic+rock/artists |access-date=28 August 2023 |website=Last.fm |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gateway |first=Music |date=22 August 2019 |title=20 Best Gothic Rock Bands of All Time |url=https://www.musicgateway.com/blog/spotify/20-best-gothic-rock-bands-of-all-time |access-date=28 August 2023 |website=Music Gateway |language=en}}</ref>