Have Mercy : Check List ****<i> Great Balls of Fire</i> ***<i> Good Vibrations</i> **<i> Maybe Baby</i> *<i> Running on Empty </i>

** THE SISTERS OF MERCY. “Floodland.” Elektra. Along with Nick Cave, Bauhaus and Joy Division, the original Sisters of Mercy turned gloom from a simple state of mind into a fashion statement. Then the quartet split down the middle with guitarist Wayne Hussey and bassist Craig Adams forming the Mission U.K. and singer Andrew Eldritch dropping from sight. Now Eldritch is back with a new Sisters of Mercy, featuring ex-Gun Club bassist Patricia Morrison and various sidemen. Ex-Meat Loaf sidekick Jim Steinman co-produced two tracks and his Wagnerian delusions mesh perfectly with Eldritch’s dark and overwrought melodramas. It’s all so grandly Teutonic--full of swelling choirs and roaring thunderclaps--that “Floodland” is unintentionally humorous. The high point is “This Corrosion,” a surprisingly effective dance track that also serves as a 10-minute exercise in overkill. Even with half its members gone, Sisters of Mercy can still dish out the Euro-gloom with the best of them.