Guitarist Valor Kand gets even more ambitious on his second album as the lead vocalist of Christian Death; Scriptures is as much his take on comparative world religions as it is a goth rock album — in the words of the liner notes, it's "a translation of world beliefs by Valor." It's rather grandiose and pretentious, of course, but that's often what Christian Death does best and those qualities give their music its impact. The balance provided by Rozz Williams is missed, but Scriptures is still one of the band's strongest albums without