On October 12-13, 1990, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, and in the first year of the George H. W. Bush’s presidency, inside the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in NYC, Diamanda Galás performed her album, Plague Mass . Stripped to the waist, at some point covered in a blood-like substance, in front of the altar, she utilized her powerful (capable of multiple-octaves) voice, to deliver a series of interconnected songs, quoting excerpts from Leviticus, Psalms, Revelations, and singing in English, Spanish, Italian, and French, as well as exploding in a series of melodic and fast logorrheas similar to glossolalias, mixed with hysterical laughter and cries, to the accompaniment of ritualistic sounding drums and a deep chorus responding to, and resonating with her echoing words and cries – an example of Galás’ style as Susan McClary describes it: “ear-splitting volume, a broad spectrum of bizarre timbres, the semiotics of extreme anguish, and a structure that builds intensity through sheer repetition.”1