Digitally remastered edition. The words legendary, seminal, and classic get thrown around at will these days, but Rudimentary Peni’s debut album is all of them. Recorded over two days at Southern Studios by John Loder and originally released in 1983 by Crass off-shoot label Corpus Christi, Death Church showed a band moving away from the urgency of their two early 7″ singles and into their own realm. Creating a template that bands have been trying to replicate ever since, while ticking all the boxes to become a genre-defining album. Iconic artwork, a unique sound and their own lyrical universe. All merging seamlessly. Sonically the album is full of Nick Blinko’s extraordinary vocals and equally remarkable guitar, Grant Matthews’ big meandering driving basslines and Jon Greville’s tight and relentless drum work which together made something intricate and hard hitting, with a sequence that makes the 21 songs on the album flow perfectly. Visually, the album is every outsider art lover’s wet dream. A six-panel poster sleeve with every inch covered in Nick Blinko’s claustrophobic black and white line drawings, while lyrically the songs deal with madness, religion, death, and questioning humankind from a dark poetic place rarely found in any art form.
01. 1/4 DEAD 02. BLISSFUL MYTH 03. THE PSYCHO SQUAT 04. ROTTEN TO THE CORE 05. POPPYCOCK 06. COSMIC HEARSE 07. THE CLOUD SONG 08. VAMPIRE STATE BUILDING 09. BLASPHEMY SQUAD 10. WHEN YOU ARE A MARTIAN CHURCH 11. PIG IN A BLANKET 12. INSIDE 13. NOTHING BUT A NIGHTMARE 14. FLESH CRUCIFIX 15. SLIMY MEMBER 16. LOVE IS NOT 17. RADIO SCHIZO 18. HAPPY FARM 19. ALICE CRUCIFIES THE PAEDOPHILES 20. ARMY OF JESUS 21. DUTCHMEN
