Death In June — The Guilty Have No Pride

Here we have a new vinyl reissue of Death In June’s first 1983 album The Guilty Have No Pride. This version features a new remastering by Douglas P, and comes in either a 200 gram black or 150 gram opaque white vinyl edition- both versions come in a strictly ltd edition of 500 copies. I’m reviewing the black vinyl version

The album features the seven original tracks - four on side A and three on side B. The sound throughout this release is a very different & grim beast from the Neo Folk sound they later helped invent; it’s best described as a very stark mix of bass lined post punk, bleak English new wave meets militaristic drums, creative electronics, trumpet textures which are all peppered with odd, cold, avant-garde elements. The whole thing is very primitive, dark, hopeless & barren with it’s '80s atmosphere to the sound and lyrics; though for all the materials grim feel it’s often quite innovative and very rewarding with Patrick Leagas, Tony Wakeford and Douglas P. creating this shifting soup of guitars, bass, creative and militaristic percussive elements, dour yet inventive lo-fi electronics, stark horn work & the threesomes grey English male punk/ post-punk vocals.
 
Moving onto the release itself, the very thick & unwarped black vinyl comes in the original brown glossy record sleeve that displayed for the first time in 1983 the infamous Totenkopf-6 logo in beige print on the front cover, along with the bands name & album title. On the back cover we get a small reproduction of a photo which shows two men hugging, with one of them holding a pistol.  Also on the back cover we get the track listing, and the discs own ltd edition number.
 
All in all this is a fairly simple yet effectively presented new vinyl edition of the first sonic steps of this highly influential yet often controversial project. If you want to get hold of either versions of this release, I’d advise to do it sooner than later, as ltd edition DIJ releases have a tendency to disappear very rapidly!.