Death In June – Oh How We Laughed

nice vinyl press. the cover is textured. kind of irregular wave pattern. etched a and b sides.

Very interested in the man-bearing-hammer-against-anvil iconography pictured here. Seemingly in reference to the cover of "Varieties of Fascism" by Eugen Weber under The Anvil Series, whatever that may be. Although lyrically the motif of hammers and anvils seems to pop up here and there in the works of Douglas P. and David Tibet as well, perhaps even Boyd Rice if I'm remembering correctly. What exactly is the political/symbolic significance of it I wonder?

Excellent pressing, performance, and recording. Wish more of their live recordings from this strong and bold era of DIJ sounded as well.

This concert sums up the most post punk album from DIJ during its entire lifetime, because while "the guilty have no past" may be invariably linked, the sound from this album meanwhile is way more darkened and dense. Patrick Leagas vocals grant the morbid feeling of hoplessness and existential despair while the trumpet and the mechanical tribal drum dirge dissents with the typical sound from most post punk bands from the period, the lyrics also complement with the album feeling and finally suming Tony Wakeford'sthe emblematic "numbing" effect through those ominous and mantric basslines.
Here there is, the soul of a generation and their posterior anthems: "and the death of dreams shall bring a beautiful end".

Early DIJ was an existentialist band by all means, corroborated that sense in epic albums like these. I cannot avoid feeling the sentiments involved or the images of decay presented in this music, the children that arised from the death of hope that born with the rabid mordacity of Sex pistols and later Joy Division will arrange to converge into a depressive farewell, the same people that definitively started early with the cold war and the decline from Western civilization. These are the words in it's most profound and bleak display. Nothing compares to it.