What this is about is the CD reissue of Death In June's debut mini-LP The Guilty Have No Pride with earlier singles and one later track. These originally came out around 1981-83.

This band was formed by two ex-members of the leftist punk band Crisis, Douglas P. and Tony Wakeford. I believe they were named after a German terrorist group that modelled themselves after Baader-Meinhof. Their sound at the beginning was inspired by Joy Division, along with some elements of Gang Of Four, Killing Joke, and PIL. But this wasn't what you'd call "rock" in the traditional sense. They took the teutonic elements of Joy Division to more of an extreme, as well as including elements of traditional military marching music, especially with the drums and trumpet. The drummer Patrick Leagas had a unique low-end bass drum sound. Doug and Tony took turns singing -- Doug had more of a restrained voice, while Tony was more bombastic.

OK, I first heard this band when I picked-up a double-tape comp called "The Angels Are Coming" that Pleasantly Surprised put out. I got it simply because it had the Stockholm Monsters on it(!) Well, the backwards effects on the DIJ track there (it was "Black Radio") struck me as spooky. There was a picture of Doug and Tony in uniform in the booklet, in what looked like a dark basement. Doug looked downbeat, while Tony stood up arrogantly like the Brothers who taught in my catholic high school. (This was 1983, and I was around 16 at the time.) I found this picture intimidating and scary.

I did read a DIJ interview in Zigzag later on -- didn't give me a clue. I later got The World That Summer, which I found to be very scary indeed -- I actually mistakenly thought it was about human sacrefice! Then I got the Burial LP, which I liked better but was still creepy.

But then I got this Dutch magazine called the Feverish back around 1988 or 89. This was an underground publication mostly about occult-type groups. A fanatical Crowley-based group called Zero Kama were in it, and also an early piece by pre-Blood Axis Michael Moynihan -- calling himself "Coup De Grace" at the time.

But there was this self-descriptive piece by Douglas there concerning Death In June... I was always bothered by the nazi imagery and stuff, but here Doug didn't sound that way at all. He was actually saying stuff like "Too many people rely upon others to carry them." And he clamed Jean Genet was an inspiration -- hardly someone an actual nazi would ever like. But what most struck me was what he said in the intro and conclusion: "As soon as I intermingle with the rest of 'humanity' by switching on the radio and television, or by stepping outside the door, I realise how ugly and dirty and useless and inane it's all become. What a soulless, horrible little zoo I live in." and "Today, to be dignified is to be dirty. To have a spirit -- to be aware of a soul is to be treated like a leper, an outcast."

And I felt the exact same way! Of course that I had this Asperger's Syndrome that I wasn't aware of at the time, I already saw most other people as freaks. I felt alienated just like he did. And I couldn't see most people's values as real at all -- they'd say one thing and do another. They deceive themselves into committing stupid acts and people would still gullibly believe them. I really believed in things like justice, truth, love, freedom -- I wanted to think leaders believed this too, but their actions just seemed deceitful.

Afterwards, my roman catholic faith shattered when the massacre of priests in El Salvador happened. I was angry at feeling powerless over the whole thing and felt betrayed by my own country and the god I was supposed to worship. About this time I got this CD that I'm reviewing now. I listened to nothing else for three months. I was mad!

But also the CD made me think of the German friend of mine I've often posted about... When I first met him he was wearing a Velvet Underground shirt, and since I was a fan of that band we developed a friendship centered mostly around music, which he was exremely knowledgeable about. But one day he freaked me out telling me of his family's nazi past. I was always frightened of the nazi thing -- actually (I'm embarrased about this, mind) as a child I had an admiration for the nazis, being the age of Hogan's Heroes and stuff. But when I was twelve there was this TV Holocaust documentary that frightened me -- I couldn't believe these people who dressed/seemed so dignified would be that cruel to people. It made me mistrust authority -- I made a list of all the existing tyrants at that time and vowed to kill them all.

Maybe the CD made me think of Dan (the German) not just because of the subject matter -- maybe because of the teutonic influences and the "rock" energy that I knew Dan was always into. Dan himself hated that I liked DIJ -- the imagery bothered him. (Of course this is a guy who as a child would be handed-down old SS militaria and regalia as gifts.)

But exactly why does DIJ use nazi imagery? The same reason painter Philip Guston would make portraits of himself as a Klansman, perhaps as a way of exploring/understanding evil? I noticed some of the subjects in the book Born Guilty: Children Of Nazi Families would, after being horrified upon hearing of their elders' crimes, would wear their father's/relative's nazi uniform to come to terms with the bad things they did.

Anyways, repeated listeneings gave me a sense that these people in DIJ were essentially human -- at least more so than the hypocritical leaders that existed in the past and still do today. They seemed to be truly noble and none of their beliefs rang hollow as far as I know. I'm also thinking of a song by Blood Axis called "Electricity" of which Michael Moynihan presented his beliefs as "avenging the murder of the spirit." It definitely seems most of today's leaders seek to murder the human spirit themselves!

So I'm gonna end with the same words Doug ended his Feverish piece with: "Love is the only thing worth living AND dying for. And where is that, now?"

I was gonna include descriptions of each song but ran out of space. Doug always thought his music should speak for itself anyways, and never liked people's observations of them.

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