New (2022) remastered reissue of the classic deathrock debut Death Church, presented in jewel case CD and on vinyl in big foldout poster sleeve. Here's my write-up, slightly edited, of the previous Outer Himalayan edition :

This classic slab of macabre Lovecraftian avant-punk is available again, remastered from the original tapes. Like the other recent Peni reissues, this is essential for anyone into dark, macabre punk, early death-rock, and occult-obsessed hardcore.

It would be very hard to overstate just how influential these albums have been on an entire class of bands that followed in their wake, and you can now hear echoes of Rudimentary Peni's spiky, angular punk and bubbling madness lingering on albums from all kinds of hardcore punk, avant-rock and even black metal bands. They have always been grouped in with the early 80's anarcho-punk scene that flourished in Britain, but aside from their early connections with the band Crass (having released their 1982 Farce 7" on Crass Records), Rudimentary Peni had very little in common both musically and thematically with most of the other punk bands that they were associated with. Their music was so much darker and more enigmatic than almost anything else happening in British punk at the time, with much of the unique sound and vibe coming from front-man Nick Blinko, a visionary lyricist and artist who has struggled with mental illness and long periods of hospitalization throughout the bands entire career, and who brought his increasingly deranged visions of disturbing deformed characters, rampant paranoia, and withered horrors to the bands music, drawing influence from the works of H.P Lovecraft and the occult. For fans of dark, outre punk rock, the Rudimentary Peni records are absolutely essential; all three of the band's albums are crucial slabs of twisted, menacing rock, and even their EPs are minor masterpieces of macabre weirdness. They've never put out a bad record, and I actually think that their more recent stuff, while heavier and different from their classic early records, is just as amazing as their earliest, most legendary recordings. All are classic albums of malevolent weirdo punk, presented with complete lyrics and lots of Blinko's amazing obsessive pen-and-ink artwork.

Like I've mentioned at length in my write-ups of the reissues of Archaic, Cacophony and Pope Adrian 37th Psychristiatric, Rudimentary Peni are one of my all time favorite bands from the 80's British punk underground, a band that was often associated with the UK anarcho-punk scene but who was in fact off on some weird cosmic-horror-tinged death-rock trip that was totally unlike anything else going on at the time. The band's debut album Death Church was wholly unique when it came out in '83, from front man Nick Blinko's nightmarish, obsessively detailed black and white album art to the bizarre song writing and morbid atmosphere that hangs over the bands music. The macabre pogo power of the opening song introduces Death Church's relentless buzzsaw punk assault, leading the charge for these twenty-one tracks of ripping rocking mid-tempo angular deathpunk, the songs comprised of simple four-chord riffs twisted into sinister angular hooks, the bass guitar bouncing like Peter Hook on cheap crank, Blinko's howling vocals the closest he ever came to a traditional hardcore-style delivery. The whole album has its gnarled and blackened roots digging deep into the rotting carcass of early 80s hardcore, but this ended up sounding unlike anything else in punk at the time thanks to Blinko's demented lyrical visions and bizarre artwork and the band's ferocious, pounding hypnotic buzzbomb punk. On some of these songs, the band even reveals a weird sort of proto-black metal sound on tracks like "Poppycock", with its furious tremolo picking and speedy assault; for fans of the current wave of blackened punk outfits like Malveillance, Bone Awl and the like, there are moments on Death Church that could possibly provide an epiphany. That signature strain of Peni weirdness abounds, of course, with some of their punk-shanty stuff showing up on other tracks like "Vampire State Building" and the sepulchral shimmy of "Flesh Crucifix", all infested with bizarre squealing cries and the dank stink of the tomb. Can't recommend this album enough.