DEATH BEFORE DISHONOUR
(1987)
You may well wonder
or laugh. “An eBay war for that”? Well it wasn’t an intense bidding war as such
by any stretch. But where eBay is concerned, it’s always a war unless you’re
the only bidder. And I’m far from being
an eBay Field Marshall, bidding expert, champion, or someone who spends lots of
dosh on eBay. Cos I ain’t. I’ll have a bit of a look. I’ll seek out stuff I
want, naturally. But I’ll keep very much on the lower scale of things.
I friend burnt this for me on CD quite a long time ago. Wasn’t that interested at first, but then it
grew on me, as albums sometimes do. I played it not so long ago, and I thought,
“wouldn’t mind getting that on vinyl if I see a copy”. Then, trawling eBay just
having a look recently, I happened to see
a copy that had a low start price. I kept an eye on it for a few days, it had a
couple of bids that went up in very small
increments. On the last day I set myself a (low) limit and bid. “Outbid”. I
went up by very small increments. Outbid. The price I needed to win didn’t show
up. Then I went “aaaah, fuck it”. I worked out what the “hidden” limit on the
bid was and outbid it by 5 cents.
Winning bid. So I waited until the next day. (The bids closed at 10pm Saturday night and I wasn’t gonna just sit
around the computer waiting). So for a reasonable price (which was THE ceiling
I’d set for this) including postage, it was mine. I have to say I was pleased that I’d trumped
someone by 5 cents. Cos if they had of really wanted it they would have kept
bidding (well that’s my line of thinking anyway).
Obviously I wouldn’t have bid for this if I didn’t like it.
This is actually one of the Exploited’s better albums I reckon, and quite
underrated. For some though perhaps too “metal, and is perhaps the album that was
the turning point of their (slightly more metal based) future direction. Can’t
say it’s overly metal myself though – it’s an Exploited punk record through and
through. It’s not short on the great hallmark of any Exploited album, the
requisite Wattie bile and anger, and of course this was largely fuelled by and directed
at Maggie Thatcher. This record chugs along like a giant unstoppable mohawked
Mack fucking truck. Perhaps not overtly “punk” in the same way “Punk’s not
Dead” or “Troops of Tomorrow” were, it’s a great fifth album which sees them
change the formula a bit.
They cover a bit of
ground here – from the opening bludgeon of “Anti UK” and “Power Struggle”,
there’s melody and plenty of singalong choruses within the chugging rifferama
which is present throughout, and there’s enough guitar solos to make things
interesting but not too over the top. “Police Informer” contains a sample from
the 80’s classic Terminator (Schwarzenegger’s “Fuck You asshole”). I guess in its
own way “Death Before Dishonour” is like The Terminator – it just keeps
going – and of course there is a bit of an 80’s theme lyrically and
thematically; “Barry Prossit” (80’s cop bashing victim) and “Don’t really care”
(about the dole in Thatcher’s Britain). “Driving me insane” lends a bit more melody,
and the closing track “Sexual favours” featuring female backup vocal” adds a
different flavour.
Package wise I like
this one a lot. The cover pic of a decaying Maggie Thatcher embracing the grim
reaper is great, and is a bit of a period piece statement on the time. Its part
of the reason I was after this on vinyl, I think it’s a fantastic cover. The
inner sleeve is also great, and classic for the time – pics of the band on one
side, typewriter font lyrics on the other.
Production wise they have a bit of a reverbish sludgy sound
here – which isn’t actually a bad thing, and I reckon it works well. There’s more of a “heavy” sound as opposed to
the more flat out speed of some of the earlier offerings. There’s plenty of
energy on the vinyl (particularly for a record that’s 25 years old. And not scratched,
but in reasonable condition for its age, as a lot of punk records are).
I’ve listened to this again quite a bit now since I got it, so it
was worth it. One ticked off the list. As I say, I’m not one to fork out
massive amounts of money on eBay, can’t afford to unfortunately, so these
kindsa eBay “victories” as some people term them, are a bit sweeter because for
me they’re affordable as well as desirable.
I mean, we all know that there’s lots of vinyl that go for ridiculous
prices but who can afford them? Like a first press of the Negative Approach EP
– in the hundreds and hundreds. And then do you play it or look at it or put it
away after you’ve forked out hundreds? Shit, I’ve been collecting vinyl for a
long time, and in many respects I’m not a true “collector” (My collection,
although not by any means insubstantial, is far skinnier than I would
like). As I say though, at least it’s
functional – they get played.
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