''Dance of Death''



THE TRUMPET SHALL SOUND AND THE DEAD SHALL BE RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE AND WE SHALL BE CHANGED
(Message on reverse of sleeve)

Sleeve - Front

Vinyl - Side A: Repress on Left, Original Press on right - Repress has larger text

Vinyl - Side B: Repress on Left, Original Press on right - Repress has larger text




Sleeve Folded Out - Front

Sleeve Folded Out - Back
Flyer: 
Some copies have a small flyer advertising Deranged Records Releases, the above picture shows 3 examples.


Stats:

General:
Tracks: Dance of Death B/W Zezose
Released: 2004
Label: Deranged Records DER-52 (1st Press) DER-52 RE (Represses)
1st Press Matrix A: DERANGED YOUTH-52-A
1st Press Matrix B: DERANGED YOUTH-52-B
Repress Matrix A: DY#52-A    GOLDEN
Repress Matrix B: DY#52-A    GOLDEN

Pressing Info:
First Press of 1000 Nov 2003
Second Press of 500 Jan 2005
Third Press of 1000 Nov 2005 (same plates as above)
*8 Test Pressings for first press in manilla sleeve/numbered (1)
10 Test Pressings for repress
*Probably actually 7 - see pics at end.

Inserts:
Some (usually 1st press) also have Deranged Records flyer advertising contemporary releases (various designs)
    Variants:
    First Press
    Repress (Slightly different labels and matrix, see above)



    Notes:

    From promotional info:
    The title track features guest vocals by Ben Cook from NO WARNING, and VIOLENT MINDS (2)


    From Epics in Minutes CD notes:
    We wrote this at the same tome as ''Police'' but let it just incubate for a year and a half until Iron Maiden released an album of the same name. We went back to Audiolab and got Ben Cook From No Warning to come in and do back ups at 2am.


    Extract From MRR Interview with David Eliade (2004):
    OK switching gears, what is Dance of Death about?
    Well that song sort of deals with the same shit – its about like the imperialist lifestyle and how its been perfect and reproduced to such a dazzling extent, that people within it are convinced that it is the best way, and that they love it. Its like Stockholm Syndrome, when a captive begins to love and revered the captor. The Harbinger’s spiders laid their eggs inside all of our heads, and convinced us to keep dancing in the muck, because we love it. We love smoking and eating non-food, so we love cancer. We love making money and cheating, so we love crime. We love TV and novels, so we love being stupid. We love war and punishment so we love pain. We love life, so we love death. (3)


    Extract From Scene Point Blank interview (2006):
    It seems like a lot of your lyrics use a classic rhetorical strategy where you talk over an audience's head in hopes that they'll educate themselves. This is fairly uncommon in the broad world of punk, which is usually much more didactic; what's the rationale behind this and what kind of responses have you seen?
    10,000 Marbles: I just write how I'd like lyrics to appear. We don't want to tell anyone what to think, really, I just like my lyrics to rhyme, use interesting imagery and words, and be about interesting topics. I'm not in this to spread any particular worldview. And yeah, when we do have particularly objective topics, they're usually tucked inside a metaphor, so the song is more interesting and you aren't hit upside the head with rhetoric. I had militarism in mind when I wrote "Triumph of Life," and smoking when I did "Dance of Death," but I like being discreet, you know? (4)

    Sleeve Notes:

    Sleeve - Front: 
    From Essay by Evan Blanco: The cover is the Alfred Kubin sketch “Sterbendes Mädchen” [“Dying Girl”] from his Dance of Death series of sketches.14 The sketch shows a girl sitting in a chair with a downward glance as the spectre of death looms over her right shoulder. As death reaches out to clutch the left wrist of the girl, she offers no recourse nor wanting. She is totally complicit with the end of her own life. This relates to the message conveyed by “Dance of Death” in the sense that the individual is complicit with the death of their individuality or ability to self-determine. (5)

    Sleeve - Reverse: 'The Calavera of Don Quixote' by  Jose Posada 

    Jose Posada (1852-1913)

    Posada, Jose Guadalupe - Mexican engraver and illustrator. Born into a peasant family in Aguascalientes, he was an apprentice lithographer at the print shop of Trinidad Pedrozo. His first illustrations were for Pedrozo's radical weekly El Jicote (The Wasp, 1871), but after 11 issues the magazine was closed down by the authorities and Posada was forced to flee with his employer to Leon in Guanajato. Here he taught and published lithographs, and in 1888 was able to set up his own print shop in Mexico City. He began to illustrate Antonio Vanegas Arroyo's broadsheets of sensational news stories (accidents, executions and natural disasters) and urban myths (women giving birth to animals or turning into fireballs). In 1895 he began to etch on zinc, which became his preferred rnediurn. Despite a vast popularity; he died in poverty in Mexico City.

    Posada was a model for the Mexican muralists as a popular artist producing vivid and simple images in a distinctively non-European mode with strong elements of political satire. He is best known for his calaveras, witty images of skeletons performing the rituals and pleasures of everyday life. Often dressed in bourgeois finery, they mock the pretensions and vanity of the living. (6)



    Commodity Fetishism:

    Test Press 5/7 (First Press)
    Note 'Pickering Dot' below spindle hole, indicating these were probably pressed at the Pickering Plant in Canada
    Test Press 7/7 (First Press)

    Test Press (Re-press) 6/10
    Pressed by United, probably following closure of Canadian pressing plant



    (1) Looking For Gold Blog
    (2) Deranged 
    (3) MRR Interview - on Looking For Gold Blog
    (4) Scene point Blank Interview - on Looking For Gold Blog
    (5) 'The Hidden World: The Visual Culture of Fucked Up' Essay by Evan Blaco
    (6) The Bullfinch Guide to Art History