Noise Pollution #23: Pictures of Pain

I haven’t seen a million Misfits videos on my newsfeed this Halloween, though the absence of evidence here isn’t the evidence of absence. Tree falling in the forest kind of shit, probably. I’m sure it’s rampant in parts of the internet that I’ve done my best to create a bulwark between. This also means we’re only a week or two away from everyone posting “No Presents for Christmas” because I guess there isn’t a good metal Thanksgiving song. I’m sure someone will email me a link to one but I don’t even read messages from people I actually like, so you can save yourself some time by just fucking not doing it.

Last time I mentioned that I wanted to write about a band who’s known as an adjacent band to Rudimentary Peni. And while that’s (somewhat) true it’s also an unfair characterization that this band has had to live with for decades. I’m speaking about Part 1, who existed briefly in the early 80s and again in the 10s, leaving behind a demo, EP, and a posthumously released LP of goth/deathrock mixed with anarcho-punk akin to the darker records of the spectrum of UK punk.

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I first stumbled upon Part 1 while I was reading Ian Glasper’s excellent history of the UK anarcho scene in the 1980s, “The Day The Country Died.” While being a great resource to read about bands I was already obsessing over (Peni, Amebix, Antisect etc) the book served as a roadmap to dozens of bands I’d never even heard of. Out of all of them, Part 1 was the most intriguing to me.

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Formed in 1980 by a group of young gentlemen all bringing influences from all musical spectrums, Part 1 was morbid and dark enough to fall in line with the burgeoning goth/death rock scene but held enough aggression to stand with the anarcho scene’s filthiest. Granted, it seems that back then mixed bills were more widely accepted as opposed to the separated niche live scene that punk and metal would become a few years down the road. This was one of those (increasingly rarer) times where music and youth culture were coalescing into a movement so it stands to reason the excitement helped gel disparate elements into a cohesive moment before eventually splintering and becoming commodified, like everything else.

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Part 1’s relationship with Rudimentary Peni began with shared interests of the macabre and would eventually evolve into shows together, Peni’s Nick Blinko doing art for part of their Pictures of Pain LP and help with funding and distribution of the Funeral Parade 7 inch, released through Part 1’s own Paraworm label in 1982.

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Part 1 had caught the attention of Pushead and, in 1985 he would release their Shadows of the Cross demo onto LP as Pictures of Pain through his Pusmort imprint. Part 1 were vastly different than the hardcore Pushead was known for releasing.

The only way I was able to hear Part 1 was through torrents, which I’ve never been very adept with, and whatever I was able to dig up on Youtube, which was still in its adolescence. Coupled with having a pretty frustrating name to look up, it would be a long time before I heard their discography in its entirety. Pictures of Pain would rarely pop up on eBay and I would generally get bid out of it when it would, with the record going for hundreds of dollars at the time. It became one of those grail pieces, next to Antisect’s In Darkness, There is No Choice, that I would continually hunt for but never come across in the wild.

A year or two later one of the members started a Part 1 Myspace, the first sign of life from the project in over twenty years. I don’t remember who ran it but I do remember reading they were planning a box set collection including a lot of unreleased material. I lost track of these goings on when my life’s difficulties got the best of me but a few years later whisperings of their resurrection grew louder and louder until finally they began to play live again, with Chris Low replacing Bob Leith behind the drums. Would this mean reissues of the old material so I wouldn’t have to sell plasma/cum for my own copies? These came in spurts, with Pictures of Pain coming out first and eventually Sacred Bones would reissue the Funeral Parade EP on 12 inch.

Let’s take a second and reflect on my previous joke, just let it sink in and enjoy it because life’s too short.

Part 1 eventually came to the states in 2015 and did a round of shows, one of which I was lucky enough to catch at the now-defunct (I believe) Boot and Saddle in Philadelphia. This one was filmed for a VHS release on Philly’s (also now defunct) label Afraid of the Basement. As an aside, trying to find the clip for this one really brought some terrific chaos to my Youtube algorithm and now I’m continually suggested videos of Kensington and its fun populace.

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Part 1 would eventually dissolve before the aforementioned box set or any of the new material surfaced, which was a shame since the live performances were inspired and powerful, a pure class example of reunions done properly. And while their discography is as short as their lifespan, it’s excellent from sky to grave and gets my highest recommendation for those of you who enjoy Rudimentary Peni’s Death Church era, as well as those of who are into old deathrock. For anyone into exquisitely morbid music, Part 1 deserves to be a part of your Halloween playlist for years to come.

In two weeks we’re going to head into another master of macabre Halloween..um..ness. Stay tuned.