''Death Penalty'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

heavy metal band

Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that title was never bestowed by Parliament, a ...

. It was released in 1982 on

Heavy Metal Records Revolver Music was a British record label. It was created by Paul Birch in 1979 as a guitar music label. Its sister labels are FM Records and Heavy Metal Records. History Revolver is best known for signing the Manchester band, The Stone Roses ...

. The album received some criticism for the cover photograph, which featured topless model

Joanne Latham Joanne Kandy Latham (born 21 March 1961) is an English former glamour model. Latham was born in Wolverhampton. After studying classical ballet for nine years she took a scholarship to the Royal Ballet School. A dancing competition led to her ...

. The photograph had been taken in the yard of St Mary the Blessed Virgin Church in

Enville, Staffordshire Enville is a village and civil parish in rural Staffordshire, England, on the A458 road between Stourbridge and Bridgnorth. Enville is in the South Staffordshire district. The largest village nearby is Kinver, with the smaller villages of Bobbi ...

, without the permission of the local Reverend. The album was originally released on LP and

picture disc Picture discs are gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics that extend at lea ...

and was later reissued on CD. Pictured on the cover is Phil Cope, Zeeb Parkes, Graham Ditchfield and a member of their road crew. While Peter Hinton is credited with producing this recording, the writers Phil Cope and Zeeb Parkes always felt the credit should have gone to the engineer

Robin George Robin Charles George Sidebotham (born 1956) is a British rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. He achieved success during 1985 with the song "Heartline", which peaked at #68 in the UK Singles Chart and #92 in the US Hot 100 (#40 in the ...

Track listing

All tracks by Zeeb Parkes and Phil Cope. Side one # "Invisible Hate" – 6:05 # "Free Country" – 3:10 # "Death Penalty" – 5:35 Side two # "No Stayer" – 4:25 # "Witchfinder General" – 3:51 # "Burning a Sinner" – 3:28 # "R.I.P." – 4:04

Personnel

Witchfinder General

*Zeeb Parkes –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

*Phil Cope –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

(bass credited as Woolfy Trope) *Graham Ditchfield –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Production

*Pete Hinton – producer *

– engineer *Tim Young – mastering at C.B.S. Studios *

– cover model

References

{{Authority control 1982 debut albums Witchfinder General (band) albums