''Leichenschrei'' is the second album by the band SPK. It was released in 1982 on Thermidor Records in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and in 1983 on the band's own Side Effekts label in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. The title is a German word meaning "corpse scream", and might refer to an alleged supernatural behavior exhibited by the deceased. The band was listed on the initial Thermidor release as "SPK", although subsequent vinyl reissues were credited to "Sozialistisches Patienten Kollektiv", a reference to the leftist German patients' group of the same name. The name was misspelled on the CD reissue as "Socialistisches Patienten Kollektiv".

Legacy

In a 1987 interview for Italian fanzine ''Snowdonia'',

Edward Ka-Spel Edward Sharp, better known by his stage name Edward Ka-Spel, is an English singer-songwriter and musician, born in London on 23 January 1954, to a family with East Anglia connections. He is best known for his work with the band The Legendary Pin ...

The Legendary Pink Dots The Legendary Pink Dots (LPD) are an Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band formed in London in August 1980. In 1984, the band moved to Amsterdam, playing with rotating musicians and having, as core members, singer/songwriter/keyboardist Edward Ka- ...

stated that he thought industrial music should have stopped after ''Leichenschrei'', describing it as a "brilliant album" and "nobody could make a better, more definitive work in industrial music".

Track listing

No track listing was provided with the initial release on Thermidor Records. The first side of vinyl editions of the album end with a lockgroove. Sides one and two of the vinyl editions are labeled "Seite ((Lysso))" and "Seite ((Klono))", respectively.

Side one

#"Genetic Transmission" – 3:17 #"Post-Mortem" – 2:24 #"Desolation" – 1:18 #"Napalm (Terminal Patient)" – 2:39 #"Cry from the Sanatorium" – 2:26 #"Baby Blue Eyes" – 2:38 #"Israel" – 2:46 #"Internal Bleeding" – 1:46 #"Chamber Music" – 3:26

Side two

#"Despair" – 4:45 #"The Agony of the Plasma" – 3:03 #"Day of Pigs" – 4:18 #"Wars of Islam" – 4:31 #"Maladia Europa (The European Sickness)" – 3:50

Personnel

According to the album liner notes: * Oblivion (

Graeme Revell Graeme Revell (born 23 October 1955) is a New Zealand musician and composer. He came to prominence in the 1980s as the leader of the industrial/electronic group SPK. Since the 1990s he has worked primarily as a film score composer. Some of Re ...

) –

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, electronic rhythms, tape, syncussion,

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 ...

* NE/H/IL (Neil Hill) – synthesizer, electronic rhythms, tape, treatments, vocals * James Pinker –

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s, syncussion, metal

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

Paul Charlier Paul Charlier is an Australian composer and sound designer who works primarily in theatre and film. He has also worked in radio and was a founding member of the Sydney post-punk band SPK (band), SoliPsiK. His theatre work includes the Sydney Thea ...

– guitar,

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 ...

, synthi * Peter Kennard –

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 * Karel van Bergen –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

, vocals * Sinan Leong – vocals, photography * Brett Guerim – additional vocals * Margaret Hill – additional vocals *

Lustmord Brian Williams is a Welsh industrial musician, sound designer and film score composer. He is often credited for creating the dark ambient genre with albums recorded under the name Lustmord. His experimental work has been described as "not tra ...

Legacy

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Personnel

Charts

Release history

Notes