The incredible adventures of Death In June in the USA: disrupted concerts, broken destinies. “There is a real war going on in the world, but it hasn’t been officially declared

In not very distant 1956, in the city of Shearwater in Foggy Albion, a man was born who stood at the origins of the creation of the “neofolk” genre, namely Douglas Pearce (in common parlance - Douglas Pea). The boy had an interesting childhood: there was an exorcism ritual performed on him by his parents, and the evocation of the spirit of his deceased father. Involuntarily, in such an esoteric environment you will establish contact with all existing spirits and other otherworldly entities.

At twenty-one, Douglas began his musical career, which continues to this day. At first it was a clear passion for punk as part of a Trotskyist group Crisis. Pierce played with this team for three years, until their collapse.

But, having decided not to end their musical career, the musicians (namely, Douglas Pi, Tony Wakeford and Patrick Ligas) organize a new project called. However, in 1985, Douglas remains the only permanent participant in this project, sometimes inviting session musicians to record the album. It is interesting because since 1981 (the year of its founding) this group cannot be classified as just one single genre. Constantly developing, the project is undergoing significant changes: from post-punk to neofolk, along the way “capturing” industrial, experimental music and others like them. Only the stage image remained unchanged for a long time: military uniforms and carnival masks, which is why the project was often associated with Nazism. However, the founder of the project abandoned the mask some time ago.

The question of DIJ’s political sympathies is quite complex: they often use Nazi symbols, and the group itself is named after the famous “Night of the Long Knives” - Hitler’s massacre of SA stormtroopers led by Ernest Röhm, which occurred on June 30, 1934. Moreover, the group has repeatedly expressed sympathy for far-right ideas and thinkers. But, on the other hand, many fans, remembering the Trotskyist past of the group, consider their “right-wing” image to be banter and a “mask”. Moreover, the interests of the founder of the group and the author of most of the poems are extremely broad: here you can find echoes of the work of the Japanese classic and provocateur Yukio Mishima, and interest in mythology and European history, and open quotes from not the most popular philosophers. One of the group’s most famous songs is called “The Death of the West”: it is under this title that the legendary philosophical work “The Decline of Europe” by Oswald Spengler was published in English-speaking countries. To complete this complex picture, Douglas Pierce himself is a homosexual, which he does not hide, and among the far right such inclinations are not very welcome.

While working on DIJ, Douglas met David Tibet and in 1987 joined his apocalyptic folk project Current 93, in which he participated until 1993.

Let's return to Pierce's own brainchild Death In June . Released albums, EPs, singles, collections, bootlegs - a countless number, about sixty. There are about twenty studio albums alone. Of course, it is not possible to tell about everyone. In 1983, the first album “The Guilty Have No Past” appeared in the still familiar post-punk genre, somewhat reminiscent of the Joy Division. The trio recorded the album “Burial” in 1984, after which Wakeford left the team. The album contains 10 tracks, completely in the mentioned style. There is a build-up of anxiety in the music, detached vocals, and the predominance of the rhythm section. The sounds of a trumpet and a military band are reminiscent of one of Douglas's favorite themes - the Second World War and military conflicts in general. Of course, here we won’t hear the acoustic guitar yet, without which it’s already unusual to hear Death In June , but it’s quite suitable for getting acquainted with the early work of the project.

But already from the fourth album, 1986, “The World That Summer,” there was a transition to darkwave. Electronic music, military drums, Nazi-mystical themes - this is what Death In June cannot be imagined without.

The group also managed to experiment with noise, and in the company of Boyd Rice - a fascist, Satanist and one of the founders of this kind of music - the peak of this period came with the legendary album “Wall of Sacrifice”. After this, the brainchild of Douglas Pi (as the musician preferred to call himself) took a turn towards folk. For example, in the 1992 album “But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter?” you can hear an acoustic guitar, bells, and wind instruments. Quite unusual, isn't it? Meditative dark folk with National Socialist themes.

I would especially like to mention “Take Care and Control” from 1998. Thirteen magnificent tracks: atmospheric keyboard sounds, synthesized samples, voices in the background, the sound of gramophone records - all this creates an unusual dark and mystical atmosphere. From the very first track it was amazing to hear the orchestral sound. And this is instead of the usual strumming on an acoustic guitar! The second track immediately begins with folk elements, but in a dark sense - that’s why it’s dark folk. And if you add to this the same orchestral sound and voices in the background, it turns out very impressive. And the entire album is designed in gloomy atmospheric tones. This sound, of course, was contributed by Albin Julius (member of The moon lay hidden beneath the cloud and Der Blutharsch), with whom “Take Care and Control” was actually recorded. Very powerful and high quality album!

“Operation Hummingbird” from 2000 is another work with Albin Julius. Apocalypse in music, no less! A very successful combination of darkwave and folk.

A 2001 album about pigs who are about to die: “All Pigs Must Die.” It consists of two parts: the first is closer to folk with the sound of accordion and acoustic guitar, the second is industrial.

But since 2010, Douglas Peay has been “cheating” on his guitar, switching to the piano. Of course, the dark folk apologist did not play this instrument himself, but attracted a maestro from Slovakia to this matter. This is how the album “Peaceful Snow” turned out. In principle, simple songs were released, performed with a piano. There is no smell of industrial or folk here. A kind of acoustic minimalism. An incredibly large number of tracks - 30 pieces! It is easy to listen to, without any particular tension. You wouldn't even think that under this calm music there is a rebel and a follower of apocalyptic rock. Sometimes some electronic effects are added to the vocals and piano, but everything together sounds quite harmonious. Having listened to the entire album, it is difficult to single out any one composition - the music flows in a general flow, like one musical story (given Pierce’s measured and quiet vocals). What else to say? Well, if only we thank the pianist for his excellent performance.

In 2011, the year of the thirtieth anniversary of Death In June, Pierce released the studio album “Nada Plus” on two CDs. Essentially, this is a re-release of the 1985 album, which, according to most, is the best album of this project.

2013 - and the new album “The Snow Bunker Tapes”. Here Douglas again returns to his favorite guitar. Far from his best album. Basically, it's the same “Peaceful Snow”, but the piano is replaced with a guitar. And nothing more.

Well, let's hope that the subsequent albums will not disappoint. After all, the Death In June project, despite its apocalyptic theme, is not going to disappear and, observing the changes in the project, it is quite possible to hear something new and unusual from one of the founders of apocalyptic folk.

And most importantly, when trying to listen to his works, do not forget that much here is not as simple as it seems at first glance. The lyrics of his songs are sad, confusing and not so easy to interpret: “They made the last movie and called it the best one. We all helped film it - it's called The Death of the West. Children of Glory will be here - free Coca-Cola for you. And the monkeys from the zoo - will they be here too?

Wolf gray Adonis

A cruel life dawns

Curse me with obsessiveness

Futility and scorn

"Come Before Christ And Murder Love"

Perhaps no neofolk band, with the possible exception of Current 93, Coil and Blood Axis, has had as much written, said and imagined as about Death in June (DIJ). From the very beginning, the group surrounded itself with an aura of mystery and aloofness; The choice of name for the group also gave rise to various rumors, about which even the members of the original lineup themselves spoke somewhat contradictorily:

"Anyone who has read modern history will understand the meaning of our band's name" (Tony Wakeford)

“The name is inspired by a very important date in the history of the 20th century, which has special meaning and interest for us.” (Patrick Leagas)

“The name Death in June came about purely by chance, and that’s when we began to think about its “meaning.” It contains hidden the different actions of different people, to which we belong - as individuals and as all humanity as a whole. It refers to one specific event where people decided to change history" (Douglas Pearce).

The accidental appearance of the name was caused by a simple misunderstanding between Pierce and Ligas. The event referred to in the quote most likely meant the “night of the long knives,” which occurred in June 1934 (we will talk about this later). Douglas Pierce later clarified that additional interpretations of the group's name appeared largely due to the efforts of the musicians themselves. The group's name is related to the English title of Yukio Mishima's story “Death in Midsummer” (“Manatsu no shi”, “Death in Midsummer”, 1954), as well as to the title of Thomas Mann's famous short story “Tod in Venedig” (“Death in Venice” , Death in Venice, 1913) may also have played an important role due to the proximity of these works to the artistic components of DiJ - homosexuality, decadence and death - but there is no documentary evidence for this. It is also worth considering the magical connotation of the number 6, which often appears in the short form of the band name "DI6" as the numeric value of the Kenaz rune (see Sixth Comm).

Death In June is a vehicle for the interests and thoughts of Douglas Pearce, who founded the music project with Tony Wakeford in 1980. They had both previously played in the left-leaning English punk scene band Crisis (the other Crisis members, Luke Rendall and Lester Jones, later joined post-punk bands Theater Of Hate and Carcrash International). Despite the fact that Crisis musically gravitated more towards The Buzzcocks than the Sex Pistols, and was used as a mouthpiece for socialist-Trotskyist propaganda and anti-racism - this is evidenced by the lyrics of the songs “No Town Hall” and “White Youth” (“We are black and we are white / Together we are dynamite”), - Pierce and Wakeford in their new project DIJ wanted to dissociate themselves from any political activist movements:

“Because Crisis supported far-left politics, Tony and I decided that Death in June would keep itself separate from the existing political scene. The prejudices of the masses have left a bad taste in us. There was never anything in common between Crisis and Death In June." Only in 1997, the World Serpent label released a collection made up of Crisis tracks, which had previously only been released as vinyl singles or EPs. The double CD is titled "We Are All Jews And Germans (Nous Sommes Tous Les Juifs Et Les Allemands)", which apparently alludes to the slogan "Nous sommes tous les juifs allemands" ("We are all German Jews"), which was chanted in May 1968 by French students in reaction to the entry ban of Daniel Cohn-Bendit. The idea behind the statement “We are all Jews and Germans” (each of us is a potential victim and killer) is reflected in the DIJ song “C’est un Rêve” (1984).

Crisis album cover “Holocaust Hymns”

Shortly after its founding, drummer Patrick “O’Kill” Ligas joined the band. Joining DIJ came courtesy of Wakeford, who had briefly been involved with Richard Butler and Patrick Ligas in the experimental punk project Runners From 84 (an allusion to Orwell's 1984). Runners, like Crisis, captured punk hearts in 1979/80 with "songs against apartheid and fascism, long before it was fashionable to sing about it." In 1978, a 4-track EP entitled "Back Of Our Mind" was released. The first recordings under the name Death In June were published in 1981-83 - the EP “Heaven Street”, “State Laughter/Holy Water”, as well as the debut EP “The Guilty Have No Pride”. The music on these albums tends towards post-punk and New Wave; it shows a strong influence from Joy Division. Wakeford's bass guitar dominates the broken guitar riffs; The pounding of Ligas's drums leans towards military rhythms (a skill that Patrick learned as a drummer in a military-style scout team). DIJ also maintains the visual influence of the Runners From 84 band, wearing camouflage clothing and black freedom fighter suits. The team's performances (along with their SS-inspired uniforms, white shirts with black ties and runic insignia), coupled with the themes addressed in the early tracks, caused confusion and confusion in the English music scene. The same thing happened a few years earlier with the stage aesthetic of Joy Division, which was “completely unjustifiably perceived as Nazi. These misconceptions were fueled primarily by the clothing chosen, which clearly copied the style of the 40s. The group encountered stupid prejudice almost everywhere, which broke it.” Similar criticisms plagued Death In June and other neofolk bands in subsequent years.

The track "Heaven Street", written during the Crisis, deals with a rather sensitive topic, which is conveyed through a rough New Wave sound:

Take a walk down Heaven Street

The soil is soft and the air smells sweet

Paul is waiting there

Now only memories run on railway tracks […]

Waiting feet frozen to the ground

The earth exploding with the gas of bodies

Rifle butts to crush you down […]

This road leads to Heaven.

This text seems incomprehensible unless you watch, say, Claude Lanzmann's Holocaust documentary Shoah (1985). It explains the concept of "Himmelstraße" ("Road to Heaven" - the path of the Sobibór concentration camp along which prisoners were led to the gas chambers), and a former SS man says that "the earth was swelling with the corpse gases of the buried." Pearce himself called "Heaven Street" a more insightful and successful continuation of the Crisis song "Canada Kommando", which also tells the story of the suffering of concentration camp prisoners. During these years, DIJ performed at various anti-fascist concerts, continuing the anti-fascist line of Crisis, which seems to be a rejection of their past apolitical ideas.

In the early 80s, Pierce and Wakeford actively touched upon the history of SA stormtroopers and the rise of the Third Reich in their songs. This is most clearly manifested in the track “Till The Living Flesh Is Burned”, which describes the liquidation of Ernst Röhm and the entire leadership of the SA:

Believers of the new past

Were shown His true face

The once proud brownshirt now stained by

Engineers of Blood, Faith and Race.

The title of the song apparently refers to one of Hitler’s speeches, in which he explains the need to eliminate the SA: “All the ulcers of our society - all the “poisoners of the wells” - must be burned out with a hot iron […] right down to the raw meat.” The track also appeared in 1987 as "Knives" on the live album Oh How We Laughed. It opens with a thunderous speech from Roland Freisler - an excerpt from the Stauffenberg trial (attempted assassination of Hitler). An interesting overview of Oh How We Laughed and a worth reading essay on the transition from Crisis to DIJ can be found in Chapter 11 of Defiant Pose (1991) by Stuart Home.

It goes without saying that the question arose: why did early Death in June refer to these historical events, and whether this was a political turn to glorify or, on the contrary, belittle the time of Nazism and the personality of Röhm. Some music journalists of the time, for example, believed that the name Death In June contained the joy and satisfaction of eliminating Hitler's only serious rival, which, however, Douglas himself resolutely rejected. This is what he himself said about the significance of the events that occurred on June 30: “As I can imagine, we would live in a completely different world [...] The interesting fact is that only a few people in such a short time held the fate of the world in their hands and humanity, but nothing worked out for them; if they had succeeded, things could have gone completely differently.” From Pearce's words, one might think that Röhm had planned the putsch in advance - but this was just a rumor that was used as a pretext for liquidating the SA. Moreover, given the ruthlessness of the SA, it seems very dubious to say that Röhm would have been a “better choice” than Hitler. With these words, Pierce overestimates the historical significance of the Night of the Long Knives. However, June 30, 1934 is considered perhaps the “final date of the National Socialist takeover of power after January 30, 1933,” since murder was now publicly “legitimized” as a political means. The Röhm case could also have interested Pierce because Röhm himself was a homosexual: the conflict between homosexuality and National Socialism is a theme that plays an important role in the work of Death in June. And not only in him: the homosexual director Luchino Visconti, for example, proceeded from the “revolutionary potential of the SA” and dramatized the massacre of the SA leadership in Bad Wiesse in his family saga Die Verdammten (La caduta degli dei, 1969) (a slight inconsistency with the real events - in fact, there was no massacre, the stormtroopers were simply arrested and sent to prison, where they were subsequently executed), which is a painful ballet of death to the music of Wagner with homo-erotic scenery.

Starting from the late 80s, references to stormtroopers and National Bolshevism ceased to appear in the group’s work. All this became "a bygone part of Death in June." However, all of Death in June's early creative interests cannot be reduced to just these themes; Here's what Patrick Ligas said about the early period of the group's creativity: “If you look at the content of the lyrics of the group Death in June in the period 1980-1985, you can see anti-war and anti-Christian themes, songs about love and songs about despair, occult and mystical “She Said Destroy” ” and “Calling” (both from the Nada LP!).” The wide range of early DIJ themes is typical of the post-punk era: urban fears of loneliness in faceless cities, paranoia, serial killers, violence and pornography - these aspects are reflected primarily in the lyrics written by Tony Wakeford: “In The Nighttime” and “All Alone in Her Nirvana” (heritage from the time of Crisis):

She's too scared

She'd crack up if

The lights went out

There's this man

Who's been hanging about

I wish they wouldn't

Let the mentals out.

All alone in her Nirvana […]

Starting from the second record Burial (1984), the group’s work began to feature conceptual and textual references characteristic of almost all subsequent neofolk bands: a European idea, which, by the way, was not something new for the English punk and wave scene . Jean-Jacques Burnel, bassist and singer of the Stranglers (the group's songs, as with early DIJ, were influenced by Mishima), had already defined a Eurocentric manifesto with his 1978 solo album Euroman Cometh, which was formulated more explicitly and frankly than in the DIJ song “Sons Of Europe”. On the Burial album, these ideas are also mixed with a rejection of US cultural and capital imperialism: “In Death Of The West one can trace (as in the case of early Changes) the influence of Oswald Spengler - at least his cultural-pessimistic views, since Spengler, despite misinterpretation of the title of his work, did not mourn the Decline of the Western World. Wakeford's lyrics to "Fields" describe the bombing of World War II (“Dresden burning in the night / Coventry is still alight”); The song originated from Tony's visit to a soldier's cemetery in Europe, where "all those crosses […] reminded me of a carved cane that one of my relatives received as a gift from a concentration camp prisoner as a sign of gratitude for his liberation." Subsequently, this anti-war song will be re-released more than once on Sol Invictus albums.

Simultaneously with the themes listed above, the first, still scarce, folklore elements appear in DIJ’s music. Acoustic guitars, trumpets, bells and various percussion emphasize and complement the previous sound. At the beginning of 1985, the album “Nada!” appeared. It is already possible to highlight several songs that fully fit the description of folk. Interesting in the context of the album’s title is an excerpt from Marguerite Hussenard’s essay “Mishima ou la vision du vide” (“Mishima, or the Gateway to the Void”), in which she talks about the life path of the characters from the tetralogy “Sea of Plenty” (1968-70): “One can only guess whether this Nothingness, which, perhaps, acted as the nada of the Spanish mystics, completely coincides with what we call rien in French.” And therefore, the question remains open whether this mystical Emptiness is being talked about in the esoteric and very personal lyrics of DIJ songs, such as, for example, “Crush My Soul”:

Like empty shells

Just emptiness […]

Before publishing “Nada!” The first changes in the composition of Death in June occurred - Tony Wakeford left the group, which happened right during the European tour. There are still only rumors about the exact reasons for this action; there is an assumption that this is connected with the far-right views (and activities?) of Wakeford, which Pierce had an extremely negative attitude towards. Wakeford himself either does not comment on this issue, or limits himself to vague explanations: “Some rumors simply appeared out of thin air, others, to be fair, carried a reasonable grain. If you believe the rumors spread by some people, then I was the leader of the “Aryan assault group for the destruction of baby seals.” In reality, I was interested in the occult - in particular, runes - and, I must admit, I had a craving for some other, more or less acceptable and meaningful things. What was actually hidden under the “craving” for such things can only be guessed at. Perhaps these were some kind of political interests, or perhaps by these words Wakeford meant temporary work as a drug dealer in the mid-80s. For the subsequent work of Death In June and for Wakeford's new project Sol Invictus, this past - from which Wakeford today vigorously distances himself - had no meaning.

Along with folk notes, on the album “Nada!” You can also find other, completely new musical elements - electronic rhythms, synthesizer inclusions and effects. Tracks such as “Rain Of Despair” (called “Christine The Lizard” in previous shows) or “Foretold” are filled with an unusually cold and dead atmosphere that could be described as Cold Wave. On the contrary, the track “C’est un Reve” can be safely attributed to modern industrial - in this song, hypnotizing looped samples are superimposed on a complex rhythm and complemented by seemingly controversial lyrics about the war criminal, SS man Klaus Barbie:

Ou est Klaus Barbie?

Il est dans le coeur

Il est dans le coeur noir

C'est un reve.

Looking back, Patrick Ligas noted: "Doug wasn't singing a paean to the man's actions, the track merely suggests that many, if not all of us, are, under certain circumstances, willing to engage in violence, or at least violent fantasies; that doesn't necessarily make a person a monster, whereas Barbie obviously was." Ligas' time with Death in June was also coming to an end, and he left the band in early 1985 as he was "standing on the edge of a cliff that continued to grow larger for several years." As one might expect, various contradictory statements and rumors also spread about this departure. In a later interview, Ligas cited one event that happened on the Nada! tour as the main reason for leaving the group: “We played a concert in Bologna and had already left the stage when a girl came up to us and shouted: “I hope your mother hates you!” » We wore SS uniforms in a city where far-right terrorists were massacring innocent people. I felt ashamed of myself, so I left Death in June immediately after the tour." This departure took place in an atmosphere of friendly understanding; Piers later said that he himself knew nothing about the Bologna incident, so he was offended by Ligas's departure and portrayed it as if Patrick left at Douglas's request: "I felt that we had different views, and I wanted him to leave the group." In 1985, Ligas founded his own project, Sixth Comm, which we will explore in the next chapter. Possible disputes between him and Piers about the unauthorized publication of archival DIJ material on Patrick's Eyas label (for example, Oh How We Laughed) quickly fizzled out; in 1998, on the occasion of a concert in London, there was even a short unification of the original line-up of DIJ “Pierce/Wakeford/Ligas”; In April 2005, Douglas and Patrick also performed together in London to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nada!

From now on, other musicians in DIJ are assigned only a guest role - regardless of how much work they perform. First among them for Pierce was, without a doubt, David Tibet, who from 1983 until the early 90s belonged to the closest circle of friends of Douglas Pierce. They met when David and other members of the band Psychic TV - of which Piers was a fan - attended one of the first DIJ concerts in London. Tibet takes part in the production of “Nada!” and contributes to Pearce's compilation From Torture To Conscience (the cover of which features the Dachau Holocaust memorial), serving primarily as a lyricist: lyrics for "Behind The Rose", "She Said Destroy" and "The Torture" Garden” were mostly written by him. The title of the last track refers to the novel “Le Jardin des Supplices” (1899) by the French decadent Octave Mirbeau. In this novel, the heroine becomes sexually attracted to traditional Chinese methods of torture and capital punishment. Tibet's lyrics are more of an apocalyptic interpretation of Nietzsche's maxim "The Will to Power."

In addition to Tibet, on the next major publication - the 2-LP “The World That Summer” (1986) - Pierce was assisted only by Andrea James from the English avantgarde-ambient group Somewhere in Europe (Pearce released several of their discs on his NER label in the early 90s X). The title of the album is inspired by the German television film “Die Welt in jenem Sommer” (1979, directed by Ilse Hofmann), which, in turn, is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name (1960) by Robert Müller: “The film takes place in 1936 in Nazi Germany, in Hamburg , it seems to me. It tells the story of a boy who lives in those years. He is fascinated by the Olympic Games that are taking place at that time. The time has come to join the Hitler Youth. However, he hesitates between his Jewish grandmother and his “Aryan” family, not understanding what is more important to him. Eventually, this conflict becomes too much for him to bear, causing him to reject everyone and everything until he becomes completely apathetic. The film interested me because it is ambiguous and confusing, plus I am fascinated by this section of history. There were presented several conflicts that had previously happened to me.”

However, The World That Summer (or The Wörld Thät Sümmer) is not a concept album in the truest sense of the word, even though all the tracks on it share a common theme. Musically, the album features simple, melodic, almost pop folk songs such as “Torture By Roses” (the song's title refers to the English edition of Barakei, a book published in 1963 with photographs of Mishima by Eikon Hosoe, in which the Japanese photographer presented himself in a variety of poses: from militant to erotic), “Come Before Christ And Murder Love” and “Break The Black Ice” (the ease of perception of which is adjacent to an aura of deep melancholy and despair), and sometimes aggressive, tracks diluted with electronic sound (“Rule Again”, “Blood Victory”, “Hidden Among The Leaves”). The last-mentioned track title is a translation of the Japanese word Hagakure, the title of an early 18th century essay by Tsunetomo Yamamoto that summarized the ethical values and norms of the samurai and was of some value to Yukio Mishima.

The voluminous work of Mishima (1925-1970) (along with the works of the homosexual writer Jacques Genet, discussed below), Pierce’s favorite writer and the most famous Japanese writer in the West, tells, first of all, “about the decline of beauty, the destructiveness of death, which in his works is inseparable from pleasure." The unity of love and death, pen and sword, was for the writer, who hated Japan absorbing everything Western (however, he had nothing against Western culture itself!), something more than just an artistic image for novels and photographs: he founded a private military organization and attempted a putsch (rather understood as a symbol of cultural protest), after the expected failure of which he committed seppuku, a ritual suicide, together with his friend. The lyrics on The World That Summer, written by Tibet and Pierce (Tibet appears on the album under the Crowleyan-Kabbalistic pseudonym Christ 777), have explicit magical and mythological ideas and references. Incomprehensible images hide personal experiences (“Rocking Horse Night”, “Break The Black Ice”) and themes characteristic of the DIJ concept: loss, war, love, faith. Standing apart is the fifteen-minute sound collage “Death Of a Man”, which takes place under a ritual drumbeat; the track is full of various effects and samples. You can hear, for example, the anthem of the Shield Society, Mishima’s private military organization, snippets of dialogue from French films, the song by Hans Albers and Heinz Rühmann “Jawoll, meine Herr’n” from the film “Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war” shot by the UFA film studio "(1937), which also sounds at the very beginning of the film "Die Welt in jenem Sommer". Peirce's depressing murmur of loss of idealism was fueled by numerous personal problems that arose during this period (the end of a long-term relationship being an example):

In our Shroud of Regrets

Where Wars of Idealism

Are Fought – And Lost!

To the Bitter Angels of our Nature.

The title of the track again refers to a photo album with photographs of Mishima (Otoko No Shi, by Kishiro Shinoyama, 1970), as well as to the death of the French writer Jacques Genet (1910-1986), which Douglas learns about during the recording of the track. Like Mishima, Genet had a significant influence on Pearce - along with plays and essays, he wrote five novels, written mostly while in prison, which dealt with themes of homosexuality, crime and betrayal, and fell somewhere between explicit (sexual) realism and poetic idealization.

The 1987 album “Brown Book” turned out to be more complete musically than its predecessor. The electronic-experimental aspect is limited here to just a few tracks (“We Are The Lust”, performed by John Balance of Coil, and “Punishment Initiation,” performed by David Tibet). The album is dominated by melodic folk-pop songs, simple in structure, in which Pearce's insinuating singing is occasionally diluted by the light voice of Rose McDowell. The lyrics still contain references to the works of Genet (“To Drown a Rose” and “The Fog Of The World” with quotes from the novel “Pompes Funebres”, 1947) and Mishima (“Burn Again”; the minimalist guitar canvas is reminiscent of film scores created by Ennio Morricone, which Douglas greatly appreciated). In addition, Pierce's fascination with magical principles and Norse mythology becomes increasingly clear - he sings about “Runes And Men”, and the lyrics of the song “Hail! The White Grain" is a paraphrase of the Hagal rune fragment from the Anglo-Saxon rune poem (circa 11th century). Here's what Pierce himself had to say about the title of the album and his attitude to the teachings of the runes: “Runes had a very strong influence on me. They hide a certain power within themselves that can be released. They really work, I have no doubt about it. […] The idea for the Brown Book album came to me towards the end of its recording. I wanted to give it an ambiguous name and it would be a safe move. We were sitting with Tibet in a cafe not far from here [London] when Steve Stapleton came up to us. From his bag he took out a book that he wanted to show us - a Braunbuch edition found in a trash can. The strange thing was that he didn’t know then what my new album would be called (Brown Book)! Amazing case! To this day, this book remains on my shelf at home. He gave it to me, thereby confirming once again that I had chosen the right path for myself, and that magical powers favor me.” Braunbuch (“Brown Book”) is a register of Nazi war criminals who still occupied a high position in Germany (the book was divided into several chapters, such as, for example, “Gestapo, SS and SD in the State and economics", "Hitler's Fifth Column in Bonn" and "The Spiritual Fathers of Genocide are Poisoning the Public Again"); however, even before the Second World War, various “brown books” were already in circulation, which were published by the Committees and told about the state of affairs in Nazi Germany. Behind the legendary title track of the album, “Brown Book”, lies Horst Wessel's SA anthem, which was performed by Ian Reid (see below). Sol Invictus and Fire+Ice) acapella in German. The song is preceded by an excerpt from the film “Die Welt in jenem Sommer”, in which the above-mentioned Jewish grandmother allegorically describes the oppressive situation that existed at that time:

“There was a river here, and the girl saved herself by crossing over floating ice floes. However, the ice floes gradually became smaller and slowly melted. And then she was carried downstream, along with the stormy stream. The same thing is happening now. Crossing the ice floes, we end up drowning.”

Towards the middle of the track, one can hear (also an excerpt from the film) the mocking voice of an SA officer calling all SS members "faggots"; Pierce wanted to highlight the obvious irony of this statement. Despite all the contradictions and connections presented, the performance of Horst Wessel's song is often perceived as proof of the right-wing radical views of the group members. However, a similar reproach should apply to the group Current 93, who used the same song (and an authentic recording from the days of National Socialism) on their album Imperium, released around the same time. Pearce himself called the track an interpretive trap: “I love the fact that people fall into this trap. It all looks like a movie. And this is the only case when I deliberately wanted to create a provocation.” These provocative intentions will manifest themselves again in the remix of the track on the ’91 compilation “Cathedral Of Tears” (on one of them, since there are several editions): the Horst Wessel song is no longer there; the central position is occupied by the image of a Jewish grandmother, which, according to Pierce, reflects one of the “common views on life” (As a small note, it is worth noting that the influential American blues musician John Fahey in his track “Requiem For Molly” from the album “ Requia" from 1968, long before DIJ and C93 (20 years before these groups appeared), mixed a melancholic guitar sound with fragments of a Horst Wessel song; Yves Montand and Milva also used the song - first as counterpoint to a Resistance song, then as a parody on Bertolt Brecht).

"Runes And Men" is one of Death In June's most notable and at the same time most controversial songs. Controversial, because Piers here dreams of incomprehensible “greater times”, while drinking “German wine”, while in the background, along with the cheerful tune of Rose McDowall, a speech is heard, but not of Hitler - as is often mistakenly believed from -for the strong similarity of voices - and Adolf Wagner, the Munich Gauleiter (sample from the film “Triumph des Willens” by Leni Riefenstahl). Wagner justifies the massacre of the stormtroopers in his speech by allegorizing that the revolution could not lead “to a complete monarchy.”

The following years for Pierce were marred by difficult personal problems: “I was completely lost. […] I was dead, spiritually empty, when I returned [from Australia to England]. In October 1989 I almost reached my complete oblivion." However, in 1989, the limited edition album “The Wall Of Sacrifice” was released. The album's title, a noise collage of the same name (Nikolas Schreck of Trash-Goth band Radio Werewolf helped create it), refers to Pierce's prophetic dream. The ten-minute title track contains numerous samples that correspond to the controversial concept of DIJ: along with original recordings of songs such as “Heil dir, mein Brandenburger Land”, excerpts from “Die Welt in jenem Sommer” (“Freut euch des Lebens”) and the previously mentioned documentary “Shoah”. “Giddy Giddy Carousel,” at least musically, is a marked contrast to the first song: acoustic guitars, drums, Rose McDowall's sweetly naïve singing, and Mishima-influenced lyrics all add up to a light folk-ish vibe. song. Next comes the melancholy ballad “Fall Apart,” which rightfully belongs to DIJ’s most famous tracks: a simple but effective guitar chord serves as the only accompaniment to Pierce’s sonorous voice. The lyrics to "Fall Apart" talk about the end of love:

And if I fall from Dreams

All my Prayers are Silenced

To Love is to lose

And to lose is to Die…

And why did you say

That things shall fall

And fall and fall and fall

Songs such as “In Sacrilege” (with Tibet singing vocals here) and “Hullo Angel” are structured musically similarly; the latter appears in a slightly modified form on Current93's album "Swastikas For Noddy". “Bring In The Night,” on the other hand, combines militantly menacing drum beats with feedback; to this accompaniment, Boyd Rice delivers his monologue about “the all-encompassing power of destruction that is inherent in the force of life.” The album ends with the noise orgy “Death Is A Drummer”, consisting of a bunch of samples.

In the late 80s/early 90s, Douglas visited the USA and Australia - where he later emigrated; During this period, he collaborated with Boyd Rice (album “Music, Martinis & Misanthropy”) and Current 93 (participating in work on several albums). In addition, in 1992, Pierce released the album “Ostenbraun”, created together with the French group “Les Joyaux De La Princesse”. After overcoming some creative block, that same year Pierce released a landmark album representing a musical milestone in neofolk: But, What Ends When The Symbols Shatter? According to Pierce himself, post-industrial elements in DIJ’s work have outlived their usefulness, so he decided to head for pure, atmospheric folk. Despite the still reigning melancholy and sadness, some melodies stand out from the general outline of the album, presenting themselves in a more optimistic and accessible form than before - beauty reigns here on a hitherto unknown scale. Guitars dominate each track, complemented by airy keyboard passages and subdued percussion. Also appearing on the album is David Tibet, who provides the lyrics for two songs, “Daedalus Rising” and “This Is Not Paradise,” the latter sung in both English and French (the booklet provides lyrics in English, French, Italian and German, which Peirce understood as a European gesture). In addition to Tibet, the following people took part in the creation of the album: James Mannox (Current 93, Sol invictus) and Michael Cashmore (Nature and Organization); the latter was responsible for the music and keyboards for the song “Giddy Edge Of Light” - Pierce met him while working together on the Current 93 albums. Simon Norris played a special role on this album and subsequent publications. Norris in the late 80s belonged to the entourage of the Psychic TV group and the associated magical organization “Temple Of Thee Psychic Youth”; During the recording of the album “Thunder Perfect Mind” (Current 93), he meets Pierce. Simon subsequently helps Pierce record some of the tracks, playing melodica, vibraphone and keyboards. Norris then briefly collaborated with Fire+Ice, after which he joined the groups Coil and Cyclobe.

The curious thing about the album “But, What Ends...” is that the tracks “He's Disabled”, “Because Of Him” and “Little Black Angel”, despite their musical and lyrical continuity with the chosen concept of the album, are based on songs written by the leader Guyanese sect by Jim Jones for his religious services. This sect was active in the 70s, until 913 of its members, under the direction of Jones, committed mass suicide in 1978. Pierce made some changes to the album's lyrics, turning Christian chants into typical DIJ tracks, which should be perceived as a critique of religious fanaticism, seasoned with a good dose of dark humor. The situation is similar with the track “Ku Ku Ku”, based on Pierce’s dream in which he witnessed the appearance of Charles Manson on a television show... The title song “But, What Ends...” is a melancholy reflection on loneliness and satiety with life, as well as about the hope of overcoming it; The track itself looks like a light folk-pop song:

When life is but disappointment

And “nothing” is amusing

The one wild hunt

Is a life without God

Is an end without love

And soulless tomorrow […]

Oh, we struggle for the Joy

That life is haunted by […]

But, What ends when the symbols shatter?

And, who knows what happens to hearts?

October 1992: Death in June (Pearce/Norris) are the first British band to play in Croatia since the Balkan conflict. The result of this trip was the double album “Something Is Coming”, which included a recording of an acoustic concert in Zagreb and a small performance for a local radio station. A significant portion of the profits goes directly to the Zagreb hospital “Klinički Bolnički Centar”, which treats wounded civilians and military personnel (including from Serbia): “the grim look of armless and legless men, women and children made an indelible impression on me. I realized that I had to do something. The proceeds from the double LP/CD Something Is Coming, recorded in Croatia, went towards purchasing various equipment for the hospital. This action was interpreted as support for the “warmongers”, and the concert itself as a fascist “death hoax”. There were also rumors surrounding Pierce's visit to the Croatian headquarters of the military organization HOS, prompted by the fact that it was located in the building of a former gay club, and that these were exactly the people who, in the event of hostilities at the front, where he once located, they could provide sufficient protection. The organization HOS (Hrvatske Obrambene Snage), based on the traditions of the fascist Ustasa movement, was at that time a “vinaigrette” of volunteer defenders of Croatia, among which there were many foreign mercenaries and far-rightists. Peirce himself said nothing about these historical connections; he himself pointed only to the “atmosphere of extreme discipline” at the then headquarters, consisting of people “enchanting with their surreal elegance.” It is also interesting “that none of the Croats who were accused of war crimes were members of any existing Croatian paramilitary forces, with the exception of the Croatian Army - so many children and civilians were massacred by the “Nazis” from the HOS.” Since there are still many legends and speculations about the visit to Croatia and the concert in Zagreb (in particular, about its possibly fascist, death-glorifying nature), we decided to ask a couple of questions to Tomi Edvard Sega, the vocalist of one of the most famous Croatian Gothic band Phantasmagoria, DJ in all the Zagreb clubs where DIJ has performed over the years. He also took part in the Someting Is Coming concert.

TomiEdwardSega

What kind of audience was there at the concert in Zagreb in 1992 – soldiers, “typical” neofolk fans, goths, punks, ordinary people?

At the Jabuka club in Zagreb in 1992, Death In June played to a mostly alternative audience (possibly including a few soldiers, but not in uniform), people who could be described as goths or darkwavers. Tickets for the concert were completely sold out; I did not see any Nazis among the audience. The Croatian Nazis did not listen to DIJ; at that time they did not even know about the existence of such a group. After this concert, DIJ performed in other Zagreb clubs: twice in Gjuro II (a regular club with a wide variety of concerts) and twice in the popular (anti-fascist) alternative club Mochvara. There were no incidents at the DIJ concert in Zagreb, and no one associated these concerts with any kind of “Nazi ritual”. People didn't see them as a Nazi band, so they had no problem performing in Croatia. Perhaps a small number of people thought differently, but that doesn’t matter.

How can you describe the Jabuka club, what events take place there?

Jabuka is very famous here, it is one of the oldest alternative clubs in Zagreb. It's been around since the late 60s, but its most important time was the early 80s, when it hosted the first Dark-Wave and Alternative events; they could be said to have popularized the "dark scene" in Zagreb. Jabuka hosted a variety of bands, be it rock, punk, Metal or Gothic - bands such as White Zombie, Carter Usm, Inca Babies, Pankow, Uk Subs, The Vibrators... In general, a variety of bands from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Macedonia, representing different musical styles and directions.”

At the beginning of 1995, DIJ’s most musically mature work appeared on the market - the album “Rose Clouds Of Holocaust”. Some critics compared it to Scott Walker's Tilt; parallels were also drawn with the work of Leonard Cohen. With the help of instruments such as vibraphone, melodica and trumpet, fragile-intimate music is created, which has a closed, hermetic character. As on the album “But, What Ends...”, here the mystical appearance of folk music is revealed, which leaves behind all fashionable views, and can hardly be interpreted in the context of any existing musical movement. On “13 Years Of Carrion,” for example, Campbell Finley’s trumpet and Norris’s vibraphone give the soft music a jazzy edge. The lyrics - although the predominant theme on the album seems to be love - are heavily cryptic and metaphorical, as evidenced by the song titles "God's Golden Sperm", "Omen-Filled Season" and "Symbols Of The Sun". Tracks like "Luther's Army" made the music so easy and accessible to listeners that some reviewers even suggested that Pierce was in search of the perfect pop song. Tibet was again featured on the album - this time he wrote and performed the song “Jerusalem The Black”, which, with its biblical allusions to black Jerusalem and golden Babylon, looks no less encrypted than Pierce’s own lyrics. The track ends with a fragment from the score of the Italian feature film “Il Portiere di Notte” (“The Night Porter”, 1973). This controversial film, directed by Fellini's student Liliana Cavani, tells the story of the boundless, all-consuming love between a former concentration camp guard (played by Dirk Bogarde) and the daughter of a (Jewish?) socialist (Charlotte Rampling); In the concentration camp they shared a sadomasochistic relationship, which was repeated again during a chance meeting in Vienna in 1957 - with fatal consequences.

The title track "Rose Clouds Of Holocaust" is highly divisive; Pierce, for example, has been accused of glorifying the burning of homosexuals during the Third Reich, or of exploiting a particularly cynical version of Holocaust revisionism (“pink clouds” from concentration camp smokestacks?) However, such interpretations are far-fetched for many reasons: the musicians involved (Norris, McDowall, Tibet, who formulated the title) would certainly disagree with these interpretations; in English, the term Holocaust means primarily mass destruction, and can also be used in an outdated sense as “ritual sacrifice” - the song is inspired by the solstice festival in Iceland; Finally, the lyrics themselves – unlike the early “Heaven Street” – do not directly refer to the Holocaust:

Rose clouds of holocaust

Rose clouds of flies

Rose clouds of bitterness

Bitter, bitter lies

And, when the angels of ignorance

Fall down from your eyes

Rose clouds of holocaust

Rose clouds of lies…

Rose clouds of twilight truth

Rose clouds of night

Rose clouds of harvested

Love, all alight

And when the ashes of life

Fall down from the skies

Rose clouds of holocaust

Rose clouds of lies…

And, festivals end

As festivals must

From the hooded crows of Rome

To the falcons of Zagreb

Oh, mother victim of Jesus

Lie down in Sydney's dust

For festivals end

As festivals must

Here's what Peirce thinks about historical revisionism: “I have no revisionist tendencies. I think revisionism is a waste of time. Facts are facts. Truth is truth." The previously released single “Sun Dogs” is no less criticized - the cover of which contains a left-handed swastika made up of dog heads and complemented by a rose in the center. In this dubious, ambiguously interpreted graphic one can find a clear sign of Peirce's alleged ideology; The question then remains as to why Peirce would need to embellish his political message in such a surreal way and hide it, not to mention who would even take it seriously in this form.

In 1994, Pierce recorded the song “My Black Diary” for the debut album of Michael Cashmore’s band Nature And Organisation; Subsequently, this song in a modified form (in fact, the only thing these two versions have in common is the lyrics) appears on the compilation “Im Blutfeuer”. In 1995, the EP “Death in June presents Occidental Martyr” was released, on which Douglas collaborated with Australian actor Max Wearing (he can be seen in the anti-war film Gallipoli (1981) with Mel Gibson). Wearing recites lyrics from The World That Summer, Brown Book and Rose Clouds of Holocaust, while Douglas adds a cacophonous background that ranges from organ drones to blaring sirens and Beach Boys samples. In the same year, Pearce and Wearing collaborated with the Croatian techno-rave project Future Shock 2001 (their voices can be heard on some tracks) - perhaps the most commercial project in which Douglas could be heard so far, since these tracks won, at least the Croatian charts... Max Wearing, aka Occidental Martyr, published in 2001 under the name De Valsiginto the disc “Herooj Kaj Martiroj” with Australian music and lyrics in Esperanto; Douglas Pierce also made a small guest appearance on the album. In 1996, Douglas collaborated with Richard "Leviathan" Levy of the Australian band Strength Through Joy (later Ostara), whose first album he released and published on his NER label, entitled "Death in June presents Kapo!", reflecting Croatian events. The lyrics link this theme to well-known concepts of European thought (“Only Europa Knows”) and mystical references to the Black Sun (“Lullaby To A Ghetto”), along with succinct condemnations of atrocities in the former Yugoslavia:

So, This is your Life

This is your World

In a Lullaby To A Ghetto

Where are you Murder Boys And Girls.

The symbol of the Black Sun has accompanied humanity for thousands of years, appearing in different forms. It appears not only as an oxymoron in the poems of Nerval and Mandelstam; Kadmon (Allerseelen), for example, found it in Egyptian and Aztec cosmology, in the revelations of John, gnosis and alchemy, in the works of Lautreamont and Artaud, in the writings of Crowley, in the Coil tracks and in chaos magic, as well as in the ornamentation of Wewelsburg Castle, located near Paderborn, which Himmler wanted to make the holy grail castle for the SS. In general, careful differentiation should be made so that neofolk groups and far-right associations are not lumped together, since the latter (based only on the above point) are tearing the Black Sun out of its general historical and occult context, using it as a political identification sign.

Performed in English and German, the experimental track "Headhunter" was apparently inspired by Genet's novel "Pompes Funebres". Musically, “Kapo!” linked to DIJ's two previous albums; new instruments - violins and cellos - smoothly complement the sound, and instrumental tracks such as “A Sad Place To Make A Shadow” and “Wolf Wind – Reprise” help create a film-musical atmosphere. Leviathan's spoken word song, “The Rat And The Eucharist,” refers in part to Ernst Jünger's On Marble Cliffs (1939), which criticizes the horrors of NS rule in parable form and warns of the outbreak of World War II: “ On the marble cliffs, above the waves / Beneath the rising inferno of History.” "Kapo!" - this is the Italian name for those concentration camp prisoners who (often falling under repression) represented a link between the camp leadership and the rest of the prisoners. Richard Leviathan about it: "the theme of the collaboration reflects the facets of the European catastrophe: the album advocates empathy, awareness of the war, understanding its origins in the European context." Douglas puts it in a more allegorical manner: “To me the term Kapo refers to the prisoners who guarded the prisoners. We are all our own guardians. We all build our own little chambers around us.” The symbiosis of rather depressing music and lyrics with the CD's artwork - including obituaries of Christians and Muslims killed in the war - produced "one of the most profound and odious artistic sketches on the theme of the Balkan war", highlighting the "contradictory versatility" of the group DIJ.

Also in 1996, the double LP album “Heaven Sent” by the Scorpion Wind project (see Boyd Rice/NON) was released, which is something of a continuation of the album “Music, Martinis & Misanthropy”; It features Pierce and Rice collaborating with noise percussionist John Murphy (the latter has been the drummer for DIJ's live performances in the new millennium). This is followed by DIJ's massive tour with NON and Strength Through Joy across North America, Europe and Australia. At a concert in Munich in 1996, Douglas met the Austrian musician and reveler Albin Julius (The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud, der Blutharsch), and along with a common passion for alcoholic beverages, they discovered a desire for joint musical collaboration. As a result of this symbiosis, the album “Take Care & Control” was released in 1998, which represents a slight departure from the line taken by DIJ in the 90s. The magically hermetic atmosphere is diluted with a (self-)ironic mood, and militant rhythms and synthetic instrumentation replace the mystical folk that could be heard on the albums “But, What Ends” and “Rose Clouds of Holocaust” (only in the track “Kameradschaft” can hear the sounds of an acoustic guitar in the background). Some critics wrote about this album that it belongs more to the creations of Albin Julius' project Der Blutharsch than to the works of DIJ, but Douglas himself had a different opinion on this matter: “'Kapo!' served only as a trigger for my collaborations, but not for him lacked that emotional, tonal and psychic quality inherent in DIJ. 'Take Care And Control' met all of these conditions, so I had no choice but to classify it as DIJ's new album."

The new songs continue to be rich in samples from various sources: “Smashed To Bits (In The Peace Of The Night)” includes fragments from Rainer Fassbinder’s film adaptation of Genet’s novel “Querelle de Brest”; French actress Jeanne Moreau performs a chanson, and the text is taken as a basis from Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” - “Each man kills the thing he loves.” In the marching song “Power Has A Fragnance” you can hear samples from Fassbinder’s film “Eine Reise ins Licht – Despair” (1997), interspersed with samples from Bogarde’s films. Along with reminiscences from Fassbinder and Bogarde, the booklet also encourages listeners to remember these deceased gay icons. German samples of speeches (“Gegen dich” - “Against you”, “Jeder Frevel, Verbrechen, jede Untat ist der Zweck” - “every atrocity, crime, every murder is a goal”), fragments of a funeral march from Wagner’s “Twilight of the Gods” , as well as small self-quotations in such a heap can only be understood as an expression of irony - in places it is impossible to escape the impression that “Take Care & Control” is a deliberate parody of the aesthetic concept of DIJ, even taking into account the fact that the titles “A Slaughter Of Roses” , “The Odin Hour” and “Wolfangel” seem to correspond to the old artistic image.

This is even more true of the album “Operation Hummingbird” released in 1999, which continues the line of its predecessor; the tracks for it were recorded around the same time as "Take Care & Control". Some of the tracks are lyrically and atmospherically related to old recordings, but this album also features completely different material that looks like a negation of previous aesthetic requirements. The same applies to the photos of the band in the booklet (and to the design of the Live-CD "Heilige!" released in the same year). Pierce's vocals moved into the background, the guitars disappeared. Music critics concluded that DIJ went a different route: “those who drink champagne every day and sunbathe in the hot sun (or in a solarium) will love this album even more.” The self-irony here seems partly as a reaction to the constant accusations that DIJ spreads far-right thoughts under the guise of his creativity; after the band was banned from performing in Lausanne, DIJ recorded the song “Gorilla Tactics” (Der Blutharsch, Fire+Ice and NON still performed in Lausanne on 11/19/1998. This incident created some buzz around DIJ, and many groups, individuals and journalists expressed their solidarity with Pierce).

In 2001, the album “All Pigs Must Die” was released, which continued the line established by the tracks “The Only Good Neighbor” (from the collection “The Pact... Flying In The Face”, 1995) and “Unconditional Armistice” (from the collection “Der Tod” Im Juni", 1999): short, melodic folk songs, almost reminiscent of pop songs of the 60s, with hateful, cynical lyrics. Pearce's resentment is directed against the owners of the World-Serpent label, with whom he was involved in a lengthy legal battle related to royalties, album publishing rights, etc., which was ultimately decided in his favor (“We Said Destroy”, or WSD for short – an abbreviation for World Serpent Distribution – a noise track published a year earlier on the Split single of the same name with Fire+Ice, apparently indicating this case). The damn album acted as an outlet for Pierce's pent-up frustration - hardly any other album had as much lyrical malice as this one: the owners of World Serpent are referred to here as the "three little piggies" who must be killed. However, Alan Trench of WSD, despite the existing quarrels, supported this dark humor, expressing the opinion that the curse contained in the album missed the mark and caused the foot and mouth disease that raged in England in 2001 (three years later, however, WSD declared bankruptcy )…According to widespread rumors, the album "All Pigs Must Die" was an "anti-Semitic piece of work" aimed not at the World Serpent, but at the "kids": a false conclusion drawn from a malicious joke published in the C93 mailing list, apparently not without the help of the World-Serpent environment.

The sarcastic titles of the tracks simultaneously reveal their content in terms of lyrics: “All Pigs Must Die”, “Disappear In Every Way” and “Lords Of The Sties”. Douglas references Charles Manson (“Some Night We’re Going To Party Like It’s 1969” – an allusion to the Tate-LaBianca murder and Prince’s famous hit “1999”); The album's title is similar to George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass". Musically, the first six songs benefit from accordion – led by Andreas Ritter of the German band Forseti – and Campbell Finley trumpet; Also for the first time since the release of The Wall Of Sacrifice, Boyd Rice appears on a DIJ album on vocals. The rest of the album consists of menacing noise collages and rather strange moments, such as samples of the national holiday of German Australians, as well as Pearce's funny attempts to convey the "message" of the album in German. Even taking into account the partial return to folk, the more or less funny design and content of the disc, one thing becomes clear - the former level and former atmosphere, as on “But, What Ends...” or “Rose Clouds...”, are not here. The situation is similar with the joint works of Pierce and Boyd Rice - “Wolf Pact” and “Alarm Agents”. A collection of old hard-to-find songs and new DIJ recordings is available on the compilation "The Abandon Tracks" (2005).

Anyway, let's get back to history. To understand DIJ, one must consider the appearance and repeated use of metaphors. The appearance of the publications goes hand in hand with the content - roses, runes and masculine beauty should be understood as the cornerstone of the entire DIJ aesthetic. We have already looked at the runes - we will return to them in more detail in Chapter III. Roses are flowers with a variety of mythical and mystical connotations; they are used for rebirth in a ritual sense, and appear symbolically in both medieval and Arabic-Persian poetry. In the context of DIJ, roses appear both in lyrics (“Behind The Rose”, “Torture By Roses”, “To Drown A Rose”, “A Slaughter Of Roses”), as well as in band photographs and album covers (two are sought after among collectors the first editions of the "The World That Summer" LP, which feature a luxuriously embossed rose on the protective sleeve). For DIJ, what is important, first of all, is the meaning attached to the rose in the works of Jean Genet. In “Miracle de la Rose” (1946), Genet writes, for example, that the rose symbolizes “love, friendship, death - and silence” - all these images are found in Pierce’s lyrics and play an important role. In addition, the phallic and anal layout of the cover of “Rose Clouds Of Holocaust” will not escape the attentive observer.

Pierce's homosexuality has already been mentioned, and this point is important because many aspects of DIJ's work have (meta-)erotic implications. Connected with this is a passion for the camouflage uniform, in which Douglas loved to perform, and a slight sadomasochistic shade of symbols, such as, for example, the logo, which first appeared in the mid-80s and is a leather glove with a whip, and even lyrics like, for example, “Death is The Martyr Of Beauty” (from the album “But, What Ends...”):

Drunk with the nectar of submission

I feel nothing more that existence.

A loneliness that will not come off

In the narcissism of the harbour.[…]

This text has direct references to Jean Genet: the expression "narcissism of the harbor" is taken directly from the book Querelle de Brest, the hagiography of the charming sailor Querelle, who through murder and humiliation achieves apotheosis. The fetishization of militant, masculine beauty, which is reflected in the works of Pierce's main mentors Genet and Mishima (as well as in some areas of the homosexual subculture), is conveyed through photographs of militant-looking - but often androgynous - statues on album covers such as “The Cathedral of Tears”, “But, What Ends...” and “Rose Clouds Of Holocaust”, whose heroism is closely related to the homoerotic lyrics of the tracks: “The Fog Of The World”, “Runes And Men” and “The Honor Of Silence”. Occasionally, DIJ (and also der Blutharsch, NON and Blood Axis) - without any specific reasons for this and despite the fact that in all these projects women also played an important role - shows its affinity for male unions, where “femininity was perceived as a danger, and connections with a woman were seen as dirt - as a fall into something base, instinctive. This meaning is consistent with Pierce's open admission of homosexuality."

Particularly important for the DIJ concept, the connection between sexuality, loneliness and sadness is manifested in the track “The Honor Of Silence”:

He stood like Jesus

He smells like Heaven

His eyes were Winter.

The March of the Lonely […]

My tall stranger

Cry from your body

The strength and the cruelty

In your gentle nature.

We honor the silence between ourselves.[…]

Quite often used - which was a very risky and bold move - the DIJ logo is a slightly modified SS Totenkopf ("Death's Head") symbol, which adorned, in particular, albums of the late 80s. The skull symbolizes death, the number 6 in the emblem is the number of the month of June; The logo is a kind of reflection of the name of the group. In addition, the image of a whip and camouflage uniform, along with the name of the group, adds sexual motivation to these symbols, as is done, for example, in sadomasically oriented gay bars in America (see also some erotic drawings of Tom of Finland and skinhead paintings of Attila Richard Lukas). The six in the logo may also be derived from "Prisoner Number 6" from Douglas's beloved English television series The Prisoner (samples from that series are used on the 1989 EP 93 Dead Sunwheels); the prisoner draws the following conclusion about himself: “I am not just a number!” (this sample was also used by the legendary English Metal band Iron Maiden). The Totenkopf symbol can also be seen as a cipher for both Pierce's absolute devotion to his DIJ project and his actively proclaimed independence (in other words: Douglas simply uses this symbol, regardless of any reaction). Sexual, magical and historical references form the background to the numbering of various publications released on Pierce's own NER (New European Recordings) label, which has an interesting history. In addition to DIJ, Fire+Ice, Strength Through Joy and Occidental Martyr, NER published not only the first vinyl records Legendary Pink Dots (Brighter Now, 1985) and In The Nursery (Sonority-EP, 1985), but also the works Joy Of Life (English post-punk band formed by Gary Carey, who appeared on DIJ/C93 albums), Clair Obscur (French Cold Wave pioneers who went on to make a name for themselves in avant-garde chanson and theater music), Somewhere in Europe (English a duo heavily influenced by Dadaism and surrealism, creating ambient sound collages; Pearce assisted the group with the CD "Gestures", 1992 and the CD "The Iron Trees Are In Full Bloom", 1994), Tehom and Splinter Test. The title of the Croatian project Tehom (CD “Despiritualisation Of Nature”, 1996; “Theriomorphic Spirits”, 2000) - which can be classified as atonal ritual music and behind which was Siniša Ocuršcak, who died as a result of military shock - refers to the Hebrew equivalent of the Sumerian absu and Scandinavian ginnungagap, which means “primordial water” or “most ancient abyss”. Pierce even recorded and released the Avantgarde-Technoid album Sulfur (1997) of P-Orridge's Splinter Test project. Between 1994 and 2002, the albums “Nada!”, “Brown Book”, “The Wall Of Sacrifice” and “Not Guilty And Proud” were released in a new edition - in the form of a Picture-LP with works by the Italian artist Enrico Chiarparin, who also collaborated with Sol Invictus and Current 93. In 1993, an exhibition entitled “The Dusk Of Hope” was held in Milan, which, along with the works of Chiarparin, also showed photographic works of Pierce (Chiarparin has since worked with many eminent fashion designers - such as Calvin Klein and Donna Karan).

An invariable attribute of all DIJ performances is a mask, which, apparently, has a symbolic, magical, shamanic character. As Pierce himself said: “DIJ has always worn a mask - and will continue to do so. This expresses DIJ’s contempt for the entire world.” If in the photo in the booklet for “Nada!” Douglas and his companions Tibet and Andrea James stand with their backs turned to the camera, then on “The World That Summer” they are already wearing plastic masks, and this “element of mystical depersonalization”, reminiscent of the masks of tragic actors of Ancient Greece, will henceforth play a rather important role . Pierce appears in photographs and at concert performances in various disguises; from Japanese-Buddhist leaf masks and Venetian masks that unwittingly evoke Poe's tales of the Red Death, to pig masks and gas masks. At concerts that took place from the mid to late 90s, Pierce took off his mask, which happened most often in the second half of the performance when performing acoustic tracks. Another attribute of DIJ’s mysterious aura: incorrectly inclined tracks from the albums “Brown Book”, “The Wall Of Sacrifice” and the CD collection “The Corn Years”: “Heilige Tod”, “Heilige Leben”, and simply “Heilige!” These tracks are simply short introductions or interludes, which lyrically consist of just the title, repeated by Rose McDowell in the form of a mantra, set to the melody of the children's song "Hänschen klein" ("Little Hans"). It is also interesting that the Les Joyaux De La Princesse booklet for “Die Weiße Rose” contains the epigraph “Heilige Liebe. Heilige Leben. Heilige Nichts" (“Holy love. Holy life. Holy nothingness”). The last part of the phrase may be another reference to Yourcenar's words about nada.

Pearce was influenced by many creative people; as Pierce himself said, they awakened the “Purity Of Intent” in him, i.e. "purity of intentions" Along with Mishima and Genet, this category included projects from Pierce's inner circle - musicians and groups Scott Walker, Love, Ennio Morricone, Pet Shop Boys, Beatles and Velvet Undeground, as well as artists Andy Warhol and Gilbert and George. Meanwhile, Pierce himself said that his music was influenced more by cinema than by the work of other musicians. As his sources of inspiration, he names such films as (along with the already mentioned Il Portiere di Notte, Die Welt in Jenem Sommer, Un Chant d'Amour and Fassbinder's films) Taxi Driver, The Night Of The Hunter, The Haunting, Don' t Look Now, Roman Polanski's The Pianist, the Russian anti-war film Come and See, and the television series The Prisoner. In 1997, Douglas Pearce made his acting debut - together with Boyd Rice and Max Wearing, he starred in the Australian feature film “Pearls Before Swine” (director: Richard Wolstencroft) as a porn magazine dealer. In 2005, he acted as narrator in the American independent film “The Doctor” (director: Thomas Nöla), which tells the story of imaginary life experiences and visits to psychologists. Here's what Douglas himself says about whether he sees DIJ as part of a modern or past intellectual-artistic movement: "whatever it is, I think it's very hard to classify, and it still hasn't been given one a certain name. I think it can be described primarily as ‘Europe-focused’.” We will take a closer look at Eurocentrism in neofolk in Chapter 3.

We have decided to refrain from providing a detailed interpretation of the DIJ texts as this is beyond the scope of this book; As literature on this topic, we can recommend the publication “Misery & Purity” by Robert Forbes, which was approved by Pierce himself. Forbes' book is recommended because the author immediately warns that he may be mistaken in some interpretations: there is too much personal, inexplicable hidden in the DIJ project. When asked whether his ambiguous and contradictory symbolism is often understood in the right way, Peirce answered at some length. Pearce explained that he uses imagery to remove the blinders, to get rid of certain preconceptions and preconceptions: “A lot of people freak out when they hear DIJ, because when they see a band name or an album cover, they expect something. completely different from what they receive, and thus all the music passes them by. This behavior is understandable because these people already had some prejudices to begin with. This is another form of racism, sexism or something similar - people turn away when they see someone with black skin or someone with a homosexual orientation because they don't like it - it's all just narrow-mindedness, narrow-mindedness. Almost the same thing happens when they meet DIJ.”

The band's name is a reference to the date of Hitler's execution of Ernst Röhm's storm troopers on June 30, 1934. Soon, in 1983, after the release of the debut album The Guilty Have No Pride, Wakeford left the group to soon found Sol Invictus. He is replaced by Richard Butler, who also leaves the group soon - in December 1984. In May 1985, almost immediately after the release of the Nada! album, Patrick Ligas, who founded Sixth Comm, also left. Thus, Douglas Pierce essentially becomes the sole member of Death In June, making this project a reflection exclusively of his own thoughts and visions.

Death In June's early work was a tribute to the musicians' past, rougher and edgier, with a clear influence of Joy Division. At that time, musicians sought to convey their ideas to the listener, not really caring about the melody and mood of the music. However, by the time Nada! The band's music overwhelmingly became what it remains to this day - dark, rhythmic songs performed on an acoustic guitar, mixed with synthesizers, violins, and many other instruments.

Pierce's work intricately mixes acoustic guitar, an extensive percussive section, electronic samples, images of twentieth-century classics Yukio Mishima and Jean Janet, who inspired Pierce over the years, references to the occult and esotericism, and symbolism. All this creates a genuine feeling of sadness, beauty and the poetry of despair. And a constant feeling of tragedy and eternal sorrow, at a high level associated with the personality of Douglas Pierce himself and his interest in such tragic periods of history as the Second World War. He is one of the founders of the phenomenon in modern musical culture called “apocalyptic folk”, and the founders of one of the most intellectual and influential publishing projects in Europe today - World Serpent Distribution, which united musicians with a common ideology of creativity. It is based on a general feeling of the impending End, when the entire history of mankind is perceived as “the history of preparation for the last Battle, not between the forces of Light and Darkness, but of Freedom and Emptiness.”

Today Douglas Pearce lives and works in Australia, where, through his label New European Recordings (NER), he continues his monologue with the world. At the end of 1995, he opened the Eastern European branch of NER - Twilight Command - in Zagreb.

"Of all forms of art, music awakens my feelings most powerfully. When I hear familiar songs or some memorable melodies, all the smells, tastes, emotions can come flooding back. It has an incomparable sadness, and that's why I love it most." - Douglas Pierce.

The band's name is a reference to the date of Hitler's execution of Ernst Röhm's storm troopers on June 30, 1934. In 1983, after the release of their debut album The Guilty Have No Pride, Wakeford left the group to soon found Sol Invictus. He is replaced by Richard Butler, who also leaves the group soon - in December 1984. In May 1985, almost immediately after the release of the Nada! album, Patrick Ligas also left... Read all