Death In June
Burial

1984: The Death of the West.

Despite its short duration (just over a quarter of an hour), "Burial" asserts itself as a very significant episode in the stylistic evolution of Death in June, marking a first departure from the sound of their previous work, "The Guilty Have No Pride," which had been excessively anchored to a canonical post-punk style akin to Joy Division.

In this EP, the lineup still consists of Douglas P. (guitar, vocals, and percussion), Tony Wakeford (bass and vocals), and Patrick Leagas (drums, vocals, and trumpet), but it's evident that the coexistence of the three personalities has become extremely problematic: "Burial", divided among the introspective moods of Pearce, the angry romanticism of Wakeford, and the martial arrogance of Leagas, is the shapeless offspring of the disintegration the band was experiencing at the time (not surprisingly, soon after, Wakeford would go on to form Sol Invictus, while Death in June would continue as a duo, eventually coming under the sole guidance of Pearce).

Five pieces conclude this first artistic phase.

The opener "The Death of the West", by Douglas P., is undoubtedly the most important episode for the band’s future developments, both stylistically and conceptually, and alone is well worth the price of admission. A classic through and through, "The Death of the West" is a ballad brimming with sarcasm that represents the first explicit, albeit naive, attempt to approach those acoustic sounds that would later be labeled as apocalyptic folk (I say naive because of the lyrics, at times puerile, soaked with an innocent punk rebelliousness probably inherited from past experiences with Crisis).
But above all, the track introduces a central theme that will become an obsession not only in Pearce’s artistic production with Death in June but also in Wakeford’s Sol Invictus: Europe as a symbol of a purity betrayed and violated; the condemnation of a society, that of the West, in full decline; the present perceived as the terminal phase of a disease fatally infecting Western man, a prelude to his spiritual death.

The following "Fields" and "Nirvana" (a revisited electro-dark-obsessive version of "All Alone in Her Nirvana," already present in the debut), re-propose the canonical sound of the early Death in June, built on rather ordinary post-punk. Both tracks feature Wakeford on vocals and are obviously an expression of the boisterous talent of the hefty bassist.

Much more interesting is the final glimpse of the work: "Sons of Europe" is an invocation in typical Sol Invictus style, an experiment where punk influences (still present in Wakeford’s bass) serve a perverse ritual dominated by military percussion and Leagas’s trumpet. Wakeford’s baritone voice, reinforced by the howls of his companions, stands epic and combative, proudly claiming a cultural, historical, and existential identity that is evident from the title alone. This episode not only anticipates the declamatory temptations that will soon find ample space but also the attitude, better expressed in the future, of intertwining martial moods, spiritualism, and dark apocalyptic omens: we are at the crossroads that will channel Death in June in one direction and Sol Invictus in another.

Lastly, "Black Radio" is a dark wave exploration of almost seven minutes, where the three souls of the band converge equally. This track undoubtedly represents the most evolved and cohesive form of what Death in June would have been if they had been a cohesive trio: Leagas’s haunting trumpet tears through the urgent pulse of a dry drum machine, while a surreal and menacing chant (as grotesque and stylized as a futurist art manifesto) animates Pearce’s guitar whims based on elementary but effective noisiness. Again, certain atmospheres of "Nada!" are anticipated, but above all, it becomes evident that Death in June, though still heirs to certain sounds of the era, were already well out of the box and mature enough to become one of the most innovative entities in the '80s dark scene.

The metamorphosis is underway: apocalyptic folk is a step away from its birth.