Death In June
The World That Summer

A man in a military uniform sits cross-legged on the floor, next to him a woman dressed in white and some trusted friends. After removing the jacket of his uniform with surreal slowness, he grips the weapon that was lying in front of him. His fixed and proud gaze hides infinite sadness and anger. The cold blade begins to pierce the man's abdomen, digging deeper and deeper until it rips open the stomach. One of the figures standing nearby, with tears in their eyes, holds a sword to put an end to the suffering of the man slumped on the floor. It was November 25, 1970, and that man was the Japanese Yukio Mishima, writer, poet, director, warrior, and founder of the paramilitary association "Shield Society." Mishima's death, entrusted to the ancient samurai ritual suicide "seppuku," put an end to the existence of this descendant of an ancient samurai family who had made art and love for the ancient traditions of his country a reason for living, and dying.

In 1986 Douglas Pearce, remaining alone at the helm of Death In June, created the double LP "The World That Summer," a work dripping with total devotion to the figure, art, and thought of Mishima, perhaps touching his personal artistic peak under the Death In June brand, his creation since the early '80s. A record that is not difficult but at least complex, layered and imbued with a black poetic aura. "Blood Of Winter" dives into somber and disorienting scenarios, with a synthetic slowed and circular rhythm that rests on chanting vocals lost in the void, while Morriconian trumpet calls inject epic, arduous, and icy gusts of melody on static and dreamlike soundscapes. The subsequent "Hidden Among The Leaves" is a solemn and austere cry of pain directed at Mishima. The female voice recites intense poetic verses in Japanese, overwhelmed by the electronic mantras of the synths, creating leaden and desolate orchestrations elevated to lofty and majestic peaks, full of visionary imaginative power, the requiem for the warrior. The martial drumming and folk-stamped acoustic guitar of Pearce support "Torture By Roses," a tragic and at times majestic ride, with Pearce's baritone voice declaiming verses of solitude and suffering amidst fierce airs with the flavor of an ancient Europe, always proclaimed and dreamed of by Death In June. "Come Before Christ And Murder Love," a bright-and-dark afflicted and decadent gem with mechanical and metronomic rhythmic progress, reaches the ecstasy of the senses, intoxicated by harmonious, melancholic, and gray instrumental passages, with Douglas P.'s voice floating helplessly and sorrowfully among the guitar melodies and a heartbreaking trumpet that is exalted and wonderful.

The Death In June of '86 were the perfect synthesis between their early period marked by post-punk with strong martial connotations of their early works and the dark electronic styles of the preceding "Nada!", beginning to enjoy the early breaths of apocalyptic folk. Left alone at the helm of the band (which included Tony Wakeford, who left in '84, and Patrick Leagas, who left in '85), Douglas P. was now the sole architect of the Death In June sound and would often surround himself with important guests in his albums such as Rose McDowall or his friend David Tibet, leader of Current 93. The subsequent "Love Murder" lives in suspended, at times rarefied atmospheres with Douglas P.'s perverted falsetto clashing against dark and detached expanded electronic ditties, continuing the harrowing journey with three leaden and desolate gems: "Rule Again," immersed in sulfurous and pagan atmospheres amid captivating instrumental and lyrical embroidery, "Break The Black Ice," a mournful litany dripping with epic crepuscular sadness, and "Rocking Horse Night," steeped in surreal suggestions and imperious refrains. It is in "Blood Victory" that David Tibet's contribution (who wrote some text for the album) becomes more evident, laid on corrosive electronic melodies and pounding rhythms, his grating, hissing, and fierce singing stands alongside an ethereal Douglas P. to chant a blasphemous and belligerent text. The more experimental side of the work "Death Of A Man" stretches over 15 minutes, an impressive composition formed by sounds and noises of all kinds, supported by lashing drum machines, gong hits, voices, screams, anthems... between noise, electronics, and dark experimentation. Three instrumental reprises follow, sealing this extraordinary and crepuscular warrior's song that is "The World That Summer."

"Drown me in your sadness, infect me in your betrayal, discovering your god means nothing, only leads to the death of reason."