Death In June – Peaceful Snow / Lounge Corps (2010)

June 4, 2023

Some of the critical responses aimed at Peaceful Snow are incredibly harsh. Do I understand where such criticisms are coming from? Of course I do – the depth of Miro’s piano playing really brings out the “one trick” aspect of Douglas’ voice; something that works well in its own way, but it is definitely something that is left wholly exposed against the beautiful backdrop of keys that Snejdr provides. But, Peaceful Snow was an excellent idea (regardless of whoever has recorded piano albums before Death In June), and it is a record that is excellently recorded. The audio quality on this is nothing short of sublime, and the piano playing is beyond stunning.

It is a shame however, that this only really works about half of the time. Some of the new original songs here are absolutely phenomenal, others are much more dragging and lacklustre. This album may not be my favourite thing in the world from Douglas but it spawned some brilliant live sets featuring Miro on piano (which really need to be seen to be believed) as well as of course the follow-up album, where the songs in their acoustic guitar forms were then released, in a much more typical Di6 fashion. I won’t deny that Disc 1 has it’s moments that drag, but “Peaceful Snow” is one of my favourite songs of all time.

Disc 2 is much more of a treat, especially if you are a long-time fan, as for the second hour of this set, Miro Snejdr is given full run of Douglas’ back catalog, and here he presents to us 17 Di6 classics re-interpreted via the piano. “Hail! The White Grain”, “Luther’s Army”, “She Said Destory”, “Heaven Street”, “Ruins And Men” and “Fall Apart” all sound so, so fucking good that it really does make up for the maliase that is Disc 1 (which only has about 1/3 of really interesting music, I’ll be honest). Also, never thought “Rose Clouds Of Holocaust” could be intepreted to sound like something that plays over a silent, brutal slow-mo scene in a Shane Meadows movie. But hey, we know how Meadows feels about people who fool around with Nazi symbolism so maybe that’s a pretty terrible scenario to invisage LOL

A snippet from the title track probably sums up this entire album:

“Old Gods… on new streets…. (but) outlook bleak….”