DEAD CAN DANCE

DEAD CAN DANCE
THE SERPENT'S EGG (1988)
320 KBPS

Perry and Gerrard continued to experiment and improve with The Serpent's Egg, as much a leap forward as Spleen and Ideal was some years previously. As with that album, The Serpent's Egg was heralded by an astounding first track, "The Host of Seraphim." Its use in films some years later was no surprise in the slightest — one can imagine the potential range of epic images the song could call up — but on its own it's so jaw-droppingly good that almost the only reaction is sheer awe. Beginning with a soft organ drone and buried, echoed percussion, Gerrard then takes flight with a seemingly wordless invocation of power and worship — her vocal control and multi-octave range, especially towards the end, has to be heard to be believed. Nothing else achieves such heights, but everything gets pretty darn close, a deserved testament to the band's conceptual reach and abilities. Slow plainsong chants such as "Orbis De Ignis" mix with the harpischord and overlaid vocals of "The Writing on My Father's Hand" and the slow build and sweep of "In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings." Two of Perry's finest vocal moments occur here. The first, "Severance," is a slow, organ/keyboard led number that showcases his rich, warm vocals exquisitely — it's no wonder that Bauhaus chose to cover it some years later on its reunion tour. "Ullyses," the album's closing track, makes for a fine ending as much as "The Host of Seraphim" did an opening, Perry's delivery almost like a reading from a holy book, the arrangement of strings and percussion rhythmic, addictive and lovely.

1. Host of Seraphim
2. Orbis de Ignis
3. Severance
4. Writing on My Father's Hand
5. In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings
6. Chant of the Paladin
7. Song for Sophia
8. Echolalia
9. Mother Tongue
10. Ullyses

DEAD CAN DANCE

DEAD CAN DANCE
AION (1990)
320 KBPS

Long before No Doubt brought back ska and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy resurrected swing, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry were making music that recalled an earlier time. How early? Try the Renaissance. Everything old--really old--is new again on Aion, the band's fifth and arguably finest album. Like DCD's other discs, Aion revolves around the interplay between Gerrard's soaring glossolalia and Perry's baritone crooning. A range of styles are explored, from the polyphonic choral heights of "The Arrival and the Reunion" to the smooth balladry of "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book" to the Middle Eastern sensuality of "Radharc." Other standout tracks include the playful "Saltarello," a traditional 14th-century instrumental dance piece, and "As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins," a strikingly melodic song carried by bagpipes and Gerrard's angelic voice.

1. Arrival and the Reunion
2. Saltarello
3. Mephisto
4. Song of the Sibyl
5. Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book
6. As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins
7. End of Words
8. Black Sun
9. Wilderness
10. Promised Womb
11. Garden of Zephirus
12. Radharc

DEAD CAN DANCE

DEAD CAN DANCE
SPIRITCHASER (1996)
320 KBPS

Listening to Dead Can Dance is a transcendental experience. Enriched with dedications to the living Gaia, their creations subsist in natural and other worldly realms. Initially crafting songs which augmented their Australian roots with Gothic and Renaissance traditions, the group have since grown to encompass a hybrid of global sounds. On Spiritchaser the enchanted souls of founding members Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard shine in this, their most ethereal LP to date. Whereas earlier endeavors succumbed to genres grounded in eras of the past and non-Western present, it's immediately apparent that this album has loftier aspirations. Hypnotically threaded with traditional and electronic instruments, the exorcism of each song touches upon the universal essence beyond. While Gerrard's heavenly vocals are used primarily for instrumental effect, Perry's fertile lyricism both compliments her efforts and expresses the spiritual associations related to the album's title and meaning. Intrinsically delivered with shamanistic connectivity, the sensations ritualize the modern mortal.

1. Nierika
2. Song of the Stars
3. Indus
4. Song of the Dispossessed
5. Dedicacé Outò
6. Snake and the Moon
7. Song of the Nile
8. Devorzhum

THE ABSOLUTE SUPPER

COLD MEAT INDUSTRIES PRESENTS
THE ABSOLUTE SUPPER
(1998)
320 KBPS

Swedish label Cold Meat Industry delivers here a 2 cds selection of their catalog. This compiltation is now sold out but, lucky you!, Moodswings had it in stores and is proud to present this collection of previously unreleased material. A healthy dose of Cold Meat Industry's most ominous acts of the label's first 10 years.
The first disk is fanatastic neo-classical. In Slaughter Natives, The Protagonist, Ordo Equilibrio, and Arcana stand out as stunning soundscapes of dramatic pain. The bleak narration of Puissance' "Love incinerate" captures a scene of the apocalypse, literally. All this is not to say the rest of the cd is filler. Listened to in it's entirety, I find myself in corners of my mind long forgotten.
The second half of "The Absolute Supper" taps into the power-noise, experimental, and industrial ambience that has made bands like Brighter Death Now and MZ.412 infamous. Some points of the tracks drag on with loops barely overcoming inertia. Extremely stark. Actually towards the end, the Ildfrost tracks ressemble the directions of early Delerium.
This is absolutely worth the time.

Disc One
1 In Slaugther Natives : INRI... raped by the Cross
2 The Protagonist : Imitation
3 The Protagonist : Zoroaster
4 Ordo Equilibrio : The perplexity of hybris. I glorify myself
5 Sanctum : {/}
6 Puissance : Love incinerate
7 Arcana : Winds of the lost souls
8 Mortiis : Child of curiosity & the old man of knowledge
9 Desiderii Marginis : Chaos undivided
10 Sephiroth : R'lyeh
11 Raison d'Être : The verge of somnolence
12 Hazard : Who blew out the Northern lights?

Disc Two
1 Brighter Death Now : I wish I was a little girl
2 Frozen Faces : Zyklon B Doll
3 MZ.412 : NBS act1 begravning
4 Megaptera : Don't descecrate the dead
5 Deutsch Nepal : Logo
6 Nacht : Svartsinn
7 Archon Satani : A time of ruin
8 Ildfrost : Hearts perturbe
9 Ildfrost : Slept awake
10 Cintecele Diavolui : The Devil must kill

ARCANA

ARCANA
RASPAIL (2008)
320 KBPS

For those pining for the deathly side of lustrous medieval beauty, look no further than Arcana.
In general, one could describe the atmosphere conjured within Raspail as being rather introspective, even bordering upon esoteric. Fronted by the hypnotizing, deep voice of Peter Bjärgö, this project in some ways could be compared to those fallen regents of the medieval genre, Dead Can Dance; even Bjärgö's own presence is at times like a specter of Brendan Perry. However, the key word here is "specter;" Arcana may also be quite rooted in the neoclassical, yet their facade is far more grim in comparison.
If one could pinpoint Raspail with a single word, it would perhaps be "haunted." This Swedish band here has effectively painted a work in ancient instruments and vivid hymns the feeling of being lost in a Scandinavian forest in winter, as the sun begins to set for a 30 day span. Chilly and certainly macabre, it is a must for fans of the bleaker ends of the neo-folk genre.

1. Abrakt
2. Sight of relief
3. Invisible motions
4. Outside your world
5. Parisal
6. Autumnal
7. Out of the gray ashes
8. Lost in time
9. In remembrance
10. Circumspection