THE SERPENT'S EGG

The Serpent´s Egg is the fourth full-length studio album by Australian act Dead Can Dance. I absolutely adore their previous album Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun (1987) with its dark and melancholic mood but The Serpent´s Egg is probably the first album by the band where they really showcase their now trademark style of ambient, etnic, folk, Medieval, goth tinged and atmospheric music.

The music is still centered around Lisa Gerrard´s ethnic flavoured contralto vocals and Brendan Perry´s baritone ditto. The instrumentation is increasingly organic with lots of different percussion instruments and especially various strings like Viola, Cello and violin. I have a preference for the Brendan Perry led songs of which there are three on The Serpent´s Egg: Severance, In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings and my favorite on the album the powerful and majestic Ullyses. There are some absolutely brilliant Lisa Gerrard led compositions too though in The Host of Seraphim, The Writing on My Father's Hand and the beautiful a capella sung Song of Sophia. The album is supposed to be listened to as a whole though and the great variation between the tracks gives me an enjoyable listening experience. The only song that gets a bit too repetitive for my taste is Chant of the Paladin.

The production is excellent. Warm and organic. Just listen to the percussion driven intro to Mother Tongue. Wonderful organic sound.

The Serpent´s Egg isn´t what you would expect after listening to Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun but it´s great to hear that the band has progressed their sound and tried new things. I still prefer Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun over The Serpent´s Egg but the latter is still an excellent album fully deserving a 4 star rating.