A PASSAGE IN TIME

As I've pointed out before, Dead Can Dance is one of those bands of which it completely eludes me why they have been added to this site. They were icons of the post-punk / new wave movement in the 80's and in my time, that generation was all about being as anti-prog as possible. Of course, things luckily changed a bit since then.

So when following the rating logic strictly, one can never rate them above 3 stars. I find this to be very ironic: add a band to a prog site where they don't belong and then penalize them with low ratings because they are not prog... No, DCD has been added to this site so I will assume they must be prog in one way or another and will rate them for their intrinsic qualities.

Right, now that I've made my point again, let's look at this fine compilation. By the time of its release, DCD had already made five albums that covered a wide range of styles: starting from eerie goth rock, purifying that into gothic church music, and evolving towards pagan medieval songs and ethnic renaissance. This compilation focuses on the last two albums with just a few tracks from album 2 and 3 and none from the debut (one of my favorites though, but it wouldn't have fit in here very well)

Even though the compilation takes a lot of tracks from the medieval Aion (which I liked less); by balancing them against their other influences, they work very well here. There are also 2 tracks written especially for this compilation and they hint at things to come. The extra track Bird precedes the ethnic influences that would prevail in the coming years, Spirit is both a stylish nod to their goth rock past and a foretaste of the psychedelic-tinged tracks Brendan Perry would create for the subsequent album Into the Labyrinth.

Conclusion, this compilation covers the wide array of styles that DCD had evolved through till then and would explore later. As such it is the best possible introduction into the enchanting realm of their larger then life musical magic. DCD defies all trivial genre definitions. This band is 5 stars whatever box you wish to confine them to.