WITHIN THE REALM OF A DYING SUN

No... I'm not joking... these are serious words for once.

Reduced to core members Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard and percussionist Peter Ulrich, Dead Can Dance produced the most perfect album I've ever heard.

It's cold... and I mean 'Ice Station Zebra' cold. Easily the darkest album produced by Dead Can Dance and at a listening temperature of -20˚, the best by a long shot.

The vocals are melancholic, resplendent, haunting and decidedly uneasy. In fact they feel like someone putting ice-cubes down your back. A big slab of Goth doom without guitars and drums, but with sumptuous vocals and beefy instrumentation which make you think that something awful is going to happen - like an earthbound comet strike...

The cover's photograph was taken in Paris, at the Pa re-Lachaise cemetery in France - the most visited cemetery in the world. It suits the feel of the album. If ever an album sounded like the cover, this is it...

'Within the Realm' is full of the vibe you'd expect from '4AD' around the mid 80's. Everything sounds very clear with massive reverb used throughout, but this one is far gloomier. This is my favourite recording that I've reviewed on the P.A after over 150 reviews. and it always has been.

Perfect for a dark, starry night, not too hard, not too soft, conjuring up images of plague victims in the 1300's . Beautiful earthy vocals by Brendan Perry, with his Western style vocals on side one and incredibly gloomy and haunting chords by Lisa Gerrard on side two make this an unmitigated success. That rarest of beautiful darkwave albums, which never fails to astound me after 24 years.

There's so many layers of sound here as opposed to future releases... A much denser and full recording than anything that would follow.

Dark and foreboding, sombre, creepy and utterly timeless.

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