AION

I really think this is the weakest of all the Dead Can Dance studio albums. It’s barely even a full recording, clocking on at a scant thirty-six minutes which makes it the shortest of all their albums. Half the songs are less than three minutes long, and those all sound more like snippets of musical ideas that Brendan Perry jotted down or committed to a hand recorder and then went straight into the studio without bothering to actually finish writing the songs.

“The Song of the Sibyl” is one of the longer tracks (still less than four minutes), but even this one consists mostly of Lisa Gerrard’s weird operatic vocals atop Gregorian monk-like chanting. The duo’s actual music had become more and more sparse over the previous three releases, and with this album Perry seems to have decided to simply stop composing altogether and just pluck a few strings along with programmed synth sequences and call it good.

The same goes for “Fortune Presents Gifts not According to the Book”, whose title is longer than the score and whose vocals consist mostly of repeating the title in Perry’s detached voice with more plucking. A little bit of violin/viola, but not so much as you’d notice without really listening.

The two tracks that even remotely live up to the Dead Can Dance potential are “As the Bell Rings the May Pole Spins” and “Black Sun”. Both members actual sing (not just mumble – I’m talking to you Mr. Perry) and on “Black Sun” there’s an actual rhythm, although unfortunately even that seems to be digitally programmed. The bagpipes are a nice touch on ‘Bell’, but two songs do not save an inferior album by themselves.

I think this is about the point where the band's fans started to tire of their sound, which had become predictable and unimaginative. That plus the general decline of faux goth bands like Dead Can Dance, the Church and Cocteau Twins really spelled the end. The band released another album a few years later but I didn’t buy it and neither did very many other people. That was followed with 1996’s ‘Spiritchaser’ which was really the bottom, and Dead Can Dance went the way of history. This album was the firstnail in the coffin.

Two stars because nobody but real fans of the band will find anything interesting here. Not recommended for anyone else – pick up their first couple of records instead.

peace