Style: modern classical, vocal
Primary Emotions/Themes: Loss, venerability, reverence for that which came before.
Thoughts: Darkness comes in many shades. It is most commonly associated with black, however the more insidious kind can be found in the gray and slightly off black colors... lingering in the shadows, just slightly askew from the light.
To say that Dead Can Dance influenced my taste in music would be an understatement. When I first got into the band the scope of what I listened to was much narrower than what it is today. I knew that I enjoyed music on the darker side of the spectrum, but it was largely contained to guitar oriented music. Every now and then I would branch out into another genre, but almost always I would come back to the guitar. It was familiar... it felt like home... and then I heard Dead Can Dance.
While there is guitar in Dead Can Dance's music (particularly the early albums), as the band progressed they branched out in ways that my young mind had never once experienced before. It made such an impression on me that I endeavored to find all the relevant albums for my collection as an adult now as well. During this quest the album that would always elude me was Into the Labyrinth.
Sure I could get a recently pressed version with the new cover, but I was being picky. I wanted a copy with the mother and child's hands. That cover was so striking when I first saw it that I wanted it reflected in my collection.
Needless to say I was at a local record store a bit ago and I asked if they had any Dead Can Dance. They did indeed, a first press of the one album that I was looking for. Not only did it have the cover I was looking for, it also had two songs recorded in these sessions that I never heard before. I paid more money than I'm normally comfortable with, but I finally had one of my white wales. I had Into the Labyrinth... and here it is, sitting on my turntable.
Now that my overly sentimental history with the album is over, what of the music? Into the Labyrinth represents everything that the band had been building up in the 80's. All of the traditional instrumentation, all of the dark atmospheres, all of the folk influences from all over the world, it all comes together in a wonderful climax on this album.
Lisa's voice is perhaps the best that it has ever been here - a singular listen to The Wind That Shook the Barley should put any doubts of that to rest. The track features only her voice and silence. To carry a traditional tune such as that with the power that she does here is truly rare and exceptional.
Brendan's voice is also in top form. One of my favorite tracks from any Dead Can Dance album is The Carnival Is Over, and this is due in large part to the delivery that Brendan gives. The keyboards on the track hearken back to the bands earlier works and his unhurried and calm voice lay across the notes to tie the song together. I still get goosebumps listening to it, some thirty odd years after I first heard it.
Into the Labyrinth is perhaps the bands most diverse offering as well. The amount of styles incorporated during the nearly hour long run time are truly impressive. There's Irish, what sounds like Native American, middle eastern, music resembling Gregorian Chants, and a ton of cultures I can't even begin to place throughout the album. So many directions, yet the essence of Dead Can Dance is maintained throughout.
There are so few albums like this in my collection. Albums that improve the whole by being part of it. Albums that were critical in my musical development. Dead Can Dance are one of those bands, Into the Labyrinth is one of those albums. It gives and teaches things in ways that few ever could of have since. It thrives in the grey, yet still shuns the light with it's mournful tones.
