Fantastic Re-Master SACD
The SACD remastered by MFSL is amazing. In fact, after receiving this disc I promptly went Into The Labyrinth where I'm still lost to this day. Luckily it has WiFi and I have a laptop with a body motion charger so I can still write reviews. Although it will be tough to give Amazon my address when ordering from now on. Of course I'm probably gonna die of starvation anyway. Bummer.

Not my favorite DCD
This album is less compelling for me than some of their others. The tracks are mostly spacey vocals, and I miss the duo's fine instrumentals.

Into the Labyrinth
I'm relatively new to Dead Can Dance's music. I have heard only a couple of their albums. I can't really say I became a massive DCD fan but I certainly have enjoyed their music from what little I have heard. I recently found a copy of INTO THE LABYRINTH at my library and decided to check it out. I am very glad that I did get the cd. I felt like I was in another world whenever I listen to the cd. The Middle Eastern influences certainly gives the music an international flair. The production is immaculate. I can hear every single word that comes floating out of Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry's voices. There is also a live vibe. I almost feel as if I am in the recording studio watching the duo sing. While I do enjoy Brendan Perry's vocals, I have to admit I like Lisa's vocals a bit more. Her vocalizations often reminds me of one of my all time favorite sings, Loreena McKennitt. I liked most of INTO THE LABYRINTH. The only track I wasn't too keen on was "The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove". I didn't particularly care for the melody or Brendan's vocals. Overall, INTO THE LABYRINTH is a lush soundscape of Middle Eastern melodies suitable for listening after a long day at the office.

5 stars!
This is a great CD...go get it if you are into Dead Can Dance! This is their greatest album.

Their commercial breakthrough, but not their best
After an absence of three years which saw the release of a best of collection, Dead Can Dance achieved their commercial and U.S. breakthrough as well as yet another stylistic shift with this, their sixth studio album. Unlike previous albums which featured backing musicians, this one saw the DCD duo of Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard handling all the instruments and vocals themselves in their new private studio. While this mostly works, occasionally the synthesizers sound a bit thin and one wishes they had employed musicians playing actual instruments for certain passages.

Stylistically, DCD moved on from the medieval arrangements of their previous album, Aion, towards more middle eastern influences alternating with dreamy pop sounds. This album also marks an increasing estrangement of the duo's individual musical styles. Lisa's dramatic opener, Yulunga, sets the tone with her chilling multi-octave wordless singing over building percussion, followed by what was to become one of the unlikelier alternative radio hits, Brendan's The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove, a bitter rebuke to an unfaithful lover delivered over a crisp background of tablas and period bagpipes. Lisa then startles longtime fans by delivering the next track, the Wind That Shakes the Barley, an actual traditional song with lyrics (as opposed to her usual wordless glossolalia). Brendan's song of dreamy nostalgia, The Carnival Is Over, was another minor hit thanks to its being featured as the theme of MTV's Real World, and is as close as the group had come so far to mainstream pop. Less successful is his third original song on the album, Tell Me About The Forest, which lyrically strays into preachiness and musically provides little interest. His closing piece on the album is an arrangement of Berthold Brecht's How Fortunate The Man Who Has None, which achieves a kind of gloomy dignity musically but strains to sustain interest throughout its full nine minute length.

The rest of the album is heavier on middle eastern and eastern European influences. Lisa's Ariadne is a brief but lovely piece featuring multitracked vocals over organ, while her even briefer Saldek sounds like it came straight from a National Geographic special on traditional Bulgarian music. The title track is a meandering and ultimately not very interesting set of passages of middle eastern styled singing and drumming with synthesizer; the similar Spider's Strategem features the same musical elements but actually comes together as a more interesting and compelling whole. The medieval a capella choral piece Emmeleia sounds like an outtake from Aion.

This album marked a watershed in several ways for the group, and for many fans was their initial introduction to DCD and hence defined their sense of the duo's musical identity, but I can't give it more than three stars. Though it features some terrific songs, much of it sounds like filler, and the stripped production pales in comparison to their best earlier work. To get a sense of what this duo is really capable of, find a copy of Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, Spleen and Ideal, The Serpent's Egg, or Aion.