Having disbanded in 1998, they reunited briefly in 2005 for a world tour and reformed in 2011, releasing a new album (Anastasis) and embarking on several tours.
Dead Can Dance formed in Melbourne, Australia in August 1981 with Paul Erikson on bass guitar, Lisa Gerrard (ex-Microfilm) on vocals, Simon Monroe (Marching Girls) on drums and Brendan Perry (also of Marching Girls) on vocals and guitar. Gerrard and Perry were a couple who met as members of Melbourne's little band scene. In May 1982, the band left Monroe in Australia and moved to London, England, where they signed with alternative rock label 4AD. With the duo, the initial United Kingdom line-up were Paul Erikson and Peter Ulrich.
The group's debut album, Dead Can Dance, was released in February 1984. The artwork, which depicts a ritual mask from New Guinea, "provide a visual reinterpretation of the meaning of the name Dead Can Dance", set in a faux Greek typeface. The album featured "drum-driven, ambient guitar music with chanting, singing and howling", and fit in with the ethereal wave style of label mates Cocteau Twins. They followed with a four-track extended play, Garden of the Arcane Delights in August. AllMusic described their early work as "as goth as it gets" (despite the group themselves rejecting the label), while the EP saw them "plunging into a wider range of music and style".
A shift in sound followed for the Spleen and Ideal album, with more emphasis on strings, brass and drones being used. A quasi spiritual element also emerged on this album, notably on the opening tracks "De Profundis" and "Ascension". Its worth noting that around this time Lisa and Brendan had been doing tours of European Cathedrals, absorbing the ambience which in turn was reflected in the work.
The highlights of the bands career followed with the genre defining album Within The Realm of a Dying Sun, featuring fan favorite "Cantara", which is where the bands Arabic and World music influences began to appear, and the double whammy of "Summoning of the Muse" and "Persephone (The Gathering of Flowers)." Critics at the time were undecided about the album, mainly due to the fact that the pieces were split according to the vocals. Brendan had the first side of the album, where Lisa took over for the latter half.
The Serpent's Egg was the next album and built on the premise set by the previous album, although the album is slightly uneven in quality and a short listen at around 40 minutes. The album is redeemed by the opening and closing pieces "The Host of Seraphim", and Perry's epic "Ullyses".
For the next album Aion, the band slipped back several centuries and recreated working medieval instruments such as the Sackbut, Viol and Hurdy Gurdy for the distinctly Medieval flavor. Included on the album is "Song of the sibyl" a text from 14th century Spain and now a live favorite. Another text appears in the song "Fortune Presents Gifts Not According To The Book".
Into the Labyrinth was the follow up album and was the album that saw Brendan mastering the use of samples and synthesizers and also the album that brought the band's music to American audiences selling over a million copies worldwide. The track "The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove" was played across on college radio and was instrumental in the albums success.
Spiritchaser was the seventh studio album for the band and brought about an abrupt upturn in musical style, instead of drawing on the historical past the band drew upon South American and African influences which gave the album a very rhythmic ambience. Considered by some to be the bands weakest album, it features highlights such as the percussive "Nierika" which was the most played track on American college radio for that year, and the epic 9 minute trance inducing "Indus".
A 3 CD retrospective simply called 1981-1998 was issued by 4AD and compiled a comprehensive overview of the bands career, and provided diehard fans with the only finished track from the Spiritchaser follow-up sessions called "The Lotus Eaters".
As a live band is probably where Dead Can Dance have gained their reputation. To put it simply, they were phenomenal. The concerts often featured many improvised pieces that to date have never been recorded in the studio. A live album entitled Toward the Within was released in 1994 and allowed fans unfortunate enough to have not attended concerts the chance to hear a few of these songs. A companion video/DVD of the concert was also released allowing people to see these highly ethereal concerts.
After Dead Can Dance ceased to be a functioning band both Perry and Gerrard embarked upon solo careers. To date, Brendan has released one solo album The Eye of the Hunter and has completed work on a new album, 'Ark', to be released in June 2010, whilst Lisa has been more prolific but with mixed results, releasing two solo albums The Mirror Pool and The Silver Tree. Lisa has also collaborated with other artists, namely Pieter Bourke of the band Soma and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy on the respective albums Duality and Immortal Memory. Lisa has also become a sought after soundtrack artist too after a wave of publicity for the Ridley Scott film Gladiator and continues to release work on a regular basis including soundtrack work on Ali, Layer Cake, and Whale Rider. Peter Ulrich, former percussionist of the band has also released two solo albums, Pathways and Dawns and more recently, Enter the Mysterium.
A series of 31 reunion concerts took place in 2005 in both Europe and North America including two memorable sell out concerts at The Hollywood Bowl and Radio City accompanied by 40 piece orchestras. Many of these concerts were professionally recorded and released as a double CD.
In late 2011, the band announced a reunion World Tour, in order to promote their new album, fittingly titled Anastasis, as it was released on August 9, 2012, 16 years after the group's previous album. Anastasis was well received by critics and is also the first album of the band not released by 4AD Records.
The name "Dead Can Dance" is often misleading. Although this group is quite popular among the goth sub-culture with the name appearing to be inspired by the Danse macabre allegory, it should instead be interpreted as 'giving life to something that was previously inanimate' as Perry said:
"The album artwork [of our self titled first album], a ritual mask from New Guinea, attempted to provide a visual reintrepretation of the meaning of the name "Dead Can Dance." The mask, though once a living part of a tree is dead; nevertheless it has, through the artistry of its maker, been imbued with a life force of its own. To understand why we chose the name, think of the transformation of inanimacy to animacy.... Think of the processes concerning life from death and death into life. So many people missed the inherent symbolism, and assumed that we must be 'morbid gothic types,' a mistake we deplored and deplore...".
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Wild in the Woods
Dead Can Dance Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We harm those whom we adore
And contrary to all good intentions
We suffocate them in an alarming embrace.
Listen child, try to understand,
All is not what it appears to be in the world at hand.
Here dreams are bought and sold for a price.
The truth a burden to keep for the rest of your life.
Can only lead to fear and despair.
So we learn from and experience the corporeal.
All is hidden in hidden meanings.
All can be learned from within.
We are all brothers and sisters in spirit.
Wild in the woods of love
We harm those whom we adore
And contrary to all good intentions
We suffocate them in an alarming embrace.
The lyrics of Dead Can Dance's song Wild in the Woods explore the paradoxical nature of love and the complex ways in which it can be expressed. The opening lines of the song - "Wild in the woods of love, We harm those whom we adore" - suggest that love can be a dangerous force, capable of causing harm to those we care about most. But despite our good intentions, we may unwittingly smother the people we love in our attempts to hold on too tightly.
The song goes on to suggest that the world is not always as it appears, and that we must be careful in our pursuit of dreams and desires. The lines "Here dreams are bought and sold for a price. The truth a burden to keep for the rest of your life" hint at the idea that there may be hidden agendas at work in the world, and that we must be wary of those who would exploit our vulnerabilities for their own gain. This sense of unease is further heightened by the line "These paths that have been chosen / Can only lead to fear and despair".
Despite the sense of uncertainty and even danger that permeates the lyrics, there is also a sense of underlying hopefulness. The lines "We are all brothers and sisters in spirit" suggest a sense of shared humanity and the importance of looking out for one another, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Ultimately, the song seems to be a meditation on the complex nature of love and the struggle to find balance between passion and possessiveness, as well as a warning to be vigilant in a world where appearances can be deceiving.
Line by Line Meaning
Wild in the woods of love
We are reckless and untamed in matters of the heart
We harm those whom we adore
We often hurt the ones we love
And contrary to all good intentions
Despite our best efforts to do right
We suffocate them in an alarming embrace.
Our love can sometimes be overwhelming and suffocating
Listen child, try to understand,
Take heed, young one, and try to comprehend
All is not what it appears to be in the world at hand.
Things are not always as they seem in this world
Here dreams are bought and sold for a price.
Ambitions and aspirations often come at a cost
The truth a burden to keep for the rest of your life.
Knowing the truth can be a heavy burden to carry forever
These paths that have been chosen
The choices we have made that led us to where we are
Can only lead to fear and despair.
May only result in feelings of terror and hopelessness
So we learn from and experience the corporeal.
We gain knowledge and insight through our physical experiences
All is hidden in hidden meanings.
There is more to everything than what meets the eye
All can be learned from within.
All the answers we seek can be found within ourselves
We are all brothers and sisters in spirit.
We are all interconnected on a deeper level
Wild in the woods of love
We are reckless and untamed in matters of the heart
We harm those whom we adore
We often hurt the ones we love
And contrary to all good intentions
Despite our best efforts to do right
We suffocate them in an alarming embrace.
Our love can sometimes be overwhelming and suffocating
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BRENDAN MICHAEL PERRY, GUS FERGUSON, JAMES E. PINKER, LISA GERMAINE GERRARD, PETER LAWRENCE ULRICH, SCOTT RODGER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind