Dionysus

I'll have to disagree with most of the reviewers here. I've been following DCD since their 1980's heyday and this is the first album they have made that truly disappoints. Whilst the music is, as ever, impeccably well-produced and atmospheric, it lacks the melody and passion of almost any of their previous albums you might compare it to. Spiritchaser, one of my personal favourites, has been mentioned many times, but to my ears this is a pale shadow of that wonderful record - because the signature vocals of both Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard are almost entirely absent. DCD have many strengths but most would agree that the vocals are their most distinctive and engaging feature - and on Dionysus, they choose to barely use them at all. It's like a great football team deciding they are going to go out and play hockey instead - they might be quite good at it, but they are not playing to their strengths.In its own right- if it were not billed as a DCD album - this is a solid piece of music, but compared to the dizzy heights of previous DCD albums, it's sorely disappointing.

It's really a Dionysian album! It looks more like a solo work by Brendan Perry than as a collective work, since Lissa Gerrard's participation is less and she is the one who is almost absent on this job. As a matter of fact, not even Perry sings much. It’s more an instrumental album and works as a soundtrack. There are some really excellent moments in this work, really brilliant. If there was no much use of synthesizer and the tribal sounds were all recorded by real instruments it would be better. There is a moment in album that the sound seems so cheap in quality using a very “cheap” beat rhythm (the forest) and also, “Dance of the Bacchantes” reminds some arabesque music style of the early nineties. On the other hand, “The Mountain” it’s so inspiring and the sound is so pagan that I mark it as one of their best. “Liberator of Minds” and “The Invocation” are also inspiring moments. At the end, the last movement of the album “Psychopomp” is so beautifully hypnotic, like being lost in a forest of elusions. So if we suppose the album has 7 songs, 5 of them are really inspiring. We keep the good moments (which are so good!) and wait for some more soon. I hope the band exist in the future and gives us more albums as a duet. I love Dionysus and he will keep me musically warm until he comes again, as a physical form, in spring! 7.5/10

Another one of those bands that will forever be linked to 4AD no matter how long the passage of time because, well, the music could only spring from one label and have I said touched by the hand of Ivo yet?To long term fans the music is no surprise, with the album consisting of two neo-classical Middle-Eastern pieces with a certain gothic splendour that make little concession to the 20th or 21st Century. It’s very, very good.

As always, the music is brilliant with DCD. The trouble with this one is the decision to clump all the songs together onto just 2 tracks labelled Act 1 and Act 2, so you can't select the songs you want to hear without having to hop around trying to find their start points.

First I am a fan of dead can dance and bought it on that basis alone. Found it to be different to most of previous works, more instrumental than the usual strong superb singing, tho there are doted throughout the cd. Moves through the story so well, and enjoyed every second of the LP. If you like DCD you will not be disappointed. If new hope you get as much pleasure from it as I do. Brilliant.

fabulously woven ethereal music as always- no one does it better than dead can dance!however, be aware that this is only 2 tracks and lasts just 36mins- more of an EP really.not enough of this fabulous music!

Amazing new music from Dead Can Dance. Dionysus taker us again to a trance journey inside ourselves and the world around. Melodies written to create the proper atmosphere to upfill the Soul to a intense voyage in the dream world!

The latest from Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. More beautiful music from Dead Can Dance who have an ability to touch somewhere deep inside and turn it light and bright against the darkness. Thank you both.