[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oglly2vt.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: Music/LisaGerrard and Brendan Perry.]]

Dead Can Dance (not to be confused with TheDeadCanDance) is an UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}n band, initially active from 1981 to 1998. Fronted by Brendan Perry and Music/LisaGerrard, it started out as a regular {{Goth}}ic / PostPunk act, and gradually broadened its scope with other musical genres (especially Neoclassical and World Music), all the while retaining a typical dark and brooding, but not specifically angsty, atmosphere. Due to its Ethereal Wave sound and being active on the Creator/FourADRecords label, the band was frequently associated with the DreamPop genre, despite the predominance of Neoclassical, Ethereal Wave, and World Music influences.

Their debut album, simply titled ''Dead Can Dance'' and released in 1984, is already a noticeable blend of Perry's rock influenced style and Gerrard's more introspective, borderline mystical one, but arguably the Post-punk leanings make it more of an example of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness. The same dynamic is felt in their next two albums: ''Spleen and Ideal'' (the title is a [[LiteraryAllusionTitle reference]] to ''Charles Baudelaire'') and ''Within the Realm of a Dying Sun,'' but these gradually dialed down the Post-punk goth elements in favour of the band's SignatureStyle.

At that point they started experimenting with classical instruments (oboe, string section) and in their following album: ''The Serpent's Egg,'' they introduced baroque and medieval rhythms, laying the groundwork for their seminal work ''Aion.'' They next ventured into Oriental influenced music with ''Into the Labyrinth,'' their first album to be released in the [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates USA,]] and Lisa Gerrard developed what would become her SignatureStyle during her subsequent solo career, the OneWomanWail.

After one more album: ''Spiritchaser,'' which attempted to explore tribal rhythms, the duo split up in 1998. They temporarily reunited for a world tour in 2005. In 2011, they reunited again. They released a new album: ''Anastasis,'' in 2012, and ''Dionysus'' six years later.
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!! Discography:

* ''[[SelfTitledAlbum Dead Can Dance]]'' (1984); CD versions add the ''Garden of the Arcane Delights'' EP as bonus tracks.
* ''Spleen and Ideal'' (1986)
* ''Within the Realm of a Dying Sun'' (1987)
* ''The Serpent's Egg'' (1988)
* ''Aion'' (1990)
* ''A Passage in Time'' (1991), compilation released exclusively for the USA where their albums were previously not available.
* ''Into the Labyrinth'' (1993), their first album distributed in the USA after the 4AD-Creator/WarnerBrosRecords deal.
* ''Toward the Within'' (1994), the band's only official live album.
* ''Spiritchaser'' (1996)
* ''Anastasis'' (2012)
* ''Dionysus'' (2018)
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!! ''Dead Can Dance'' provide examples of:

* CoverVersion: They were prone to recording covers of traditional songs, e.g. "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" on ''Into the Labyrinth.'' They also were on the receiving end when Music/{{Ride}} took a stab at "Severance" for a Peel session. Music/{{Bauhaus}} covered the same song for their live album ''Gotham.''
* DarkerAndEdgier: Yes, compared to their early material, they managed to darker and edgier themselves by dialing up the ominousness.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: As noted, their first album in particular is more influenced by PostPunk and GothRock compared to their more famous brooding mystical prophets of doom style.
* ForDoomTheBellTolls: "Orbis de Ignis."
* GothRock: A TropeMaker and {{Trope Codifier}} (along with Music/CocteauTwins) for the Goth Rock subgenre, Ethereal Wave.
* IAmTheBand: ''Into the Labyrinth'' was the first album Perry and Gerrard wrote and recorded entirely by themselves, without the guest musicians of previous outings.
* OneWomanWail: Lisa Gerrard.
* RecycledTrailerMusic: "The Host of Seraphim" was very popular for '90s movie trailers.
* {{Sampling}}: They did it quite a bit. Also, Gerrard's vocals from "Dawn of the Iconoclast" were sampled by ''Future Sound of London'' for the track "Papua New Guinea."
* {{Scatting}}: Lisa Gerrard, again. Probably the most famous practitioner of such on Creator/FourADRecords besides Music/CocteauTwins' Elizabeth Fraser.
* SopranoAndGravel: A very unusual form. Brendan Perry's songs are often more traditional and focused while Lisa Gerrard's songs are far more raw and tribal. Their styles can be so radically different that one would be forgiven for mistaking them as being performed by two entirely different bands. Naturally, they both like to switch it up on occasion.
* WordSaladLyrics: Frequent. Even Brendan Perry does it on occasion.
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