DEAD CAN DANCE - The Serpent's Egg LP

The followup to Within the Realm of a Dying Sun is essentially a continuation and complementary piece to that album, with Gerrard and Perry leaving behind gothic rock entirely in favour of strange, ethereal realms. The crowning glory of the album has to be opening track The Host of Seraphim, in which Gerrard's ghostly vocals and the instrumental backing create an evocative and unique fusion of Gregorian chant and ambient music.

Indeed, the album as a whole is an intriguing mixture of traditional music and ambient or New Age influences, yielding a cross-genre masterpiece which can be approached and appreciated from many different perspectives.