Dead Can Dance were always distinguished by a refusal to accept that music was a transient, fleeting fancy of humankind, forever reaching back to realms untouched by most modern musicians. On Immortal Memory, that approach is taken to its most fundamental extremes. The opening track, "The Song of Amergin", is an interpretation of what legend holds is the first poem uttered on Irish soil by a mortal being; later on the album there's an arrangement of "The Lord's Prayer" in Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus.

The music on Immortal Memory is Gerrard at her best: graceful, melodramatic orchestrations underpinning her extraordinary, keening voice. Gerrard remains a unique and treasurable talent, and Immortal Memory is a masterpiece. --Andrew Mueller

Description
As soft and eloquent as a prayer, as vast and impressive asa mountain, this is a grand work by former Dead Can Dance singer Lisa Gerrard and Irish composer Patrick Cassidy. The name of the second track, "Elegy", fits the mood here perfectly; this is music firmly rooted in the classical mystic soilof Gorecki and Handel, but branching up through mysterious blackened thunder clouds.
On "Sailing to Byzantium", strings and droning vocals slide in and out of each other beforesome echoing cannon-fire percussion appears on the horizon,slowly adding dimensions of emotion. For the haunting "Our Father", Gerrard brings her voice down an octave, with results both protean and sophisticated. She reaches down even lower on "Paradise Lost", as if embodying the genderless voice of the whole human soul as it moves through the fleeting darkness of mortality. What lyrics there are here come mostly from ancient languages--Gaelic, Aramaic, Latin--adding up to the ancient, otherworldly feel. This music may evoke the mourning rites of death, but it also conjures the immortal spirit's ascent to heaven.