Right from the start of their second album with the dramatic vocals, drums and rich instrumental textures of “De Profundis (Out of the Depths of Sorrow),” one can hear Dead Can Dance suddenly become the version of the band that became a worldwide subcultural obsession.

Creating a kind of elegantly intense kind of romantic medievalism that was never exactly one thing or another, symbolist in their own description and feeling ritualistic in general, Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry, each in commanding voice, felt like they’d started invoking deep powers.