Probably the greatest asset of ‘The Eternal Return’ is its consistency. This album never wonders aimlessly, never just plots along – it is smoothly constructed, balancing well between near-eastern exotic, Orthodox Christian mystique, Medieval European legends and a pinch of occult beauty. The sound is rich and multilayered, and very natural – just like on ‘Seraphim’, the band uses little (if any) keyboards and samples, relying on an impressively vast array of atraditional Balkand, Western European and Near Eastern isntruments including sanz, oud, bhodran, duduk and kaval.

The backbone of each track is the strong and quite varied rhythm section consisting of Kalin Yordanov and Peter Todorov, while multiinstrumentalists Ivaylo Petrov and Yasen Lazarov add layer after layer of texture and melody. The splendid Denitza Seraphim's voice is another defining moment for this album (as was for the last) – her presence is so strong we could hardly imagine those tracks performed by any other.
 

IRFAN's mastery goes beyond the strictly musical and instrumental. The lyrics and the themes involved display an enviable competence in Medieval history and culture (after all, Yordanov is a historian and Medievalist). Thus, ‘The Eternal Return’ truly feels like a journey through the First bulgarian Kingdom, the Crusader-occupied city of Damascus and a strange cave in the Sahara desert with depictions of people swimming in the waters of a lake that once was.

And even though we strongly recommend you listen to this album thoroughly from beginning til end, we should point out the extatically beautiful ‘Burana’ (in which the kaval winds melody after melody), ‘Tebe Poem’ (based on a Medieval Orthodox chant, beautifully performed by Seraphim) as well as the slow a sorrowful ‘In The Gardens of Armida’ (telling the story of the impossible love between a Saracen sorceress and a Templar knight). It is no coincidence that this review starts and ends with the mention of Dead Can Dance.

‘The Eternal Return’ contains a DCD track that IRFAN have often played at their concerts but has so far never been recorded in a studio. Petrov and Yordanov have created a version of the track and with the blessing of Brendan Perry himself (who also named the song), ‘Salamander’ finally made it to a physical release.