Dead Can Dance commented on their official website regarding the name of the band and album: To understand why we chose the name, think of the transformation of inanimacy to animacy.

The musicians who performed on the album were Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard, Paul Erikson, James Pinker and Peter Ulrich.

[2] The album cover includes a photo of a piece of artwork from Papua New Guinea on the left side,[3] and on the right, the Greek characters "ΔΞΛΔ CΛΝ ΔΛΝCΞ", which aimed to visually resemble the title "DEAD CAN DANCE".

Some editions included Dead Can Dance's next release, the EP Garden of the Arcane Delights, added onto the end of the album.

In its retrospective review, AllMusic wrote that, with the album, "Perry and Gerrard created a striking, dour landmark in early-'80s atmospherics".