My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark River (Peaceville)

My playlist during the cold season consists largely of doom oriented music and themes. As the ice is almost upon us, I've been listening to My Dying Bride more than usual. It just seems to fit the mood of these months better than in the summer. It seems to convey a certain mood unlike any other art form. It's hard to describe exactly the intense emotion that MDB evokes in me, but it is this mood that gets me through. Although stylistically removed from releases like As the Flower Withers and Turn Loose the Swans, this LP is much more foreboding than anything they have done previously. The cookie monster vocals have been completely forsaken for this release, and the music has become considerably more slow and emotional. Driven by chunky guitar and heady bass, one cannot help but let the depression gnaw, nor can they ignore it. Rarely are the tracks any less than 6 1/2 minutes in duration, and you are held in rapture for the extent of each. Beautiful aural landscapes are rounded out by ambient violins and various acoustic riffs, all the while retaining it's sinister overtones. Clocking in at 12+ minutes, the opening track The Cry of Mankind is a contusive retelling of the loss of hope for mankind in the vein of Milton's Paradise Lost, with an unnamed dark figure at it's universal center. Aaron Stainthorpe's lyrics are thick with implication, and there is no room for a waning moment between chugs and squeals, save the dolefulness of Two Winters Only, a sadly wrought epic tale of the eternal struggle for power and the absence of God. These tracks are all structured with the utmost integrity, and the production is exquisite, which is a rarity among the denizens of the Peaceville Records artist roster. Look no further than early releases by Darkthrone if you doubt me. MDB is a band that takes ownership of it's misery, and sells it well to the individual listener. Cherish every painful second.



- C. Kolakowski