My Dying Bride : "A Mortal Binding"

The band's 14th full length, stays true to who they are, without being predictable. You never know what side of these guys you are going to get, anything from morose doom to the dark vein of death metal they helped create to melodic goth rock with major depression. This album seems to be uncertain as well. It starts off with compact punchy death metal, and then the second song gifts into their more sorrowful take on doom. Both work well. The wailing tones of the violin weeps over the low-end crunch. Guitar solos are well paced and deliberate with every not counting to draw out the melodies. While Aarons's growl on the first song is not as guttural, his sung vocals are more refined. In both cases, the vocals are really well produced and mixed. 

"The Second of Three Bells" starts off in melancholic doom, and builds into punchy death metal. The doomy passages have a more majestic atmosphere to them ."Unthroned Creed' is one of the album's best songs. The guitars ride a taunt groove, as the vocals have room to emote their hooks. the drumming gracefully navigates the time changes. The 11-minute epic "the Apocalypist" is sprawling in a manner that only a few bands do well, these guys being one of the few as the twists and turns keep your interest. But still, 11 minutes is a lot to digest. 

"A Starving Heart " is one of those songs that even before the vocals come in you would know is My Dying Bride. Aaron is singing from his depressed place that I love and only two minutes into the song I am sold. The distinct phrasing of the riff that opens the closing dirge "Crushed Embers" is another moment that bears the band's fingerprints well. The pleading croon of the vocals is where his voice sits best. They are masters of pouring on the sorrow, which is a quality that sets the doom genre apart from other kinds of metal. Say all you want about sub-genres in metal but there is no way what they are doing could be considered or confused with anything aside from doom. It carries a mournful beauty that this song clearly defines. I will give this one a 9.5, and see how it sits on me, it is hard for me to think of the 11-minute sprawl as perfect, keeping this album from being perfect, though it might grow on me, but 9.5, is better than what most doom bands are doing these days, and preserves their legacy well. This is dropping on April 19th on Nuclear Blast. 

 

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