More than 400,000 plays on Spotify. They might not sound like many to the shallow eyes of hip-hop followers, but the number of plays “Your Broken Shore” has reached turns into quite an achievement once we remember this is the first single off My Dying Bride’s new album, a death/doom metal album. Death/doom is among the least fashionable metal subgenres, even compared with its pothead sibling, stoner/doom. Just compare the popularity of Electric Wizard with that of Saturnus. However, Halifax-based My Dying Bride are the irrefutable leaders of the genre with a 30-year career in which, unlike their Halifax neighbours Paradise Lost, the band barely dared to depart from the genre that put them in the cassette decks of metalheads who were tired of the tempo-increasing death metal in the 90s. Hence, the release of a new LP from the Halifax doomsters is an important celebration that brings smiles, not too many of course, to doom metal followers all over the globe.
The circumstances under which the Bride wrote, recorded and launched their 14th full-length album were pretty eerie and full of uncertainty even for a band of such a gloomy nature. Having literally vanished from the stages, My Dying Bride cancelled a frightening number of live performances in 2018. A possible internal conflict was feared by followers. Unfortunately, singer and founding member Aaron Stainthorpe would then reveal that all cancellations were a consequence of his daughter being fighting cancer. Some time later, the Bride would announce Aaron’s daughter was defeating the bug. Line-up changes were also affecting the band. Since the release of Feel the Misery, five years ago, the band saw the departure of two elements: founding member and rhythm guitarist Calvin Robertshaw, and drummer Shaun Taylor-Steels. Although having played in all the band’s classic albums, Robertshaw had just recently re-joined the band after a long hiatus, not even having taken part of the writing of Feel the Misery. On top of this, My Dying Bride parted ways with Peaceville Records, their until-then only label in their 13-album career. This event put the last nail in the coffin for the legend of the Peaceville Big Three: Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride. Notwithstanding Peaceville’s historical relevance, a much bigger label signed the Bride, no other than German metal giant Nuclear Blast, making My Dying Bride labelmates with Paradise Lost for the first time in 28 years.
My Dying Bride announced as early as the 3rd of January of this sci-fi-movie-look-like year that they were set to drop their new album on March and that it would be titled The Ghost Of Orion. But fans had to frown and read twice this Facebook post as My Dying Bride warned they had written a “more accessible album”. Known for having demanded some artists to change their direction before, Nuclear Blast was the first suspect behind these words. How “accessible” is this new album? What are the audial consequences of Aaron’s personal struggle? Did Calvin Robertshaw write parts of this new album during his stint in the band? How did the departure of Taylor-Steels affect the drumming in The Ghost of Orion? Let’s find out the answers to this questions.
First of all, nope, The Ghost of Orion is not a poppy gothic metal album. In spite of their 1998 short jaunt outside the doom metal genre in their 34.788%… Complete, My Dying Bride are not a U-turns band. Their sound’s been pretty consistent in comparison with the vast majority of bands in the genre. So, The Ghost of Orion is certainly a My Dying Bride album. Andrew Craighan’s signature lead guitar playing sounds at its best, constantly embellishing the songs with beautiful melancholic melodies.
According to a recent interview, Andy, being the main composer for the band, had to re-arrange all the material written by both lost members, turning out into almost completely different tracks. Particularly in drums, one can taste a difference. Kill II This and ex-Pardise Lost drummer Jeff Singer took over the drums duties. I’ve no idea of how much drummers get involved in the writing process in My Dying Bride, but, for example, the tiring use of the bass drum in Feel the Misery, also prevailing in A Line of Deathless Kings (2006), is gone here. There are no traces of fast death metal drums either, which had fleetingly appeared in their recent albums. In general, drums are not as dynamic as before. The album is slower than its predecessor, the death-metal-infused Feel the Misery. The tempo and general mood of the album are remarkable similar to A Map of All Our Failures (2012), an album which was hardly criticised due to its powerless character and tempo, yet lauded by others for its overload of melancholy.
Hoping to soothe the excitement of death metal fans who praised Feel the Misery, My Dying Bride described The Ghost of Orion as «accessible» as a warning. A first spin to the entirety of the album reveals that it just won’t get more accessible than first single “Your Broken Shore”. The intriguing, almost frightening, simplicity of this song reminds me of that catchy song that metal bands include in their albums, normally allocated as track number 2, in order to promote the release. Not only does “Your Broken Shore” rely on a verse-chorus-verse structure, which certainly is not the first time the Bride recurs to, it also switches clean vocals in the verse to growls in the chorus ensuring the born of an earworm. I wouldn’t put it past their contract to request the band to write a radio hit for the Easter break. However, My Dying Bride used these tricks before, listen to “I Celebrate Your Skin”, for instance. “Your Broken Shore” is still an effective doom metal song though, featuring the required hope-crushing melodies on Andy’s guitar and a bleak atmosphere.
How far from this broken shore is the boat carrying the other tracks? While second single “Tired of Tears” reflects sheer passion and sorrow, it can qualify for the weakest track of the album in terms of dynamism and heaviness, yet the use of violin in this one is simply gorgeous and effective. A more familiar My Dying Bride can be heard in tracks “The Long Black Land” and “The Old Earth”, which are definitely the pick of the bunch. Both running for 10 minutes, these particular songs still have that feeling, not only of melancholy, but also of dismay and despair, that The Dreadful Hours (2001) and Songs of Darkness, Words of Light (2004) reflected. These songs present a more complex structure with meticulously placed growls amid the predominant clean vocals. Aaron screaming in despair “listen to my voice!” reminds me of nothing but him screaming “I cannot turn my life unto you!” in their hit “The Prize of Beauty”. The guitar work in these tracks is also stunning, classic My Dying Bride riffs and solos. “The Old Earth” replicates the riffing style the band offered in days as old as their masterpiece The Angel and the Dark River (1995).
Almost flawless in the album as a whole, Andy’s work on guitars can be regarded as the cornerstone of The Ghost of Orion. In fact, the dependency on keyboards and violin for creating the band’s unique mournful atmosphere is undermined here. The Ghost of Orion is a guitar-driven album, which is something I’m sure not many will complain about, specially with such jaw-dropping weeping guitars. Having Been absent for a while after Martin Powell’s departure in 1998, the violin is a characteristic element of My Dying Bride’s signature sound. Nevertheless, seldom does the violin play an important role in this album. In this regard, Andy shows in “The Solace” how to create a whole atmosphere using only his “weeping” guitars, a style that has been adopted by plenty of doom metal bands. This track features Lindy Fay Hella of Wardruna fame. I’m still not sure her vocal style fits in a track in the pure style of Mournful Congregation‘s typical guitar-only sections.
Although delivering an excellent performance in growls, Aaron’s clean vocals are for me, unfortunately, the biggest down side of this album. It was known from interviews that the recording of vocals represented quite a challenge for Aaron. At a very first listen to “Your Broken Shore”, the first track revealed prior to the release date, I genuinely believed I was listening to Novembers Doom’s Paul Kuhr whose gutturals are some of the best in the world, but whose clean vocals are always multi-tracked and are not particularly my cup of tea. Yep, Aaron’s cleans have permanently at least two tracks. Of course, he’s done that before, for instance in “Fall With Me” from For Lies I Sire (2009). However, never before had he relied so much on this resource. This is what makes The Ghost of Orion sound different to the Bride’s back catalogue. Aaron also gave up spoken words, although these ones were barely heard in Feel the Misery anyway.
The Ghost of Orion is certainly a simpler album in terms of structure and writing. Not accounting interlude-style tracks, the album has only five songs. Although, well, the band’s biggest masterpiece, 1993’s Turn Loose the Swans, had five long tracks too. The Ghost of Orion is also overcome by the standard My Dying Bride output in terms of heaviness, probably with the exception of A Map of All Our Failures. Nevertheless, it is remarkable how, as above mentioned, this album still sounds like a My Dying Bride one. The band’s style, although eclectic from album to album, has always remained under the same umbrella for 30 years and 14 albums. Just think of how much your music taste has changed since the 90s. On this note, My Dying Bride’s discography also include albums like Like Gods of the Sun (1996), and let alone 34.788%… Complete (1998), which are closer to gothic metal, therefore a little bit of experimentation shouldn’t be a surprise for us. In addition, The Ghost of Orion has a first-class production, definitely higher than their latest releases. Hence, all in all, My Dying Bride’s new album is an enjoyable record with highs and lows, but still a fine work and a worthy element of the band’s impressive catalogue.
-PABLO CUSTODIO
