My Dying Bride is a Romantic
Death Doom metal band, formerly at the forefront of the British Death Doom movement in the early 90s. Music of the band is implacable slow, thick, has heavy chords allied with remarkably morose lyrics.
The initial formation numbered
Aaron Stainthorpe (vocal),
Andrew Craighan (guitar),
Calvin Robertshaw (guitar) and
Rick Miah (drums). The band released the '
Towards The Sinister' demo. They followed this with the '
God Is Alone' 7" single. Then they released the '
Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrum' EP in 1992, debuting new bassist
Ade Jackson in the process.
My Dying Bride's first full-length album ,'
As The Flower Withers' arriving in May 1992, established the band among press and fans alike. The group had driven deep into the core essence of doom, drastically overhauling every aspect of its composition.
Prior to the groundbreaking 1993 '
Turn Loose The Swans' album, which came in three different sleeves, the band added violinist/keyboardist
Martin to the band. 'Turn Loose The Swans', incepting with the piano and violin lament of 'Sear Me MCMXC III' and hinged on the utterly woeful 'The Crown Of Sympathy', slowed the pace even further and plunged ever deeper into slug like doom.
Album '
The Angel And The Dark River' (1995), six slabs of morose melancholy, marked a shift in the band's strategy, for the first time dropping the Death growl of
Stainthorpe in favor of a "clean" vocal delivery.
My Dying Bride's fourth full-length endeavour, '
Like Gods Of The Sun', hit home in October 1996 in similar bleak fashion to its predecessor
October 1998 saw My Dying Bride issuing the experimental '
34.788%... Complete' album with yet another new drummer ex-Dominion man
Bill Law. The record witnessed a deliberate break from the expected Gothic imagery associated with the band and provided a challenge for their existing fan base. A sharp division of opinion branded the album either as a somnambulistic, self indulgent failure or a richly rewarding diversion. Stainthorpe's vocals on '34.788%... Complete' took on a heavily distorted air, keyboards and samples usurped guitars and song structures ebbed and flowed without formal structure.
The '
Light At The End Of The World' album would be viewed as a return to form, including a reprise for Stainthorpe's early growling, after the side step braved by '34.788%... Complete'.
The 2002 offering '
The Dreadful Hours' included a re-make of 'The Return Of The Beautiful' from the debut record, re-billed as 'Return To The Beautiful'. My Dying Bride themselves witnessed a change of keyboard players in April 2002 when Sarah Stanton took over from Yasmine Ahmed.
The band returned in March of 2004 with the album '
Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light', warning fans in advance that change was in the air and that the track 'My Wine In Silence' was their most commercial effort to date.
The album '
A Line Of Deathless Kings' was recorded during mid 2006. The accompanying single, 'Deeper Down', hitting number 15 on the Finnish charts, was issued as an "Uberdoom" edit with exclusive studio track 'The Child Of Eternity'.
List of
My Dying Bride videos.
