Best My Dying Bride album

[Blue Moon]

Greetings.

I'd like to know what is the best MDB album according to your tastes, and why it's the best. I only own The Angel and the Dark River and liked it, although I heard it's not their best work to date. What do you think ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[yourdeadgroom]

Bloody hell, you don't ask for much, do you

OK, here goes..........
"The Angel..." utterly changed my life, and I don't mean in some small 'I'd never heard doom before and was blown away' type thing (though that does happen to be the case ), it actually changed everything. So I guess really it has to be that album. The guitar riffs, the way the violin interplays with them, the solid vocals; everything is just so wonderful and bleak.
BUT
the band are way too complex, and the albums too varied for me to just say 'listen to this album and you will see everything the band is about', because you won't.
For instance, "TAATDR" has personal implications, but I'd go along with the general consensus that "Turn Loose The Swans" is their best album, interms of everything the band is about- it captures the utterly oppressive riffs of the first album & EPs (which are fantastic also), and the more gothy/romantic-type atmosphere of later albums, so if you're looking for a diffinitive album, it's probably that.

All the other albums are excellent, though, one of the few bands of which I love every album, so it's kinda hard for me to seperate them out like this- I think more in terms of the band, not so much individual albums (if I put one cd on, I end up listening to them all, very time consuming ).

 

[~Zeanra~]

I only have Like gods of the sun,The light at the end of the world and The dreadful hours,and I like all of them. I can't say which one is the best because I don't have them all,and I've heard the previous albums are good too. Turn loose the swans is on my list But MDB (and Opeth) were the first doom-metal bands which I heard so they are important to me.

 

[Russell]

I haven't got them all ........... yet

 

[TexasFriedCriminal]

While I've yet to find a MDB album that I don't like (and I have them all ) my personal faves right now are The Angel And The Dark River, for sentimental and personal reasons, as above and The Light At The End Of The World because of it's catchiness.

though I still have to listen more to the first two albums, which I also only got recently, just as The Dreadful Hours.

 

[Gdc]

Their latest masterpiece "The Dreadful Hours"!
Before that album it was "Turn Loose the Swans" but the new album is really amasing, the title track is in my opinion the best song they have written so far!

 

[Depth]

The best album of My Dying Bride is ....
ALL of them!!!!!!!!!!!!! except 34.....% Complete.
Because all albums are different and absolutely amazing...
Always METAL

 

[dill_the_devil]

'The Dreadful Hours', but only because I'm still in the honeymoon period with it after getting it to review.
I love all of the other albums too, even 34.788% Complete...

 

[NastyJoan]

Well like my friend above I like all of My Dying Bride except 34.788%...Complete but if i have to pick only one it would be absolutely:

The Angel and the Dark River :hotjump:


this album always has been a classic to me , I listen to it over and over and never get bored of it. Marvelous masterpiece that in its time makes My Dying Bride one of the greatest bands of all time

 

[Blue Moon]

Greetings.

Wow, didn't know there was that much fans of MDB in here... Think I'll go for the last release or Turn loose the swans first ; I'll follow the hype

Thanks all.

 

[HarmonyDies....]

What is wrong with 34...... complete just curious not that I own it..

 

[Blue Moon]

Greetings.

Harmony dies... I've had the same question in fact. I've seen quite a lot of reviews saying it was from very good to so-so, but the fans don't seem to like it... Why ?

 

[HarmonyDies....]

Great Minds think alike

 

[MindMorgue]

The reason some fans don't like 38...% complete is because it is a bit experimental and very different to all the other albums, it was the first album without the violins and also it had a much more modern feel to the lyrics, the band hadn't returned to the doom/death style of the last two albums which are more in the vein of there earlier work ('as the flower withers' & 'turn loose the swans') and it also contained the 'Heroin chic' song which is very un-bride-like. Personally I like the album a lot, but many didn't. Hope that answers your question a bit.

As for the best album, I'd have to go for 'Turn loose the swans' though I need to listen to the new one a bit more.

MindMorgue.

 

[TexasFriedCriminal]

I like it, it's different but still good, actually the only MDB that I don't really like is LGoTS

 

[D Mullholand]

My favourite is hands down 34.788%... Complete.

'34.788%...Complete' is like a more hope-ridden version of Blade Runner set to metal music. The futuristic sounds and the nihilistic lyrics mix perfectly with MDB's devastated and melancholic riffing...
In every song we are presented pictures and scenes from this urban meta-banal nightmare. 'Children play with broken glass, kill themselves for a laugh'... This world has its imprints on every story, even on the most noble ones, like 'Der Uberlebende' - I see a picture of a lone immortal human who leads an abandoned life, a man who forgot even who he is, existing in emotional devastation and living from day to day on fragments of old memories ('I have seen them, I have watched them all fall') - nothing can surprise him anymore. He'll exist forever.
Even the narrators in the songs, as played by Aaron, are unsympathetic to the listener - like in the end of 'The Stance of Evander Sinque'. After we see the tragic end of this man, as a conclusion of a one-versus-crowd conflict extended to the verge of hyper-realism, the narrator says : 'Who was he, this crazy man ? Just a loser, to the end !..'
'Heroin Chic' is MDB's doomiest song. Not a slight beam of hope. This is pure doom, even if instead of the usual doom-device (plodding guitars etc) it's presented as a music/sound/stream of consciousness-collage; all elements fit - the noise, the background female vocals... 'Hope it rains. Hope it rains a lot'... the character has lost all personality and forgot his human essence, now he is 'shit and scum' like everybody else around him - 'Life for life is just the way it's at... I don't remember the last time I laughed...' No beginning and no ending, this is his life every single day - a grey circle with an abrupt ending somewhere, in case it's in reality a spiral.
With 'Basic Level Erotica' we are shown a way to escape this grim reality, but the way is only an illusion, a temporary remedy... The ending riff is repeated to no end, like we want to force our stay in this illusion, to extend the release, knowing it is impossible...
'Under My Wings And Into Youe Arms' is an enigmatic song. We sense an approach to a turning point, an intention, a wish to escape, but there is no definite ending, and we're left only to guess if this was a moment of hope, and if there is an exit...

All songs are great, it's a grossly underrated masterpiece. It's imperfect, but impressive. A shame most metalkopfs let themselves be turned off by the electronic sounds and are lured by their own limitations into thinking that this must've been a 'sell-out'. Very unfortunate, that even the band became too scared of what they've done. But they've redeemed their temporary fears with the excellent 'TLATEOTW' and 'The Dreadful Hours'.

D Mullholand

 

[Katmandoom]

ALL OF THEM!! in different ways, they are all good, you can feel the evolution in each album .
My very favorite is Turn Loose The Swans" though. majestic work on this one! "The ANgel and the Dark River" is really interesting too! more "erotic" if i can say and the new one Dreadful Hours is definitly a good buy!

MDB absolutly RULE!!!!

 

[Blue Moon]

Greetings.

D Mullholand : Awesome review... you sure brought a sudden interest in this bastard child that seems to be 34%....Complete. I know I would not be turned down by the electronic sounds ; if a band choose to use whatever device they want to express their art, it's perfect. I love bands that dare to leave common paths... that's why I have a problem with nowadays power metal or "true" (ahem) black metal. They want to play it safe, so they sound like everybody else.

Again, thanks for the extensive review.