My Dying Bride

[MasterOLightning]

I sampled "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light" at the local record store the other day, thought it was good and bought it. After looking at the MDB forum and finding it abandoned, I searched here for MDB. Apparently many of you find them to be a band on the decline. I've not heard their older material so I can't compare. I'd definitely want to get more of their albums, so any recommendations or other thoughts on MDB would be welcome. What don't you like about the new album, or what makes it worse than the others? The second track is crap, and the lyrics are kind of lame at times, but I can live with that.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Hehe I just happen to be listening to thier new album right now Well I don't particularly think they are on a steady decline, SoDWoL is definitely not as good as its predicessor The Dreadful Hours, but that album is one of their best albums ever, so obviously they are not at the end of the line. My main gripe with the new album is although it sounds very good and is a good listen it lacks the excellent songwriting of some of its predicessors. Still a solid release, just shamed by some of their others...

Breift Summary:

As the Flower Withers- Doom/Death which definitely has it's moments, but when the band leans towards the death side it becomes rather weak.

Turn Loose the Swans- Dark and dynamic with an excellent mix of clean and growled vocals, lots of violins and keyboards and excellent songwriting. Very passionate and emotional.

Angel and the Dark River- An emphisis on their gothic elements and a elemination of the death elements. Nevertheless a brillant work with phenominal songwriting, melodies, and violin gallore. Their best work IMO.

Like Gods of the Sun- Even cleaner then Angel... this album really lacks heart (other then a few standout tracks such as "A Kiss to Remeber" and "For My Fallen Angel") and the songwriting is rather dull and unoriginal

34.7888% Complete- Hated by many as the band abandons doom metal all together. The loss of their excellent violinist and drummer altered their sound a lot. This is dark, somewhat electronic metal. Hard to describe. Good but far from great.

The Light at the End of the World- A return to doom metal, including the return of growled vocals. At times excellent, but way too much filler.

The Dreadful Hours- The bands passionate and powerful ressurection with excellent song writing, tons of dynamics and a wide array of vocals.

So I'd say pick up Swans, Angel and Hours, as all are excellent. If you really like those then go for the others...

 

[Krilons Resa]

Hehe I just happen to be listening to thier new album right now Well I don't particularly think they are on a steady decline, SoDWoL is definitely not as good as its predicessor The Dreadful Hours, but that album is one of their best albums ever, so obviously they are not at the end of the line. My main gripe with the new album is although it sounds very good and is a good listen it lacks the excellent songwriting of some of its predicessors. Still a solid release, just shamed by some of their others...

Breift Summary:

As the Flower Withers- Doom/Death which definitely has it's moments, but when the band leans towards the death side it becomes rather weak.

Turn Loose the Swans- Dark and dynamic with an excellent mix of clean and growled vocals, lots of violins and keyboards and excellent songwriting. Very passionate and emotional.

Angel and the Dark River- An emphisis on their gothic elements and a elemination of the death elements. Nevertheless a brillant work with phenominal songwriting, melodies, and violin gallore. Their best work IMO.

Like Gods of the Sun- Even cleaner then Angel... this album really lacks heart (other then a few standout tracks such as "A Kiss to Remeber" and "For My Fallen Angel") and the songwriting is rather dull and unoriginal

34.7888% Complete- Hated by many as the band abandons doom metal all together. The loss of their excellent violinist and drummer altered their sound a lot. This is dark, somewhat electronic metal. Hard to describe. Good but far from great.

The Light at the End of the World- A return to doom metal, including the return of growled vocals. At times excellent, but way too much filler.

The Dreadful Hours- The bands passionate and powerful ressurection with excellent song writing, tons of dynamics and a wide array of vocals.

So I'd say pick up Swans, Angel and Hours, as all are excellent. If you really like those then go for the others...

Couldn't agree more.

 

[MasterOLightning]

Thanks a lot! That's great. Anyone else?

 

[Nico]

Turn Loose the Swans... magnificent

 

[[0hr]Sunlapse]

As The Flower Withers - Very raw and death-y, pretty good, but one of their weakest... theres some killer death metal on here like "The Forever People" though

Turn Loose The Swans - One of their best.... very strong songwriting, vocals, excellent use of the violin, mixes really heavy stuff with mellow stuff well

Angel And The Dark River - Probably their most depressing/emotional album, wierd but great guitar tone, death vocals are gone but that doesn't matter one bit, music is still very heavy and doomy in many places, calmer in other

Like Gods Of The Sun - Their worst. I can hardly remember anything from it.

34.7888% Complete - Experimental, and very successful imo.... a complete switch from gothic doom to something like "industrial doom".... very heavy in parts, and very interesting parts as well.... stuff like the wierd trip-hop-doom song and the clean guitar/phone conversation on the first track are career highlights imo

The Light At The End Of The World - This one takes a lot of flak, but its definately my favorite MDB album.... it doesnt have a ton of variety, but the guitar work is awesome.... its their most melodic-guitar driven album, awesome guitar parts and riffs, very emotional as well. its also one of their most depressing sounding albums. Growling also returned here.

The Dreadful Hours - Could be a continuation of the last, but with a lot more variety, the melodic guitars aren't always the focal points, and there's a fair variety of moods to be found, very epic in parts, track 3 is very different and excellent. One of their strongest.

Songs Of Darkness Words Of Light - Awesome album. Thier darkest, and probably most atmospheric.... songwriting is very epic, and overall relies more on atmosphere rather than guitar. I love the church-organ sound, the climax of track 3, the dreamy yet slightly-fucked feel of track 4, the creepy yet cool break in track 7, the awesome climax of 8, etc etc....


To be honest, MDB have always been awesome and are still awesome, they certainly arent on a decline. Only 1 mediocre album, but the rest are all great.... each album has their own sound, focus, and identity, but still remain 100% MDB.... they have great strength in progressing rather than stagnating.

 

[None_So_Vile]

crimsonfloyd and sunlapse said it very well, although i dont think Like Gods of the Sun is THAT bad but it's definitely one of their weakest efforts and probably their most commercial sounding

 

[LordFireworm]

Why the hell is Gods of the Sun being knocked about? It has two of their best songs on it!
Those being "For You" and "For My Fallen Angel".