MY DYING BRIDE: Turn Loose The Swans (DOOM): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

In one record, the Englishmen of My Dying Bride made a name for themselves in the British and European extreme metal scene. A little more than a year later, "Turn Loose The Swans" arrives to definitely confirm the hopes placed in the band.

My Dying Bride decided this time to focus on dark and melancholic atmospheres. Vocally, Aaron hardly growls anymore and indulges in a plaintive, almost spoken vocal accentuating the Doom and Gothic aspects. The tracks often stretch over seven minutes allowing the atmospheres to slowly develop, thanks to the violin more and more present or via the guitars which weave a dark and heavy canvas.

My Dying Bride is thus gloomy and funereal, and offers us to listen to a soundtrack of the end of the world, without any light. Through this seven track edifice, the listener becomes a kind of penitent condemned to eternal damnation. 'Sear Me MCMXCIII' and 'Black God' are the entrance and exit of this purgatory. Slow, more spoken than sung by a priest of the underworld, they are accompanied by piano and violin melodies that sink inexorably into the mind.

From 'Your River', a long and slow litany with the appearance of a dark procession that ends with threatening Death vocals, to 'The Songless Bird', passing by the sumptuous "The Snow In My Hand" magnified by the sounds of violin, My Dying Bride builds a work in which Doom, Death and Gothic mix. The brutal passages of the titles allow to go out from a deceptive torpor to make us fall back in a malevolent reality.

While their colleagues of the same generation soften their words, My Dying Bride has decided to do the opposite and delve into the meanders of the human soul through a first-class Doom. With this masterful "Turn Loose The Swans", the British band seizes the throne of the genre and it is hard to see who could or would dare to dislodge them. - Official website

MY DYING BRIDE

TURN LOOSE THE SWANS

PEACEVILLE RECORDS

DOOM