Customer Reviews

Songs of Darkness: Words of Light

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm writing this review for not only this new album, but over 10 years of beautiful, introspective, and yes, depressing evil suicide music. Andy, the lead guitarist, has been a hero to me. His riffs, they embody the feelings, the sadness, the bleakness, of a nuclear holocaust survivor. He has inspired my guitar playing, he has enhanced my vision of a failing America, he has given me solace on many a stormy night. His riffs, on any MDB album, along with Ade the bass player and Aaron on vocals are the core of this great, great band. While they have lost a drummer, a rythm guitarist, and most noticably Martin(currently Cradle of Filth's pianist) on violin and keys, these three continue to make the fine art that is My Dying Bride.
From their early avant-garde doom/death metal classics: the Trinity album of EPs and As the Flower Withers and Turn Loose the Swans,
To the goth classics of The Angel and the Dark River and Like Gods of the Sun,
To the odd but no-less precious 34.78888%,
To the reborn sounds of The Light at the End of the World and The Dreadful Hours and finally this newest of their albums: Songs of Darkness Words of Light, MDB continue their tradition. Long, contemplative songs with great riffs and bass, solid drumming to tie it together and the poetics of Aaron who has a meloncholic style nowadays that both sooths and saddens. Look to the Trinity and As the Flower Withers albums to experince his majestic death growls- wich find their balance alongside his singing (finally) on this album.
I would say that this is MDB most balanced album. Each song is at once melancholic, then malevolent. The guitar lulls you into a trance, then pounds you with a crushing and yes, CATCHY, riff. Each song is a poem. The music carries you away. This is a good album.
If you are new to MDB, I would recommend starting at the beginning and working your way up to this one. Think of these albums not as recordings made up of individual songs, for I think you would be missing the point. Think of these albums as soundtracks to drive your car to. Everything you see out the window will move to the beat, all vistas and all cities will appear sad and as if they were crumbling. This is the magic of MDB, the apocalyptic beauty of the band. They don't make songs to bang your head to, although their music is heavy and riffs catchy. They make music to drive to, soundscapes to be savoured and which will evolve as you evolve. This is the sondtrack to your own personal downfall. Happy pop music lovers beware, this is for deep thinkers, suicidals and dark music lovers only. That being said, these Britts rock. If you like this band, don't forget the DVD which features the original line-up.
This is one band that I hope you will try. If you like one song, chances are you will like the album. If you like one album, why not ALL the albums? This is a great band that makes MAGICAL MUSIC. Don't skip these guys- ENJOY!!!

I cant belive whats before my eyes.....3 star reviews for this magnificent album?! Dont be fooled this album deserves every last of the 5 stars I gave it. This is a brilliant doom masterpiese in my opinion, its sad, dark, and sorrowful. The texture of this album is much reflected by the cover art. In fact the texture of mdb's music is the most appealing thing to me. This album includes 8 brilliant tracks of sorrowful, dark, and somtimes brutal doom/death. There is not a bad track on the album. I highly recommend this to any fan of doom.

It's that time again. Time to take another dive into the very deepest pits of dread and despair. Time to unleash a monolithic slab of Gothic Horror upon the unsuspecting masses. It is...a new My Dying Bride album.

This, quite simply, is Doom Metal at its finest. Slow, ultra-heavy riffs. Tortured vocals speaking of death and despair. An atmosphere of utter gloom and hopelessness. Contrary to the album title, there's very little "light" in these words. Like all My Dying Bride albums, it's slow, somber, occasionally malevolent, and throughout, miserably depressing. Of the original "Big Three" of Doom Metal, including Paradise Lost and Anathema, only My Dying Bride continue to play actual Doom Metal, a fact we can all be thankful for.

"Songs of Darkness, Words of Light" begins with "The Wreckage of my Flesh" which is quintessential Doom Metal. Throughout the album, one finds only more darkness, with subjects ranging from lost love ("My Wine in Silence", "A Doomed Lover"), apocalyptic imagery ("Catherine Blake") to good old fashioned Gothic Horror ("The Blue Lotus"). Quite possibly this is their bleakest album yet; even more so than 2001's "The Dreadful Hours". The tone is consistent throughout; the band's fans wouldn't have it any other way.

Guitarists Andy Craighan and Hamish Glencross lay down boulder-sized riffs, which, thanks to the excellent production, really do sound heavy as a ton of bricks. Keyboardist Sarah Stanton provides subtle atmospheric synthesizer effects, which perfectly accentuate the bleak tone of the album. Vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe ranges from a snarly growl, to an ominous, spoken-word delivery, to a sort of despairing moan, sometimes all within the same song. The lyrics, as always, are wonderfully poetic, and far from the cliched "angst" that you might hear in mainstream "dark rock" (to take a very deserved swipe at Evanescence).

Naturally, My Dying Bride has never been the easiest band to acquire a taste for. But for the more darkly inclined, do yourself a favor and pick this CD up, because the masses will NEVER understand anything as gloomy, depressing, and downright un-trendy as this.

i have been a fan of the bride for a few years now, and have all their cds. i have to say that this is their best release since "like gods for the sun". it isn't the same style granted, because unlike the doom-metal riffs that made that album such a delight in the car stereo, this is instead dead-on bleak and curse, with the riffs adding to the funereal soundtrack.
i was alittle dissapointed with "light at the end of the world", especially since it was my first introduction to them. it was alittle too forced ( with the exception of "she is the dark", "into the Ghost lake", "the isis script", and "sear me III").
I enjoyed "the dreadful hours", as it was dark; more so than most of their other releases. However it lost steam by the last two songs, which ruined whole listening experience, leaving me to program the darn thing.
i loved "like gods for the sun" and "34% complete", because as a whole the cds were continous in their sound, besides being just crushing riffs and gothic bleak, especially "for you", "here in the throat", "it will come", " der uberlebende", "HEROIN CHIC*(...)**", AND "APOCALYPSE WOMAN".
their earlier releases were hit and miss, the hit in particular being "crown of sympathy"
i digress. this album is near perfect. my only complaint is "prize of beauty" and its release as a video. it isn't that bad but the video make it look worse than it is.
all in all it is worth buying by any fan, and new-comers alike.

The problem with My Dying Bride is that my expectations are always obscenely high for everything they release. I expect it to be the best album of the year! This sort of expectation, more often than not, only leads to disappointment (at least with other bands).

"Songs of Darkness, Words of Light" is My Dying Bride's 8th studio album. When I first came across the band in the early nineties, I'm pretty sure I would have done anything at all to make the band successful enough to last this long. What's even more impressive is the fact that every one of the bands releases (15 in all!) have been released through Peaceville. It's rare that this sort of loyalty (from both parties) is displayed in this day and age.

Let's talk about the album. This is one dark recording! From the very outset, "The Wreckage of my Flesh" displays a real fierce darkness. A sort of brooding menace, that hardly declines for the entire album. The first track is truly awesome, and a great sign of things to come. My Dying Bride really know how to start their albums, always using the first few minutes to create the exact sort of mood and atmosphere that they want to encapsulate the next hour or so. There is never any doubt who you are listening to, which is one of the amazing things about this UK outfit. They sound truly unique, and have done so for over ten years.

Other than the darkness that I mentioned previously, "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light" follows on from "The Dreadful Hours" without changing the formula too much. Don't expect any big surprises, just expect doom/death epic tracks that pull at your heart-strings and crush you simultaneously, without ever moving into cheesy gothic territory. While other bands using keyboards can move into this territory, My Dying Bride is just so heavy. They know exactly what to do, and when to do it, to get the most out of each track.

I really feel that this is vocalist Aaron's finest work to date. He has so many different styles of singing, from tender moments of vulnerability, convincing spoken word, a black metal like scream, and powerful roars of anger. He really displays all his talent throughout the album, with "The Prize of Beauty" being a perfect example of his range and ability. He is completely captivating at all times, and throughout all these differing styles and emotions, he never becomes undecipherable. I find myself singing along to every song without ever having looked at the lyrics.

The highlights of the album are "The Wreckage of my Flesh", "The Scarlet Garden", "My Wine in Silence" and "A Doomed Lover". I have read a few times recently about "My Wine in Silence" being a commercial sounding track that could break the band into the mainstream. The track is a slow, mellow piece that you could call a ballad, but there are still distorted scream-like vocals at times, as well as some truly miserable lyrics of despair. If I turned on my local radio station and heard My Dying Bride emitting from my sound system, I think I would drop dead on the spot!

My final piece of praise, before I let you all go off and buy the album, is left for the final track. "A Doomed Lover" is an absolutely devouring, genius piece of depressive art. It's right up there with the best work the band has ever done, and a magnificent finale for "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light".
My high expectations have been met again by My Dying Bride.

my wine in silence...this wasn,t composed by any living mortal...what abyss vomited it out i cannot imagine...you just gave it a name...rapture, a soothing lament for my soul.
this album is so dark,lamenting,sorrowful...beautiful in its uniqueness....

Most of the time if a band has been around for 10+ years and is playing metal they tend to get stale. This is not true of My Dying Bride. Songs of Darkness Words of Light is simultaniously a return to the bands Death /Doom roots while at the same time exploring new ground. Beauty and Brutality seemlessly fuse in this epic, with songs like the bleakly poetic "Cathrine Blake," or the dark and driveing "The Blue Lotus." If you are a fan of My Dying Bride or doom in general, your collection will not be complete with out this masterpiece.

MDB has an impossible standard to live by. Each album that is released is automatically compared to earlier albums instead of being judged and appreciated on its own merit. And if that's not bad enough, they also have that added burden of seemingly having to write music that is conforms to an idealistic expectation. Because they have been so ground-breaking, their fans believe them to be immortal, musical deities free of all human, musical limitation. That is, they can just magically go into a studio and produce a dozen songs of flawless, pefect, unearthly gothic doom metal at will. Well, I'm sure some people will be dissapointed to know that they are only human after all.

And as far as the loss of violin , which some people still can't seem to get over, actually, I'm glad it's gone. Martin masterfully did everything you can possibly do with it in this context. And I've come to the conclusion that being w/o the violin makes them sound slightly different, thus keeping their new albums fresh, while also keeping the violin albums sounding fresh. An added bonus. When you want violin, you listen to the old stuff. Also, I'd like to say Sarah does as great of a job on her synth parts as Martin did on his parts.

As far as I'm concerned they've done something extraordinary: they've survived line-up changes, limited press coverage, the burden of having such a dark, brooding, inaccessible, uncommerial sound, unattainable standards set by too many fans, and managed to have released five albums in about 7 years that sound slightly different than the preceeding one w/o betraying the core of their sound. This album is a worthy addition to their impressive catalog. Exactly where it fits in can be determined only by time..and their next release. If you've never heard MDB before, there's no harm in starting here. That qualities that made them what they are abound on this album.

To be fair, I should first mention that this is my first MY DYING BRIDE album, so I can't verify if it is thier best or thier worse. All I do know is that I love this album, and it wasn't anything I was expecting. I'm not exactly shure how to categorize this band based on this album...I suppose something along the lines of Doom Metal, Gothic Romantic, with tads of Death Metal. It's not a moshy album, not a dancey album, and not even a typical metal album on any level. It's actually quite slow and brooding....and darkly romantic. My personal favourite track on the album is 'The Scarlet Garden', ...but honestly, all of the tracks are good....no complaints here.

This album is certainly not a radical departure from MDB's past.
Pretty much, it is what we come to expect from the band these days, well thought out, well constructed music that expresses its own bleakness and cynicicism towards human emotional endeavors.

I can say that the follwing tracks in particular caught my attention: "Wreckage of my Fkesh", and "My Wine in Silence"
Overall this is definately a good album, even a very good album, but I am unsure at this stage just how sustained the listening enjoyment will be, and unfortunately each song has just enough in common with the others on this album that it doesn't stand out and demand the attention that it may deserve.