Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unique urbanistic doom!, January 30, 2004
I'm glad I didn't review this album earlier. Yes, it took me, an MDB fan since 1992, several years to get into the concept of this album. But now that I succeeded in this task, I think this is a very good record, which could have been groundbreaking, if not for the close-minded fans, who seem to have alienated the band for this attempt at being truly creative.I understand that most people like My Dying Bride for their emotional depressing sound with its romantic medieval feel. I like that, too. But what do you do when the key member who created such a sound, the violinist Martin Powell, leaves the band? Find a replacement and pray that he is anywhere close to Martin's greatness? Duh...
Instead, the band tried to turn the loss into a challenge at their creativity, and decided to unleash their hidden desires and sympathies. This record is a mixed affair, but it's nowhere near as bad, as half of the reviewers here wrote. In fact, it's pretty good. Very experimental. And very "My Dying Bride"-esque in its feel, bizarre, morbid and at times insane. The lyrics are a huge departure, too, in the topics they touch, but again, Stainthorpe's symbolic writing is recognizable on spot. The first track, "The Whore, the Cook and the Mother", immediately shows the differences in sound. No violin. The vocals have gone through electronic distortion. The guitars and bass sound very fuzzy. There's a string orchestration in the background. Most of the song is heavy, but the middle 5-minute lighter part is the real gem here. The guitar takes on a simple melodic lead, while sampled voices talk in the background. One of them, it seems, is talking in Japanese. This part hypnotizes me every time.
2nd song, "The Stance of Evander Sinoue", is a heavier doom song, vaguely reminiscent of Cathedral. Aaron sings clean to the accompanement of well-written riffs. In this song I'm amazed at what seems like rumblings of a madman (it matches the lyrics, too), that go in the background. Very simple yet very touching effect!
"Der Uberlebende" is a lighter melodic gothic-metal track. Similarities to Tiamat and The Sisters of Mercy arise here and there. Good track, and a necessary interlude between more experimental songs, too.
"Heroin Chic". Point of controversy among the fans. I want to write in capital letters: I LOVE THIS SONG. It mixes gothic, doom and trip-hop excellently, something that you don't hear every day. It's very atmospheric and mesmerizing. Aaron sings from the point of view of a heroin addict, and lyrical imagery mixes reality, hallucinations, memories, and wishes of this wreck of a human being. Both the guitars and the voice sound very unfocused, just what you would expect from a drug-addict's senses. To me, this is one of the greatest successes of My Dying Bride, and their biggest departure from their usual style. It's emotional impact is hard to describe. Portishead-like female singing in the background is unbelievably good. "Apocalypse Woman" is the fastest track here, again readdressing the gothic themes of the 80s. I don't really feel embraced by this song. I don't know what's wrong here. Perhaps, it doesn't mix well with the overall mood of the album.
"Base Level Erotica" is again very melodic gothic metal. One of the stronger tracks here, albeit not very experimental. Rest your ears on this one.
"Under your wings and into your arms" concludes this album. This is another song that failed to touch me. It, too, has a feel of Cathedral-style riffage. Not bad, though not especially good. All in all, I'm glad that My Dying Bride felt brave enough to release such an unexpected music. This is urbanistic and post-modernistic doom-metal. I think it could have developed into something bizarre and truly timeless. But it didn't. Oh, well. At least they finally found themselves with "The Dreadful Hour". But I wouldn't mind to listen to something of a similar style from this or some other band.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
MDB Deserves Better Fans, February 28, 2000
It's too bad a great band like MDB has such closed-minded fans! I'm the first to admit that this is NOT their BEST album, but at least they were trying something new, UNLIKE on "The Light at the End of the World" which (although it IS a good album) just sounds like a re-hash of their earlier ones. "34.788%" has some very good songs (the best one is probably "The Stance of Evander Sinque") and a couple not-so-great ones, but not enough to ignore the album for! I hope for MORE experimentation on their next release! Hopefully that will weed out all their closed-minded "fans" and just leave us listeners who actually appreciate the band's creativity.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My Dying Bride Testing New Ground, April 7, 2003
It seems most bands have at least one album that comes with a disclaimer. Either this album 1) is realy awful or 2) just doesn't fit in with the natural progression of things. 34.7888% is that album for MDB. 34.7888% is the only MDB album that doesn't fit under the doom metal umbrella. And its true, if you listen to exclusivly to doom metal this album will disapoint you quite a bit. However this has caused this album to be unjustly put under the #1 disclaimer as well. After releasing the medocre "Like Gods of the Sun," change seemed to be the inevitable for My Dying Bride. First drummer Rick Miah, one of the best I've ever heard, came down ill and could no longer play. Then Martin the brilliant violinist/keyboardest, chose to leave the band. You see 34.7888% is guitarist Calvins brainchild, as he wrote almost all of the music. Seeing that all the music had already been composed and seeing there was little for him to add musicly Martin left MDB (unfortunatly going to Cradle of Filth). Having lost two crucial elements to the MDB sound, it could only be expected that MDB would release a complete let down, but on the contrary Calvin had created an all new and exciting sound for MDB. While 34.7888% still feels dark for the most part, it doesn't have the sombre depressed vibe of the other MDB works, but rather a dark sinister feeling, like some dirty person one would meet in a an ally way in some big metroploitin city. All the other MDB albums have a very ancient feeling to them as if they took place far in the past, this one however feels more like it takes place in 2050. This album may also be conbsidered more mainstream than the other MDB albums, though this is highly over exadurated. How many mainstream albums have a total of seven songs and start with a 13 minute peice? 34.7888% starts with the dark, wicked "The Mother, Cook and the Whore," where Aarons vocals sound more evil than usualy thanks to some help from some electronic effects. After several minutes the song sinks down into a beutiful ambiant layered movemet, where one can hear Aaron talking to a cousiler while beutiful minor chords are softly plucked on guitar. Eventaly the song blasts back into full gear as Aaron continues on one of the main theme of this album, his using of women. The song is a higly creative concept: a man singing about his abuse of women, then talking to his counciler about what caused it. The next song "The Stance of Evander Sinoue" is good song witrh cruchy riffs and some great psudo strings. "Der Uberlebende" is the softest track on here with angelic style metal riffs and Aaron shows the more voneralble side of his voice. "Heroine Chic" is probably the most talked about track on here. Its a very electronica influenced song that tells stories of desperate heroine addicts in need of drungs. The whole song has that very dark grungy ally way aura I was talking about earilier. There are some real good riffs on here too, so if you are an opened mineded metal head you should enjoy this song. "Apocalipse Woman" is the weakest track on here, it just doesn't do much for me. "Base Level Erotica," is a dark, raunchy song about groupiues. Aaron seems confused in this song wheather the dozens of women throwing themselves at him is a blessing or a curse. The album ends brilliantly with "Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms" On the previous album MDB tried time and time again to pull off the fast paced song with clean vocals, but fell on their face time and time again. Here they pull off a (realitivly) near pefast paced song damn rfictly. There is also a very strong keyboard breakdown in this song. All in all this album has been very unfairly judged by closed minded fans. This is actualy a solid album with spots of brilliance, showing My Dying Bride going into new territory. Unfortunatly the massive backlash led to a major regression on the "play it safe" (though still good) "The Light at the End of the World." Calvin also left the band after this album feeling he had completed his musical dream. This also could have led to the return of the old MDB sound. Either way they wouldn't explode into thier old selves on "The Light..." but rather on the follow up "The Dreadful Hours".
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