Songs of Darkness, Words of Light

I used to believe that The Dreadful Hours was a one-off misstep for My Dying Bride and considering that the band missed their mark once before, this shouldn't be much of a deal, right? Keep in mind that I wasn’t too familiar with the later records of My Dying Bride at this point, but once I dived deeper into their discography, I realized that the mediocrity continued for a while.

But here’s the thing: whereas The Dreadful Hours lacks proper songs, it at least makes me think a band that still tries to leave a decent impression due to the vital performances. In this case, it’s as if someone sucked the life out of Aaron and the guitarists. Aaron sounds like he has given up completely at this point; since he’s basically moaning, whining and speaking his way through the record with no conviction whatsoever and once he tries to alter the mood with his nasty growls, the guitarists usually make a mess out of things. Over time, I started to admire how flexible My Dying Bride usually are and while my preference comes down to their first two doom/death metal records, even their gothic/doom metal stuff usually features a solid baggage of pounding guitars that ooze with metallic greatness. We’ve heard Andrew and whoever joins his side deliver the goods many times over and regardless of their simplistic guitar work, the positive results usually speak for themselves. In this case, Andrew and Hamish go through the motions with unimaginative riffs that I would expect from a My Dying Bride worship band and only on a rare occasion, do they have their decent moments.

Having pointed out the weak roles of the crew, you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that these compositions are incredibly lacking. ‘The Wreckage Of my Flesh’ features Aaron’s croaking and growling for no reason, only to quickly introduce his lame half-spoken clean vocal delivery over a tasteless mid-paced riff that marks the first two and a half minutes. Eventually introducing a second riff that doesn't present quality either, even Aaron remains unconvinced that this stuff isn't worth elevating to the next level; why else would he continue to moan and whine as if he’s lost complete interest in being a vocalist, anyway? You would expect the heavier tracks to work out better, but nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, the guitarists tend to revisit the semi-captivating approach of The Light at the End of the World from time to time, but since ‘The Scarlet Garden’ falls into the same trap that ‘The Dreadful Hours’ did; meaning that the violent death metal scenes aren’t worth the wait, why bother? The same could be said about ‘The Prize of Beauty’, which features around two minutes of decent music and it’s not hard to think of which section I’m talking about. Once the church organs mix with the hard-hitting guitars and roared vocals, My Dying Bride sound vital and daring, but once everything and everyone becomes quiet and restrained, it’s as if the band isn’t trying anymore. Indeed, the average track plods for far too long due to these inferior mid-paced riffs, introduces thoughtless acoustic guitars in between, or gets broken down by a pointless moment of silence and the latter are more prominent that you think. ‘My Wine in Silence’ sounds like My Dying Bride's attempt at writing a lullaby, while Aaron's harsh croons over the silent and musical landscape make me think of a joke that I’m not getting. Far more promisingly titled, ‘And My Fury Stands Ready’ introduces some chunky riff work that are slightly more captivating than your average collection of riffs on the record, but then again, it’s hard to take the track seriously with those minutes of nothingness in between.

To my knowledge, only ‘Catherine Blake’ and ‘A Doomed Lover’ are the average tunes of Songs of Darkness, Words of Light. Since the guitarists manage to inject some life into these tracks, the former ends up like a melancholic, if somewhat alarming doom piece and the latter progresses properly towards a decent climax of loud-soaring guitars. The rest simply isn’t worth it and unless you're curious about My Dying Bride messing up, I can’t think of a good reason why you should bother with Songs of Darkness, Words of Light.

After the progressive flamboyance of ‘The Dreadful Hours’, it was something of a pleasant surprise to hear the stripped back darkened tones of ‘Songs of Darkness, Words of Light’ when it was birthed to the world in 2004. Once again recorded at Academy Studios by Mags, there is yet again a new tone to the music and a different approach, whilst still nestled under the My Dying Bride template. A less cluttered musical landscape characterises this release, with plenty of room for the instruments to breathe, and the sum result is an emotional journey and a glorious success.

The beginning of the album is something of a red herring, as ‘The Wreckage of my Flesh’ launches with a monstrous doom riff, with Aaron Stainthorpe’s tortured monosyllabic growls and screams cutting through at various moments. It’s a powerful and exhilarating way to begin an album and it's really quite original. A red herring though, because the majority of the track after that leans back into emotive melodic darkness, and it’s this coolly laid back approach that permeates the set of songs presented here. It's as if the band themselves felt that they’d gone perhaps a little too far, at certain times, into upbeat headbanging territory with ‘The Dreadful Hours’, and so – whether consciously or unconsciously – stripped things back to their component parts a little more. ‘The Wreckage of my Flesh’ is one of the band’s greatest tracks in my view and a brilliant anthem to open the show.

There is a pronounced gothic beauty and darkness here, and this speaks very much to what I love most about the Dying Brides. ‘The Scarlet Garden’ is a haunted track with some shadowy moments in the first half before knocking things up a notch halfway through with a growled section, although much like in ‘The Light at the End of the World’, the up-tempo movement sits in the pocket nicely and grooves along without losing the dark vibe. The second half of the track introduces some heartbreaking atmospheric keyboards that turn a good song into a great one.

And the great moments keep coming. ‘Catherine Blake’ is a gorgeous song, with some of My Dying Bride’s best ethereal twin guitar harmonies, while the slow and sultry ‘My Wine in Silence’ does what I wish ‘A Cruel Taste of Winter’ would have done on the previous album, and that’s taking the listener on a forlorn and sombre journey uninterrupted by any headbanging chug. ‘My Wine in Silence’ is a beautiful song with guitar sounds that have reduced the distortion to provide a more stripped back and slightly frail sound. It works so well. Both ‘The Prize of Beauty’ and ‘The Blue Lotus’ provide a bit more of a kick in their initial stages, with the former including some haunting mellow bleakness and the latter a swinging waltz section that offers a nice change of pace. The aforementioned ‘The Prize of Beauty’ finishes with a beautiful piano and vocal harmony section that is composition at its finest and a show of confidence from the band. The album concludes with the brilliant 'A Doomed Lover', a solid and slow gothic slab that contains an epic ending made up of three and a half minutes of heartrending repetition, where melody is layered upon melody. When My Dying Bride lock in to a repetitive riff, such as at the end of 'Base Level Erotica' or the end of 'From Darkest Skies', the effects are without fail astonishing and awesome. The listener finishes the journey emotionally spent and satisfied.

This would be the final album with Shaun Taylor-Steels hitting the skins, and quite frankly it was disappointing to see him go as he had done an incredible job on the three albums he has appeared on. While Rick Miah will always be the essential MDB drummer, Shaun really did contribute a great style and vibe that I think the band would struggle to match on subsequent albums. The mysterious Sarah Stanton appears suddenly out of the mist on keyboards, and her style carries on that of Jonny Maudling’s background synth approach, although Stanton does contribute some timely piano elements which add some texture and romance to the album. She would also appear on the fabulous 'A Line of Deathless Kings' and then would disappear back, enigmatically, into the mist, becoming another name scribed into the MDB line-up book of the dead - a growing tome around this era and beyond for the band.

I think ultimately what makes this album so successful is that the songs are able to breathe and are not overly cluttered with excess sturm und drang. In fact, it’s one of the band’s most reserved and sultry albums, and yet there is a dark beauty running through everything because of this style. This is genuinely morose, solemn and mature, and I love it.

The artwork is a welcome return to some gothic darkness, although the angel figure on the cover suffers from some unfortunate limitations with the illustration program that was used; her oddly cut off head looks pretty strange, and the nipple ring may be a bit much. The digipak and booklet that I own are quite beautiful, with a darkened forest theme running throughout, and a haunting yet tastefully reserved band photo that merely shows their silhouettes. The whole package is great and fits the musical direction very nicely.

This is a beautifully bleak My Dying Bride album that doesn’t try to do too much, and because of this the dark gothicism and haunting melodies shine through with runaway success. This is highly recommended for doom fans who like their My Dying Bride albums slow, deep and not so hard.

Similar to other 90’s doom bands, one may speak of “old” and “new” My Dying Bride as somewhat different groups, though the difference isn’t as pronounced as with, say, Paradise Lost, Anathema, Tiamat. Old MDB had their schtick clearly defined as a doom/death metal band (often more death than doom) with violins, and then each following album saw them softening their sound further: first by featuring a less raw production and emphasizing the classical instrumentation in Turn Loose the Swans, while also introducing clean vocals, then dropping the growls and their more aggressive edge altogether on The Angel and the Dark River. By the time of Martin Powell’s departure after Like Gods of the Sun, the band likely struggled with an identity crisis, which birthed the infamous 34.788...% Complete, an experimental exercise in self-awareness as it witnessed MDB doing away with all that made them recognizable. Probably afraid of alienating their fanbase, one year later, in 1999, without so much as a single or EP between releases, they immediately gave us The Light at the End of the World, which announced a return to doom/death, though now Aaron’s harsh vocals began sounding more like a snarl than a growl. This, for me, marks the new MDB: a sort of self-awareness, as well as an awareness of what the fans have come to expect from them and a willingness to do it (which meant bringing back the violin in 2009, for instance) in detriment of their early phase’s more organic development. And, of course, there’s all the line-up changes. As of today, only Aaron and Andrew remain from their original line-up, early MDB having a stabler ensemble.

So far, in these past 20 years, their efforts have been pretty hit-or-miss. The Dreadful Hours, while lauded as their masterpiece, has some really boring parts (Le figlie della tempzzzz) and so does A Map of All Our Failures, though its funeral doom approach does mean a step in the right direction, I believe. In that sense, I guess 2004’s Songs of Darkness, Words of Light ends up being the last MDB album I find myself able to listen to in its entirety.

There’s a certain thematic cohesion in Songs that is quite interesting. I mean, A Line of Deathless Kings had three out of nine songs with “love” in their titles, but that’s just repetition, not cohesion. If you pay attention to Songs, you’ll find most of its stories revolve around someone who is ruined or killed because of love and lust. This is clearest in “The Scarlet Garden,” about a psycho who murders his lovers and buries them in his garden, and “The Blue Lotus,” sung from the perspective of a questing knight who’s after some sort of vampiress and is brutally slain by her as he invades her castle. “Catherine Blake” involves lust as part of a bigger story about demons plotting an invasion on Earth (there is somewhat of a fantasy theme here, you may notice), and even “My Wine in Silence” has an ironic edge to it that seems to escape most listeners, as the song’s bipolar structure swings between its lovey-dovey “where are you now, my love?” and some disturbing patches with harsh vocals in which he threatens to make her his slave forever. It’s very unhealthy (please seek a therapist if you identify with these songs) but, of course, that’s what makes it metal.

Musically, there’s an interesting change in production, as the whole album sounds its dirtiest since their early days. From the moment you hit “play,” you’re instantly bombarded by the guitar’s ominous tones, made fuzzier and awash with feedback, which goes well with Aaron’s beastly snarl and the backing tribal drums of “The Wreckage of my Flesh”. In my mind, it all conjures up the image of an abandoned man lying in a ditch, the skies gray and black and thundering over him, ravens gathering on dead trees awaiting. It’s a song from the perspective of an utterly ruined man, and Aaron’s deeply emotional vocal performance conveys that feeling perfectly. A very bold move, MDB starts out the album at its slowest and with its longest song, but, as it evolves, crawling out of its starting riff into a comfortable mid-paced rhythm and featuring an interesting interplay between funereal organs and an evil-sounding lead guitar, before coming back to its opening riff, it all works as if to announce the character’s death—a death which, after a lot of lamenting, he finally receives with some tragic dignity, Aaron’s commanding voice loaded with scorn. It creates the perfect atmosphere that sets the tone for the rest of the album.

As shown by the distinct moods of “The Scarlet Garden” and “Catherine Blake”, climaxing in faster and angrier moments with harsh vocals, there’s also some variation here. Giving us a brief break from the distortion, “My Wine in Silence” is mostly a ballad, with the aforementioned somber moments, while “The Blue Lotus” is driven by the interplay of chugging guitars and that dark, evil lead and maniacal drumming, while Aaron switches back and forth between narration and emotional singing. Similar to the album opener in mood, “A Doomed Lover” hits hard with the feedback and Shape of Despair-ish cymbal-heavy drumming, its painful climax (“Loneliness aplenty spreads before me”) wrapping up the album beautifully.

Alas, not everything is perfect. “The Prize of Beauty” starts out very powerful, but its mood swing 3 minutes in feels forced and the song loses steam after that, meandering its way to the remainder of its eight minutes, and “And My Fury Stands Ready” has that awkward quiet interlude 2 minutes in, which is supposed to be atmospheric but is just boring instead and causes all the previous anger and aggression to dissipate. MDB had done this before, way back in The Angel... with “Black Voyage,” and it’s as annoying here as it was there. And finally, of course, though Aaron’s performance here is at his best, his clean vocals are a love or hate issue. If you are among those who find him whiny, this likely won’t change your opinion.

Though Songs of Darkness, Words of Light is not exactly a riff factory, there’s lots of memorable moments, it’s cohesive without being redundant, each song has a distinctive feel to it and it does storytelling without it getting in the way of the music. Overall, it was a very welcome addition to MDB’s 21st century catalog.

When a prospective explorer of any metal genre searches for the best albums within a niche, they look for certain markers. If anyone happened to be looking for a more traditional doom album with elements of gothic atmosphere and death metal aggression (and melodic riffage), they would do well to give this recording a listen. This is an album of great depth, and after listening to the album three and a half times now, I think I can at least grasp at what it accomplishes. Anyone searching for anything resembling a standard doom metal album would expect a few things, and I think this one not delivers, but delivers with perfection. Perfection? You ask with justified skepticism. Yes, I think so.

I'm hesitant to call any fifty-nine minute album "concise", but in doom metal terms this record very much is. This album conveys a message - and emotion - and then departs from us, which is why I've listened to it on repeat for a while now. None of the songs are so long that they wear out their welcome, and even the first track (the longest among them) has enough variance in composition to avoid this.

No one listens to a doom metal album (especially one from an artist called 'My Dying Bride', on the album 'Songs of Darkness, Words of Light') expecting it to be anything but ultra somber in terms of lyrical craftsmanship. While I've heard among some that such ultra-seriousness can detract from the music, here it is delivered with enough quality that we can suspend our disbelief and find it instead immersive.

We also have all of the winning compositional elements for a quality doom metal album. Inexorable riffs? All of the tracks house these. Pent up aggression and release? I'd recommend 'The Scarlet Garden' for this. Musical variance and soft passages that maintain a melody? Clearly embodied in the opening track and beyond, though perhaps most apparent in my personal favorite track, 'A Doomed Lover'. Palpable sorrow and emotional sincerity in the vocals? Look no further.

This album was a fortunate find for me, and if you enjoy doom metal at all, I think this is at least worth a cursory glance.

I've noticed that 'Songs of Darkness, Words of Light' has seen some very positive reviews and little comment about the faults of the album. There are some glaringly obvious problems with this release, particularly if one comes at it from a neutral point of view, which I believe many of the previous reviewers have failed to do. However, the problem (and probably the greatest asset) of My Dying Bride is that you shouldn't be able to remain objective when listening to their music, since the emotion and drama is designed to sweep over your body and mind and remove you from your world. There are some MDB albums that achieve this objective, but I don't believe that 'Songs...' has nearly so much engulfing power as much of the band's earlier and later work.

One issue that certainly splits the opinion of listeners is the balance between doom metal and gothic elements in MDB's work. From 'The Light at the End of the World' to this album, the band maintained very similar elements and a fairly uniform style that was based on slow, melodic doom riffs, a lamenting atmosphere, and Aaron Stainthorpe's tales of woe and misery. There was no violin in the band's sound at the time and keyboards were often used to enhance songs, with occasional piano insertions in a couple of numbers. On this album and the former one, MDB mainly steered clear of anything fast-paced or extreme, with maybe 5 minutes of death-influenced work on 'The Dreadful Hours' and almost nothing here beyond the vocals. Having an album (and a long album at that) which doesn't change pace is potentially a problem, since the material must be of a very high quality to remain interesting, with a lot of atmosphere, emotion, or creative playing - and that's where MDB fall flat in 'Songs...'.

There isn't a great deal of content to some of these songs, certainly not to justify running times of 8 minutes. The first problem is the guitars: I'm not sure what was going on with Andrew Craighan and Hamish Glencross, but they came up with an alarmingly small number of riffs between them, neither in a doom style or any other. There are a few that I can pick out as examples of what went wrong here. 'The Wreckage of My Flesh' has an immensely slow and broad doom riff that sounds almost orchestral in its solemn progress, and this riff would be fine if it formed part of the song - the introduction, an interlude, a verse - but it just goes on and on, droning into oblivion. When a second riff replaces it, it's back to a more classic MDB style, though there's no energy and no frisson of excitement about it. Then 'Catherine Blake' has a chugging riff that should batter and pound the listener, yet there's absolutely nothing, no effect, just some noise filling the space behind the vocals.

Here lies the greatest problem with 'Songs...'. The guitars are behind the vocals, just as they are behind the keyboards too. All the power of the metal band has been swallowed up by the mixing, which leaves only the most melodic parts audible and everything else - guitars, bass, drums - utterly naked and feeble. This is the slowest MDB album by a long way, so it is absolutely necessary that the rhythms are bold and authoritative to keep the songs under control and that the guitars are fat and crushing to provide some ballast. Shaun Taylor-Steels actually gives a very good performance on the drums, using a great variety of fills and extra parts to busy up the droning riffs, but he's rendered ineffective by the mix. Those riffs wouldn't be all that bad if we could hear them, but again, I have to go searching for them and there are some that are played for too long or just aren't very interesting because of their monotonous pace. For this reason, 'My Wine in Silence' ends up as one of the best songs due to its semi-clean style, which succeeds in a way that the heavier songs can't.

The levels of the mix leaves 'Songs...' with a very relaxed feeling, almost as if this were easy-listening doom metal. To some extent, that's not too bad and it suits the kind of gothic mood music genre very well: I can read, I can write poetry, maybe go for a long walk, perhaps take a nap while this album is playing, and sometimes that suits me fine. However, that doesn't make this good music, since it rarely grabs my attention and doesn't reward intensive listening. The first time I heard this album, I was bored by it, and while I write this review, I'm bored by it too. Some blame goes directly to Aaron Stainthorpe for putting in his most horrible contribution to any MDB album barring 'Like Gods of the Sun'. That album had incredibly repetitive and hammy lyrics (always the same themes about love and death) and his performance was none too good either. Here, he thankfully avoids the trap of every song sounding the same, but the lyrics are piss poor on occasion and the themes often tepid and cliched. This is the entirety of 'My Wine in Silence':

Where are you now my love?
My sweet one.
Where have you gone my love?
I'm so alone.

I only think of you.
And it drives me down.
I only dream of you.

I'll come to you. Take my hand.
Hold me again. Please take my hand

Please me now my love.
Where are you now, oh my sweet love.

I mean, what the fuck, how generic and snivelling can we get? The fact that he seems to put very little emotion into his clean vocals is also a fucking massive problem, because he's supposed to sound emotional, not as if he's caught a cold and needs to rest all afternoon. The harsh vocals and narration work a little better, injecting variety and energy into the songs. The harsh vocals are in fact very sick-sounding, more so than ever before, and have a ton more personality than any of the whining clean parts, even if they require slightly heavier backing from the rest of the band. The narration is often powerful, although compromised by dull and obvious rhymes, which seem to have crept into Stainthorpe's lyrics. From 'The Wreckage of My Flesh':

With utter loathing and scorn.
I was somehow born.
Strewn in black decay.
None shall I obey.
The wreckage of my flesh.
The nakedness of my death.

There is, believe it or not, a further problem with 'Songs...', and that is - ironically - the songs. All of these issues could be tempered if there were well-written songs to enjoy, and at last count there was one, maybe two, which are worth your time. 'Catherine Blake' has a slight advantage of switching between slow melodies and mid-tempo chugging, plus some strong keyboard backing, which creates a modest sense of drama along with the album's best set of lyrics. It's 'The Blue Lotus', though, that goes above and beyond everything else, even though it reverts to a (fairly detailed and nuanced) story about a beastly woman that ends in death. The song, however, is crafted so much better than the rest of the album, with several guitar sections strung together in succession, a memorable clean vocal melody from Stainthorpe, and even a squall of guitar that more or less resembles a lead, though much different to the melodic meandering in the opening track. 'The Blue Lotus' stands out so much because it doesn't waste any time and fall into the endless repetition of boring parts in the quest for atmosphere, like so many of the tracks here. The first two songs both piss about for far too long without really progressing, 'And My Fury Stands Ready' has about 4 redundant minutes out of 8, 'The Prize of Beauty' is a fucking mess at first and achieves nothing memorable in the end, then 'A Doomed Lover' only impresses as it moves towards the outro, which is 2 minutes of Monolithe-esque atmospheric doom.

Perhaps you can tell, as I went through all the faults of this album, that I actually began to grow angry and shout and swear a little. This is exactly what MDB deserve for making 'Songs...'. There was nothing too bad about 'The Dreadful Hours' and the band had carved a comfortable niche at the more melodic and sorrowful end of doom metal, so why go and make background music for stay-at-home goths? And if they wanted to make gothic music, why not actually have a fucking go at it, instead of this half-assed nonsense? From a long-term My Dying Bride fan, don't listen to this album, you will be sorely disappointed.

My Dying Bride's album "Songs of Darkness and Words of Light" is definitely one of the band's finest albums. An album filled with great instrumentation, vocals, and songs this album will leave you shocked upon listening. Eight songs make up this album and all eight of them have their own memorable moments which is a breath of fresh air when listening to an album, knowing that at any moment you can be taken completely by surprise and not have the ability to predict what will happen next.

I remember when i first listened to this album. I was first getting into the band (this was actually the first My Dying Bride album I bought in full). I began listening and was absolutely floored by the music. I remember listening to the song "Catherine Blake" and just being so happy with music and the song remains my favorite MDB song. Another great song is "My Wine In Silence" which reminds me a bit of "For My Fallen Angel" because of it's subtle beginning, but towards the end it changes and adds growled vocals something that "Like Gods of the Sun" was missing. The last song that we will discuss is the final track of the album "A Doomed Lover". It's a song filled with the signature monotonous and sorrow-filled vocals, with some eerie keyboards thrown in. The instruments do not do anything too flashy, they just create the mood of absolute depression.

The playing on this album is done very well. The guitars have a lot of power to them, and the drums are played pretty powerfully and follow the beats and set the tone in the heavy and light sections. The keyboards are also a strong plus on this album, trying to fill the void that was left with no violin, which would have made this album absolutely perfect. The vocals are the typical affair, but something about them on this album makes them so special and I will go on to say that this is probably Aaron's best performance in the band's history.

Closing this review I will say that MDB's "SODAWOL" is one of the best albums created by the band. If you want a place to start like I did, then you can absolutely start here. It's the perfect album to get the gist of the MDB sound. If you like gothic, or doom metal, then you really need to hear this album.

The “dark sequel” is a common theme found in Hollywood movies with the second installments in popular series such as Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and Harry Potter all being noted for being considerably darker. Although all these movies succeed in creating something more mature and grim, by doing this they often lose a bit of the heart that made their precursor such an amazing achievement. How does this relate to a band that has always been as shadowy as My Dying Bride? Well, their 8th album “Songs of Darkness, Words of Light” serves as that sort of dark sequel.

“Songs of Darkness..,” essentially takes the sound found in the already gloomy masterpiece “ The Dreadful Hours” and tweaks it in a few minor ways to have a sound so dark that it makes you think the band may not have seen the sun in a few years.

The first and most notable tweak found on the album would be on the vocals. While “The Dreadful Hours had a dominance of clean vocals, with harshes used mainly to enhance small sections of the song, “Songs of Darkness” sees about a 50/50 split. This thrown at you right of the bat, with the opener "The Wreckage of My Flesh," being one of the most vocally impressive tracks of My Dying Bride's career. Aaron’s gutturals on the album are some of his best and really add to the sinister mood of the album, while his cleans at times sound so emotional that he may burst out into tears at any section. Although his cleans may be a bit to dramatic for some, they fit the music so perfectly it’s hard to fault him. Along with these styles, the feared “whispered” vocals are used here, but strangely never get as annoying as they do on most albums.

Another notable tweak can be found in the keys, which are give a much larger importance than they were on their previous album. Don’t worry though; the keys resemble a funeral organ more than they do a fluffy power metal band. The use of keyboard in the album can be seen at its best in the very creepy intro to “And My Fury Stands Ready”.

The album is very well produced with all the instruments being put the highest in the mix when they are meant to be listened to. The production on the guitars is especially good, with all the riffs sounding very sinister and ominous.

While the album may sound close to perfection, it does suffer from one very minor fault. With its roots being being planted so firmly in their previous release “The Dreadful Hours”, comparisons between the two are hard to avoid, and although “Songs of Darkness” is a much darker, heavier and dare I say evil sounding recording than their prior release, “The Dreadful Hours” was so sad, beautiful and had so much heart to it, that the sequel just doesn’t quite live up.

Regardless of that though, “Songs of Darkness, Words of Light” proves to be another phenomenal output from the masters of all that is tragic and dark, and is easily in their top tier of their discography. Quite simply, it is one of the finest pieces of doom or gothic metal that money can buy.

With a title like 'Songs of Darkness, Words of Light' one could get several ideas of what to expect. While clever is a word that comes to mind after listening to this, it seems to fall short of properly expressing the true genius that lies within. This album is such that you can listen to pieces of it or as a whole, but its better as a whole. To quote Xathagorra Mlandroth (of Catacombs & Hierophant (US) fame) "Doom is meant to be experienced, not just listened too..." this album is the epitome of his words.

Envision if you can, a bleak darkened landscape, post dusk and as black as pitch. The moon's gentle light is masked behind a virtually endless cloud barrier with one tiny pathetic ray of light acting like a spot light on the one living thing within its reach; a man near death. Looking as though time has raped his very soul, this wretched and beleaguered being crawls; desperate and bloody towards what he thinks will bring him redemption. Beyond the point of no return and utterly lost in the seemingly endless wasteland before him does he suddenly realize the futility of it all. This is quite possibly one of the best Doom Metal albums of all time.

The albums name couldn't have been more apropos as it’s very easy to lose yourself in this epic tapestry of misery and woe. The production, top notch by all accounts, forces the songs to be at their most painful and stomach churning levels. The guitars are a perfect mix of heavy to melodic, weaving in and out of bleak and suspenseful passages of depression and self doubt. There is perhaps a little more open chorded to palm muted playing but it adds to the drama. There are several dreary leads and one solo (almost).

The bass is standard for the course, not really doing much but accentuating and segwaying here and there. It does add to the over all musical vibe but in minimal quantities. The drums are brilliant and couldn't have been better. They are minimalistic, yet all over at the same time. As if kicking the listener while he's down, forcing the hopelessness and utter chaos of movements into an already battered and broken body.

The keyboards are good enough. While any could argue that Martins' involvement would've made a greater impact, Sara does an admirable job of moving the slow impending horror that is the atmosphere along. More than complementing the guitars that without a doubt steal the show.

The vocals are perhaps some of Aaron's best and utterly devastating in their delivery. His voice (at least from the growling standpoint) has been getting worse with each passing year (see the Sinamorata DVD for more verification if necessary) but actually work exceedingly well on this album. The first song "The Wreckage of My Flesh" starts out with Aaron randomly shrieking for the first few measures before ceasing all "grim" aesthetics and singing. His voice is truly wretched and fits the music better than any one else’s could. The lyrics are passionate and perhaps a little more on the fictional side of things. This is not to say that they are lacking anywhere, but the few songs that are non-fiction are perhaps more discernable as a summary of personal situations and thusly very powerful. While not peaking (thankfully) his poetry does standout more so than usual.

This is the best My Dying Bride album. Had this not been released its predecessor 'The Dreadful Hours' would claim the title. While it’s not as heavy as TDH it darker, more spiteful and sinister. The music is intense, harsh and yet beautiful. This is an album to commit suicide by and to have played at your funeral. Where they got the idea(s) for this masterwork of Doom is beyond the average mans comprehension but thank god they did. This is what EVERY Doomdeath/Doom Metal band should aspire too. This is easily one of the most damning things you could ever hope hear and a great place to start if your new to the band and/or style. Truly, a beautiful piece of bitterness, longing and death.

The Wreckage of My Flesh starts off Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, right from the start, you'll notice the difference between this record and the previous one, that goes by the name of The Dreadful Hours. Whereas the aforementioned one, had a more gothic, mellow and even a somewhat accessible sound, this one is a true ode to all surrounding blackness. The Wreckage of My Flesh offers a certain apathy, as does the entire album for that matter - it sounds truly lifeless, Aaron plays a huge role in creating this effect, his vocal work sounds rather monotonous and not very melodious, on occasion he also uses spoken word, almost preaching his way through the song, giving it an epic touch. The rather monotonous approach, gives the entire thing a good injection of apathy, a sense of comfort, accepting what horrible fate has been bestowed upon their wretched souls. Other elements, such as an organ, help to emphasize this.


Songs of Darkness, Words of Light uses the effect of keys perfectly, they never overuse them, but instead place them within the music in an intelligent way, adding to the evergrowing gloomy ambiance. The guitarplay is drenced in reverb, a perfect example of this, is A Doomed Lover...- also one of the best songs on the album - right from the start the guitars creep up from beneat the soil and penetrate the earth, making its way to the surface, to spread an overwhelming blackness. Songs of Darkness, Words of Light is packed with melodies, going from a rather apocalyptic (epic) approach (A Doomed Lover...) to mindnumbing, hopeless tunes that will continue to drain you of all positive energy (My Wine in Silence). My Dying Bride are one of the better known doom metal bands in the genre, but don't let that hold you back, as with this record, they've delivered something which would better remain unheard, as it's one thick, black mass that will curse you with poisonous expressions. If that sounds appealing, then by all means purchase Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, as it’s truly essential within its genre.

Once again MDB changed, and changed for good. After the return to the growls (remember that The Angel and the Dark River, Like Gods of the Sun and 34, 788%... Complete avoided the rotten voices) with The light at the End of the World, Aaron and co. choose a mellower and not so dark path. With this release they changed that, maybe giving up some of the The Dreadful Hour kindness, may be putting aside the most Gothic metal side, to welcome back a really Dark/Doom metal style. The title of the album is representative of what come inside. They are really songs of darkness; in fact, this is the darkest work of the band ever.

The Wreckage of my Flesh is the first track and is the perfect example of the darkness of the album, with clean vocals all the way, but is slow and depressive, and this spirit goes on and on, from track to track giving lessons of “how to create dark and heavy moments” up to the end. The sound is really dull, like faded away giving an obscure atmosphere, specially the guitars, which are like violins from hell, really heavy. The work involved in the melodies, courtesy of Andrew Craighan and Hamish Hamilton Glencross, is brilliant as is costume. Shaun Taylor-Steels proved to be one of the most talented drummers in the Doom/Death metal scene, his drumming is very complex even in ordinary riffs, and it goes out of this world in the first and last tracks. Keyboards and bass guitar are a perfect complement, giving the solid core that this album has but with no special moments or solos, they just come with the music, what seems little but, given the spirit of the album Ade Jackson and Sarah Stanton made a terrific job.
The clean vocals sound like “disguised” under different effects, and the result of this is perfect, it’s like Aaron is singing inside a tomb, and the most important, it seems that he is learning how to manage his clean voice, creating different moments with just a phrase. In my opinion, the clean vocals play a less important role than in any other album (with the exception of As the Flowers Wither) but the technical work on them is greater than before. The growls are, as usual, awesome!

What calls the attention is the “ballad” of the album My Wine, In Silence, a very romantic, mellow song, with distorted guitars just at the end, even though it is a heavy song may be due to the dark atmosphere it has, or may be for the simple and sad guitar melody, anyway, is a great song. The lyrics in general are very poetic and all have been conceived perfectly for the climate of each song, they bring romantic and tragic images in the low tunes, and are rage full in the heaviest, like in The Blue Lotus or And My Fury Stands Ready. If I have to define this album in one phrase, I would say: they are Songs of Darkness with Words of Light. And if you ask me if this is the final masterpiece of MDB, I would say no, each album is masterpiece, all of them have one thing or another that makes them great and unique, this time that thing is darkness.

Sorry, this moronic pun was so tempting, I just couldn’t resist. Some may still consider Turn Loose the Swans as the ultimate MDB album, but people like me who hold The Dreadful Hours for their best effort and one of the ultimate gothic/doom albums of all time just have to love this one. Simply because it is just the logical following of this previous MDB opus, that means, the band keeps on melting the death-doom metal they are well-known for with more gothic influences. So, if you dislike MDB later works, what I may fully understand, just stop reading there, there is nothing more for you.

This album might be a step below The Dreadful Hours because of some filling moments, like And My Fury Stands Ready where more than half of the song consists in annoying minimalist guitar chords backed by ambient sounds, giving undoubtedly the weakest track here. But apart from that, this album only consists in the dark, depressive beauty of gothic/doom metal. Sure, joyful it is not, and MDB has never been anyway, but contrary to their first attempts at softer music, their last efforts never fall into sleep-inducing monotony. The Angel and the Dark River as well as Like Gods of the Sun had their moments and included some of my favourite MDB tracks (The Angel... especially, with The Cry of Mankind, A Sea to Suffer In and Two Winters Only), but failed to really keep the listener attentive until the very end in my opinion. This is not the case with this release, though one can’t really say the band has noticeably sped up. Still the same slow, creeping, slightly down-tuned doom riffs, Aaron’s deep and discouraged voice, and poetically sick lyrics.

As stated before everything that has been said and written about The Dreadful Hours could apply to this album, but this is fortunately not a sterile repetition of the aforementioned masterpiece. The band has gone a step further in the gothic direction, with the more widespread use of slightly distorted vocals and more blatant keyboards, thus a stronger emphasis on dark atmospheres, without ever falling into mellow so-called atmospheric blandness fortunately. Spoken parts are also still well present, as well as more aggressive growls which might well add the energy the softer works were lacking of. After all, My Dying Bride is one of the last well-known acts to keep the flame of early 90’s death-doom metal alive, when almost every famous band, from Paradise Lost to Katatonia, has turned to pop-rock.

Granted, this album doesn’t exhibit such utterly gloomy tracks as The Dreadful Hours (the song) or the agonizing Le Figlie Della Tempesta, but crushing pieces of 1000 tons weighing doom as the opening track The Wreckage of My Flesh (which takes quite a while before really beginning though) or the closing A Doomed Lover and its impressive crescendo ending are not likely to make you feel very light and easy. Nor is the beautiful bass and guitar-driven ballad My Wine in Silence, which again shows how an impressive clean vocalist Aaron can occasionally be. Don’t worry, growls are also present, this album may even be the most growled MDB album in years. Eventually my personal favourite may be the both touching and complex Catherine Blake, perfect mixture between MDB old doom/death style and their more gentle works, but this album has really to be listened to as a whole as each song, though sounding very different from the others, is part of the general dark, and almost MORBID, atmosphere.

With this release My Dying Bride’s future looks very gloomy. What, for this band, means of course it looks bright.

Highlights: The Scarlet Garden, Catherine Blake, My Wine in Silence, The Prize of Beauty, A Doomed Lover

Formed in 1990, My Dying Bride is probably the most well known Doom Metal band of all time. With such monumental albums like “As The Flower Withers” or “Turn Loose The Swans”, the English act established as pioneers, giving birth, together with Anathema and Paradise Lost, to what would be labelled as Doom Death Metal.

The evolution since their first album has been mainly done by details that, in some ways, have changed their composition, but never affecting the incredible dark and depressive environment they always manage to create. “Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light” is the logical continuation of My Dying Bride’s career since 1999. “The Light At The End Of The World” saw the almost literal end of the violins, leaving more space for the keyboards to shine; the growls, absent for some albums, returned and the aggressiveness increased. “The Dreadful Hours” followed the same line. Now, this work continues having all those elements, but there are some slower songs, mostly with clean vocals and beautiful guitars, like “A Doomed Lover” and “My Wine in Silence”, that sound not just sad, but absolutely tragic.

The keyboards have their most influential role ever on My Dying Bride’s discography, sometimes giving that sound of “betrayed romance soundtrack”, like in the end of “The Prize Of Beauty” or pushing us heavily for suicidal tendencies (“The Scarlet Garden” for example).
Personally I think Aaron Stainthorpe is one of the best Metal vocalists, he can sing whatever he wants and always sound obscure and depressed. After all this time he manages to put out his best performance ever, using all of his experience and resources: enraged growls, whining vocals (those that almost make you cry on how much he seems to be suffering) and sometimes even very calm almost speaking his lyrics but with different tons on his voice, inspiring different feelings.

Besides being solid, diverse and interesting from the beginning until the end, there are some really memorable moments on this album: the initial part on “The Wreckage Of My Flesh” is very weird and brilliant at the same time, specially because it works so well as an introduction and fits the song; the brilliant changes in the middle of “The Scarlet Garden”; the whole “Catherine Blake”, a true anthem to everything the band represents; the creepy environment of “And My Fury Stands Ready” or even the emotionally brutal riffs on “A Doomed Lover”.

No review can prepare a person’s spirit to the sentimental rides My Dying Bride’s albums are, even if, like me, you are totally absorbed by their music. In conclusion “Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light” is perfect on everything, definitely one of the best albums they have done.

My Dying Bride is one of the greatest doom metal bands, with albums like Turn Loose The Swans, The Light At The End Of The World and The Angel And The Dark River, they really stand out from other bands. Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light does not make any exception, the album is great from beginning to end. This was the first record that I had heard from My Dying Bride and at first I did not like it. It may be hard to get into if you are not used to the doom metal style, because the songs are about the lyrics and the singer talks more than he sings, but he talks with a complaining voice, in order to emphasize on the moroseness. So the instruments being played very slowly, with keyboards and violins (I believe) and the “whining” vocals, it creates an incredibly gloomy atmosphere.

I, personally, enjoy listening to Aaron’s voice. He is able to sing beautiful melodies, whisper in a sorrowful voice or do some very nice growls. The guitars on Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light is absolutely wonderful. There are so many catchy riffs, especially the one in My Wine In Silence. This last is easily the best song of the album, everything about it is great, I have never heard anything this dark, and then the guitarist comes in with a simple slow riff that catches the attention of any listener, it is amazing. Later in the song, Aaron changes voice and growls for a while and then the heavy distorted electric guitars come in, which is really awesome.

Also used in a few songs on this album is the organ. Not often used in metal, I found that the organ created something special about the songs on which it was played. The drum was also well played, every instrument was brilliantly executed, and they did not try to overdo it. They kept it slow and simple, that way it did not ruin the dark and sad atmosphere of the songs.

Doom metal lovers will fall in love with this album; however, if you are not into the whinny sad songs, well you will probably need some adaptation to this album, because it is not similar at all to any other genre of music. Stand-out tracks on this album are My Wine In Silence and A Doomed Lover. After a few listens, Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light gets better and better. I rate it 90/100, it is a brilliant album from the masters of doom.


DarkDryad

The masters of doom metal are back with their seventh full-length album (not including their two live albums, EPs, compilations, etc.) Songs of Darkness, Words of Light. And what an album they have created here, full of beautiful melodies and some of the most sorrowful lyrics I’ve read. These guys know how to make doom metal, after all they’ve been doing this for around 14 years now. My first exposure to this band was when I picked up their 1996 album Like Gods of the Sun, after having read/heard many good things about the band and that album. Upon hearing that album for the first time I was taken about at how sorrowful this band really was, the music was so slow and melancholic it was unreal. Add to that the vocals of Aaron Stainthorpe and you’ve got one hell of a doom metal album.

So here it is 2004 and we are given another eight tracks of doom, clocking in at around 58+ minutes. There is not a bad track to be found on this album, each song is a keeper as far as I’m concerned. Each track contains haunting guitar riffs (provided by Hamish Glencross and Andrew Craighan), tight drumming, a thick bass sound (easily heard in the mix, but not overpowering), and Aaron Stainthorpe’s excellent vocals. Stainthorpe has one of the best voices I’ve heard, he can sing the low whispered styled vocals, mournful styled, and give some pretty good growled vocals all within a single song. A perfect example of this comes in the third track, Catherine Blake. The song starts out with this droning opening riff, followed in short time by the vocals. The vocals are almost spoken in the beginning, but then around the 4:24 mark the song takes a different direction. The riffs become a little heavier, in my opinion, and Stainthorpe breaks out the growls. Such a beautiful song, it’s definitely one of the best tracks on the album.

If you like doom metal, or are interested in checking out the genre, don’t hesitate in picking up this album. There’s no better way to get into a genre of metal than by getting an album by one of the masters in the field. For doom metal, those masters are six individuals who call themselves My Dying Bride.