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.