I’ve been listening to My Dying Bride’s entire discography, including this new one, nonstop for a good two weeks straight. It’s begun to affect my daily life. A couple nights ago, after putting the Cherdlet to bed, my wife asked me what I’d like to do with the rest of our evening and without thinking I said, “Drink deep of your neck chalice.” While she was still quietly processing this, I complimented her on the whiteness of her breasts. She decided she wanted to watch “one of her shows” instead and bid me good night. I spent the next hour impulse-shopping online for candelabras and a fainting couch. Thirty-four years is a long time to crank out one dismal goth-tinged death doom album after another, but My Dying Bride have been doing it as if their lives—their bride’s life?—depended on it, frequently to legendary results. A Mortal Binding is their 14th studio album. Is it befitting of their lachrymose legacy?
With the exception of small tweaks here and there,1 My Dying Bride has long since abandoned any experimentation with their sound, and A Mortal Binding is no exception. Like nearly every album since 1999’s The Light at the End of the World, the death, doom, and gothic elements balance across the album. Songs may lean one way or the other, for instance, opener “Her Dominion” is as much death metal as anything from the band’s more straightforward 1992 debut, or later career cuts like “The Raven and the Rose.” In fact, the track features no clean vocals, only death growls by Aaron Stainthorpe, which is a rarity these days. Meanwhile “Thornwyck Hymn” and “Unthroned Creed” are as straight doom as the band gets. The gothy bits, aside from Stainthorpe’s wistful singing, are brought by keyboardist/violinist Shaun MacGowan, who adds welcome drama to cuts like lead single “The 2nd of Three Bells” and the otherwise death-leaning “The Apocalyptist.”
The good news for fans of the band, and for fans of doom metal in general, is that guitarist Andrew Craighan and company haven’t forgotten how to write good songs in their dotage. Most of these tracks stand up well to the band’s own impressive body of work—did you catch our ranking piece from yesterday?—with “Her Dominion,” “Thornwyck Hymn,” and “The Apocalyptist” standing out as clear highlights. “Thornwyck Hymn” is the type of deceptively addictive doom song My Dying Bride have always been adept at, with the dignified adagio riffing you would expect from Craighan and relative newcomer Neil Blanchett. “The Apocalyptist” picks up the more aggressive tone laid out in the opener, and it’s good to hear Stainthorpe’s always legible, throwback harsh vocals that remind you these guys formed in death metal’s nascent era. I expect this will be the song most likely to be added to folks’ master MDB playlists, though I wouldn’t say it, or any of this material, reaches the band’s top tier of output.
And of course, that’s the un-ignorable issue with a band’s 14th full-length release in 34 years. Even if it sounds good, and it does, it’s ultimately competing with 13 other siblings for attention, and Mom and Dad definitely play favorites. This is a comfortable album. Certainly more so than 2020’s The Ghost of Orion, with all the personal and professional trials that preceded it. Most of the album is quite good, but not great by My Dying Bride’s own standards, and the last two songs especially don’t quite hold up to the first five. “A Starving Heart” does nothing that “Thornwyck Hymn” didn’t do better, and “Crushed Embers” plods along without any real point of interest until the final two and a half minutes, which feature a winning chorus/refrain and a return of the harsh vocals.
At the time of writing, My Dying Bride has recently canceled without explanation all upcoming shows despite the fact they have a new album. Hopefully, this isn’t an indication that album number 14 will be the last, but whatever news is coming next can’t be good. If this turns out to be the end, the band goes out on a solid effort, but if you’re looking for a late-career highlight, maybe revisit 2015’s Feel the Misery.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Websites: mydyingbridoffical.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/MyDyingBrideOfficial
Releases Worldwide: April 19th, 2024
