Album Review. MY DYING BRIDE – “THE GHOST OF ORION”

MY DYING BRIDE bring us in “THE GHOST OF ORION” a startled album that clearly conveys the sensations characteristic of Doom genre.

You have to be very willing or temperamental to enjoy Doom Metal. MY DYING BRIDE always has the temperament and condition to provide the experience and with this latest installment called “The Ghost Of Orion” they ratify it. A sublime album that does not disappoint with a balanced fatality in each of its tracks.

As I mentioned in my previous review, maintaining a group has its sacrifice, these Brits were succeeded by their drummer Dan Mullins who fortunately did not continue due to family problems that were solved and was replaced by Jeff Singer, coming from PARADISE LOST, which has done very well and has provided the entire band with its representative and accessible sound for connoisseurs of this genre. Another original member who left was also his guitarist Calvin Robertshaw, without reason or explanation. Then came the regrouping of MY DYING BRIDE , they entered the studio, they felt good and how they managed to keep going, dominating the storm and recording a magnificent album: “The Ghost Of Orion”, always with the support of their followers.

Along with the aforementioned drummer MY DYING BRIDE they have, in their ranks, Aaron Stainthorpe, on vocals; Andrew Craighand, on guitars; Lena Abé, on the bass; Shaun Macgowan, on keyboards and violins, counting as additional staff on the album as the German concert player Jor Quail, on the cello and to the Danish singer Lindy Fay Hella of the band WARDRUNA, in the additional voices of the track “The Solace”.

For “The Ghost Of Orion” they had producer Mark Mynett who also took care of its engineering to give a touch of darkness to the effulgence of their Doom Metal. And they have been doing this for three decades, transcending the scene every time they are present.

This is the first album that is not recorded with PEACEVILLE RECORDS, but with NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS which we hope will give you momentum and vitality. Mr. Graighand was the only composer of this work, noting in its homogeneity in some passages of somewhat repetitive parts but without getting boredom and printing a lot of quality on the final product.

Heaviness and sadness are the hallmark of this production, with the scene of doom that inspired these years. There was even talk of dissolution in the year of 2017, but all this empowered MY DYING BRIDE to give us their fourteenth LP. 

We have an excellent cover artwork by Eliran Kantor, who has worked for FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE and EX DEO. An image that comes as a first impression of the eight songs on the album, embodying the product of a vibrant and creative band that doesn’t want to rest on its past laurels or glories.

Mr. Stainthorpe stated for a digital medium the following: “” The Ghost Of Orion “was born after the struggle, the tension and the fear of what I have experienced. This is balanced with gratitude, resistance and even benevolence. The tensions in conflict They exist with no attempt to alleviate themselves, and all of these qualities are among the many reasons MY DYING BRIDEhas reigned at the pinnacle of Doom Metal for over three decades – I’ve done one of my most impressive vocal performances to date. I have endured the most cruel and bitter creation of God. “

When each member of the band begins to work, their understanding becomes so strong that difficulties can arise to hear the rest of the elements, giving us noisy riffs that can tire over time. 

The first cut of “The Ghost Of Orion” is, “Your Broken Shore” the album’s first single, energetically depressing, with tinted riffs of doom, along with a lyrical afflicted with irresistible violin lines that persistently make their way until playing our darkest and most sorry feelings that will prepare us for the next seven cuts.

We continue with “To Outlive The Gods”, a musical mix that drowns out voices and other sound additives such as the violin strings that is enunciated claiming its presence along with the interpretation of the guitars that are wrapped in polyphony to completely improve it, melodies that they tear you apart.

“Tired of tears, the second single that they presented, with a content that has a lot to do with the emotional state with whichlived Mr. Stainthorpe with his family problem, touching in its entirety giving him a Genuine sensitivity, its variability of chords make it delightful without losing the fatality and melodic despair, it slows down and completely avoids the guttural tone to focus on the atmosphere and sincere lament.

“The solace” with the collaboration of Lindy Fay Hella from WARDRUNA, a rather strange and atypical experimental offer of the band, a demented harmonious turn that is resolved with many merits, thanks to the feminine role in the voices, audibly overflowing with ideas and enthusiasm, without slowing down with a past and almost folk sensation that It is rare for the band to demonstrate its mutability.

We arrived at the equator of the album with the song “The Long Black Land”, a piece too long, more than ten minutes s duration, which has an unusual lyrical coverage, suggestive and mesmerizing with its cloying tone that bitter in its attempt to accept, is eternal and unstoppable, its class as death, are forever.

“The ghost of Orion”, charged with the implacably sustained mystique of MY DYING BRIDE, with the dismay as a registered trademark of its fury and vulnerability in its compositions, with all the expected dynamics and the majesty of thoserhythms caracoleante with a source of evolution It continues as the riffs warp and wander through territory as foreign as it is familiar.

“The Old Earth”, another cut with almost ten minutes duration, is almost an endless repetition of the same chord, producing the perception of immeritoria, interpreting itself as a recurring deficiency or deficiency, but those of us who know the group know that they do so. , tumultuously fascinating.

“Your Broken Shore”, representative of the entire album, sadly relentless, overwhelming and somberly beautiful for its extraordinary musicality, the latest impulse to masterfully close this realization. If this is not a total reinvention, which it definitely is not, then it is evidence of truly vigorous cleansing with tremendous conclusions. We have pain, suffering, darkness, abyss, shadows, destruction, a present so vulnerable that this release is much more magnified.

In the end we have warm and chilly sensations, without losing the tradition of MY DYING BRIDE, along with some experimentation to a great extent. “The Ghost Of Orion” is a rather promising combination of the thorny path that the band travels until reaching success, without neglecting the deficiencies that arise from some cuts due to their perhaps dry and sour genre that is always dominant. 

With all this, this album is a good album, due to its innovative idea of ​​trying new forms when proceeding with its construction, and they have done well. A deluge of tears in melancholy and almost humiliating riffs with fleshy voices dejected even in their pronunciation. MY DYING BRIDE has overcome its demons in time, and we should be ready for this sadness that will accompany us for a good time, making our existence terrible as we listen and enjoy more of  “The Ghost Of Orion”. The group’s reputation is unassailable.