by Christian Decker
The new EP by My Dying Bride really defines what I like best about diversity of sound within the metal genre. One of the perfectors of doom metal, and more specifically funeral doom, My Dying Bride’s new EP comes at you with the full oppressive force of a funeral dirge and heavy slow headbanging riffs. It’s certainly not for all ears, the title track itself is 10 minutes long which is a lot to ask anyone to listen to. The other two songs “A Secret Kiss” and “A Purse of Gold and Stars” are a little bit shorter, clocking in at about 6 minutes each. It’s funny to me because I now consider six minute songs to be on the shorter side. I enjoy longer songs because you don’t really want them to end, the same way I feel about this EP.
These three songs are very similar in tone, though not in lyrical content, I would have to say “A Secret Kiss” and “Macabre Cabaret” are the headbangers, albeit ones that aren’t as faced as the usual metal bangers. The band blends a nice choral and clean vocal style that takes up the majority of the tracks and is awesome to hear if not a bit soul-crushing. It really does remind you a lot of funeral processions. When combined with the brief interludes of growl vocals, it reminds you that this is in fact a metal track and still manages to get you moving even in-spite of it’s slow pacing.
Rating – 4/5
Favorite Track- Macabre Cabaret
