34 years and 15 albums on, and I’m still enjoying these guys as much as when I first heard them 30 years ago. The 7 songs complete the just shy of an hour-long album, and are exactly what you’d expect, but more importantly want to form a My Dying Bride album. It’s also the first for new guitarist Neil Blanchett, but not for returning drummer Dan Mullins after over a decade away, while Andrew Craighan, Aaron Stainthorpe, Lena Abé and Shaun MacGowan just keep on doing what they do best.

The album appears to open reasonably gently with a nice heavy but slow riff on “Her Dominion”. But after a quick drum roll, Aaron proceeds to growl venomously over silence between interspersed drum rolls before the chugging guitars return to drive things along, but it’s Shaun’s beautiful violin that brings forth the gooseflesh as Lena’s rumbling bass completely fills my speakers.

When the video for “Thornwyck Hymn” came out two months ago to whet all our appetites, it did so in spades with haunting violins being played over Aaron’s morose clean vocals as Andrew and Neil’s choppy guitar rhythm flows perfectly over Dan’s steady footwork. The song moves through its various phases while remaining powerfully emotional.

Keeping the sedate pace is “The 2nd of Three Bells” where the buzzing of the guitars can be felt as it reverberates gently. However, it’s just after the halfway mark when everything steps up and Aaron’s mournful whispers morph into growls over chunky guitars before everything abates once more to meander along.

You get sucked into the mesmerising rhythm used on “Unthroned Creed”, as it waxes and wanes to follow the vocal delivery with everything subdues under the whispers but fuller when the singing gets faster.

“The Apocalyptist” opens with violins over bass before the guitars, growls and drums come in filled with aggression to make this, the longest song on the album also the heaviest but somehow most melodic, with the sustained harmonics, plenty of violins and an immaculate bass solo.

Winding things down is “A Starving Heart” with its slow but heavy guitar riff accompanied by Aaron’s dulcet tones, its share of violins and drum rolls without ever sounding as though too many things are happening simultaneously.

The album ends with suitably melancholic “Crushed Embers” where the violins spill over the gut-wrenching guitar riffs with the vocals alternating between emotionally charged clean and abrasive growls to convey both sentiments perfectly.

Another fine album by this excellent band that have been releasing great albums for more than three decades now.

(9/10 Marco Gaminara)

https://www.facebook.com/MyDyingBrideOfficial

https://mydyingbrideofficial.bandcamp.com/album/a-mortal-binding