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My Dying Bride > 34.788%... Complete > Reviews
My Dying Bride - 34.788%... Complete

Calvin accidentally entered the wrong co-ordinates in the Delorean - 80%

Absinthe1979, May 13th, 2022
Written based on this version: 1998, CD, Peaceville Records

Ah, 1998. What a time to be alive. The internet had not yet sucked us all into its digital maw; black and death metal were riding back down the crest of its heightened early 90s wave; and experimentation within certain elements of darkened metal wasn’t just enticing to bands looking for the next thing, it was seemingly mandatory.

A review that did not tip its hat to Paradise Lost’s commercio-gothic keyboard-fest that is ‘One Second’ would only be 34.788% complete, so once again I’ll bemusedly thank the northern-English purveyors of moroseness. After 'One Second', a slew of similarly light and/or electronic releases hurriedly arrived from the likes of Amorphis, Moonspell, Theatre of Tragedy and of course, the mighty My Dying Bride. When ’34.788%... Complete’ was released, My Dying Bride were my favourite band in the world, and there was naturally a significant shock upon first hearing it. Nevertheless, the impact of its experimentation, the infusion of electronics and the otherwise futuristic sound was dampened somewhat by Paradise Lost already changing the paradigm, and that gave me some warning. So, like someone expecting an impact, I'd made my body go limp prior to pressing play, and the hurt wasn't so great. Besides, unlike the annoyingly twee keyboard sounds of Paradise Lost’s album, ’34.788%... Complete’ actually had some meat on those cyborg bones. There was enough variety to really make this one hell of a curious and enjoyable album.

’34.788… Complete’ is the first album without the classic line-up. Gone were the irreplaceable keyboards and violin of Martin Powell as well as the bespoke drumming of Rick Miah. Gone, too, was the gothicism of old, and in place of mournful violin melodies from forlorn churchyards came the beeps and squeaks of a futuristic world. Bill Law, from also-rans Dominion, arrived onto the drum stool for his one and only showing with the band, and with the absence of the classical music engine-room, Calvin and Co. went all out with an album that was vastly different to anything that had gone before. Sound effects, electronics, drum loops: all were jockeying for room on this somewhat epic album.

I’ll begin with the lows so that we can end on the highs. The first inescapable low is that if you happened to love the first four My Dying Bride releases, which most people did in the mid 90s, this album was an electronic shock to the system. The infamous ‘Heroin Chic’, which was the talk of the town at the time, was found guilty on all charges, with its post-modern arthouse SoHo pretensions. Purely electronic, with Aaron Stainthorpe speak-reading some expletive laden (albeit blurred out!) bohemian poetry, I wouldn’t be caught dead listening to it if it wasn’t sandwiched between a couple of more decent tracks. These include the slow-marching ‘Der Uberlebende’ and the upbeat rock n roll of ‘Apocalypse Woman’, whose bass and tom-roll beginning coincidentally sounds very much like material on Moonspell’s ‘Sin/Pecado’ album, also released that year. While both songs are curious and not completely unwelcome members of the MDB songbook, you would hardly keep a straight face while suggesting they were classics. I know it's generally accepted that 'Heroin Chic' has its place, but come on, if you heard it in a bar and didn't know it was MDB, you'd leave the premises with utmost haste before the performance art begins.

What excites me most about this album are the two utter classic tracks that appear on it. In fact, I would look you in the eye and firmly shake your hand while swearing that both songs would make my My Dying Bride top ten. The first, ‘The Whore, the Cook and the Mother’ is an epic masterstroke of songwriting and storytelling. After some modern guitar tones introduce the song, it launches into a waltzing wall-of-sound riff that reminds somewhat of ‘The Cry of Mankind’, albeit this one is set in a futuristic Bladerunner world. Erotically charged lyrics sit perfectly upon the powerful music, and the lead guitar melodies are classic My Dying Bride, albeit sent off in the Delorean to the future. The spacey movement in the middle of the song (which again reminds of the atmospheric outro to ‘The Cry of Mankind’), with Aaron answering questions from a woman speaking Chinese, Bladerunner style, is so kooky and strange that it just happens to work. This track was a staple at our late 90s early 2000s parties and it’s stunning even today.

The other track that makes this album stand head and shoulders above the experiments of their peers, is ‘Base Level Erotica’. It is without doubt one of the great emotional masterpieces of the band, beginning with a haunting bass melody, before erupting into a shattering mid-paced gear change. The song is made up of pure MDB guitar melody greatness, while Aaron’s yearning erotic lyrics, which hold nothing back as to the glories of carnal encounters, are A+. When the music picks up into the “Take her clothes off…” section, foreplay has peaked and it's game-on. The final guitar riff that is repeated to the song’s denouement is total emotion and sultry grandeur.

The album artwork suits the sonics on the disc, with a spidery looking image atop a strange circle of blue light with the obligatory – for a futuristic album – coordinates and other computery-looking symbols. The booklet, like every booklet of this era from the list of bands I mentioned earlier in this review, is made up of a starkly different artistic theme on each page, and it’s in a late 90s alternative style that I’m glad didn’t have longevity. The lyrics, by the way, are out of order in the booklet, so I’m not even sure if the product I have in my hands is what was intended, although it’s hard to see how any particular ordering of these zany and bizarre images could improve the package.

Perhaps I’m being a little kind on this album in my rating, maybe because the very next year they would release one of my favourite albums in ‘The Light at the End of the World’, and the world was put to rights. Am I letting bygones be bygones and killing the fattened calf for the prodigal son? And it's true, there are a couple of tracks here that I would have to honestly conclude were unsuccessful experiments. But the winners are winners indeed, and even the mid-level tracks (such as 'The Stance of Evander Sinque' and 'Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms') suggest that the album is really more about 80% complete. It is indeed worthy of a place in this great band's legacy.

A failed experiment - 57%

lukretion, November 19th, 2021
Written based on this version: 1998, CD, Peaceville Records

The mediocre Like Ghosts of the Sun had already shown that in the mid-90s British doomsters My Dying Bride were probably facing a sort of creativity crisis, struggling to write inspired music within the canons of the genre (gothic/doom) that they had contributed to create. Released in 1998 after the departure of violinist Martin Powell, 34.788%...Complete feels a lot like an attempt by My Dying Bride to jump start their songwriting machinery by injecting into it fresh new influences, from industrial to trip hop to electronica. Truth be told, My Dying Bride were not the only doom band exploring new forms of expression in those years. Paradise Lost had turned electro-goth since a couple of years, and Anathema were slowly but surely developing their own Floyd-infused progressive rock style. So 34.788%...Complete can also be seen as My Dying Bride trying to play catch up with the other two main UK doom metal bands of that era. Either way, 34.788%...Complete is a sort of extemporary experiment that is brave and at times interesting, but that ultimately falls inexorably flat.

The idea of mixing doom/gothic metal with industrial and electronic influences is actually quite promising, as the opener “The Whore, the Cook and the Mother” shows. This track is by far the best of the album. In fact, I’d say it is the ONLY song of the record that actually works. The abrasive industrial guitar intro is jarring and unexpected, and it immediately grabs the listener’s attention. Aaron Stainthorpe’s slow-paced singing paints the usual dramatic atmospheres, but the distorted filter that is used to process his vocals adds a layer of urban grit that makes things fresh and exciting. The guitar lead is instead quintessential My Dying Bride doom, creating a nice contrast with the futuristic feel of Aaron’s vocals and the industrial rhythm guitar. The track then dissolves into a music collage of acoustic arpeggios, background noise and sampled vocals, another unexpected turn that keeps the listener guessing what may come next. It’s a great track and an excellent example of how to develop the band’s sound without feeling forced or losing their sonic identity.

Alas, the rest of the record does not even come close to matching the promise of its opener. The main reason is that in none of the other songs does the band succeed in mixing the new influences in a natural and fluid way as on the opener. “The Stance of Evander Sinque”, “Der Überlebende”, “Apocalypse Woman”, and “Base Level Erotica” are all songs that feel completely underdeveloped, where the songwriting technique seems to have been to throw-in a couple of industrial riffs, electronic flourishes or futuristic guitar effects, while firmly staying in the usual comfort zone of the band’s old doom/goth sound (not too far distant from the music on Like Ghost of the Sun). It all feels artificial and not really thought through. I get the distinctive feel that the band was not quite sure in which direction to take their music. Or perhaps this is the symptom of a reticence to fully embrace the new influences in order to avoid alienating too many fans.

Things get even more puzzling when one considers “Heroin Chic”, which is the most outlandishly experimental track of the album. And not in a good way. This is an electronica/trip hop song with some soulful female singing (by Michelle Richfield, who also sang for Anathema and Antimatter) and, shockingly, a sort of (very poor) rapped vocals by Aaron. After the first minute, when the initial surprise wanes off, the song quickly becomes unlistenable as it continues in the same vein for another seven minutes with bad lyrics, bad vocals, and a rather insipid musical background. I have nothing against experimenting with electronica/trip hop and in fact I love the early electronic-infused albums by the aforementioned Antimatter, for instance. But “Heroin Chic” really feels like a parody of a band who wants to mix electronica and metal, rather than a serious attempt to merge the two genres. Again, this leaves me wondering what My Dying Bride were trying to do with this album.

In the end, I am not quite sure the band knew themselves. The new sonic “direction” was quickly abandoned, and only after one year My Dying Bride were already back in the shops with a new record (The Light at the End of the World) that took three steps back in terms of sound, scrapping all industrial/electronic influences and returning to a style closer to Turn Loose the Swans (growls included). Overall, 34.788%...Complete is probably best remembered as a child of its times, when many metal bands were looking beyond the boundaries of the genre to experiment with new sounds and influences. In some cases (Anathema, for example), this worked splendidly. In others, it failed ruinously. Either way, I respect My Dying Bride for trying, although this is not an album that I can see myself listening to again any time soon.

The Experiment in the Middle of the Road - 91%

bayern, February 17th, 2018

The Brides… arguably the most celebrated British act after the Big Three (Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden), this acknowledgement disputed by the other death/doom/gothic behemoth, Paradise Lost, in terms of commercial success mostly of course, not so much regarding musical merits... cause Aaron Stainthorpe and Co. never really betrayed their dark, atmospheric beginnings, and never went astray into deviant, treacherous territories…

and, if there ever has been a sign that something of the kind might actually occur at some point in the band’s career, it was on the album reviewed here. Again, kudos should be paid to the band for attempting this isolated, unmitigated experiment strictly within the confines of their chosen field, not looking towards very diversifying tools of expression, consequently coming up with something equally as enchanting as the magnum opus that the preceding album was. A digression that was way superior to the divisive, shall I also add controversial, efforts of the guys’ direct competitors Anathema (“Alternative 4”) and Paradise Lost (“Host”) again.

It did make perfect sense for the band to attempt something a bit outside-the-box after a climactic work like “Like Gods of the Sun”, and to also match the transformational times when almost every single extreme metal practitioner (Gorefest, Morgoth, The Gathering, Entombed, Cemetary, Amorphis, Sadist, Sentenced, Tiamat, In the Woods, etc.) from the Old Continent shifted gears towards mellower ways of expressions. With some of those the metamorphoses took unrecognizable proportions, largely for the worse than for the better, but in the case here one will have no difficulties whatsoever in hearing the good old My Dying Bride behind this modified guise.

There’s no beating about the bush here with “The Whore, the Cook and the Mother“ alone clocking on 12-min, a nearly psychedelic acid trip with synthesized, also stoned, Aaron behind the mike, but with some of the grandest, most haunting melodies to ever grace a doom metal album, and with abrupt switches to more aggressive angrier riffs, not to mention the lengthy ambient interlude that may stretch someone’s nerves with its tranquil nature. A different cup of tea for sure, quite similar to the one served at the Norwegian breakfast table by In the Woods on “Omnio” a year earlier, but one that has no intentions of moving too far from the solid core as “The Stance of Evander Sinque” so nicely shows, a doom metal delight of the highest order with brilliant keyboard insertions, with Aaron bringing back his vocal bravado to assist this prime ship-sinker which could easily qualify for the preceding instalment. The psychedelia returns for “Der Überlebende”, a dreamier, more melancholic proposition that may remind of the delivery on “The Angel and the Dark River”, only through a more LSD-induced, hippie-like perspective.

From LSD to heroin with “Heroin Chic”, the eclectic 70’s rock-esque beginning going straight into The Doors territory, and stays there for a while until a harder doom-laden passage takes over, but not for long as this is stuff of a different breed, with Aaron semi-reciting nonchalantly throughout, not really singing, recalling Jim Morrison (R.I.P.) and Iggy Pop. An eye-opener or an eye closer, depending on the taste, followed by a more dynamic, but still 70’s rockabilia-influenced saga titled “Apocalypse Woman” which shows some doomy verve eventually, with more lyrical walkabouts the whole amalgam paying tribute to Joy Division and mid-period Killing Joke, only more aggressively laid out with Aaron pulling out something like a chorus. Intriguing, really intriguing stuff the motifs and nuances never truly repeated on subsequent tracks, “Base Level Erotica” conquering all with steam-rolling, macabre rhythms, another doom masterpiece, a supreme 10-min composition which enhances the environment with great melodic tunes both from the riff and the lead department, plus a few from the unobtrusive keyboard-peppered accompaniment. A graceful closure provided by “Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms”, a more energetic roller-coaster the band marching on in a steady lively manner, taking a brief respite mid-way with a more serene section, a hypnotic stride which sounds like the most logical conclusion to this compelling, less ordinary odyssey.

A brave dive into not very well traversed territories, the band were very close to establishing a new branch within the doom metal roster, the more complex, more psychedelic alternative to the stoner side, the same cause for which In the Woods (earlier Green Carnation) again were fighting for at around the same time, and who managed to reach further “into the woods” with “Three Times Seven on a Pilgrimage”. Our English heroes gave up earlier; in fact, they’ve never really entertained the thought of abandoning all the sorrow and doom for the sake of brighter trippy vistas… a pack of hallucinogenic mushrooms brought them by friends of theirs from Peru or thereabouts may have caused this delightful aberration in their discography, but the guys were determined to leave it this way, an aberration, regardless of how charming it sounded…

darkness, pessimism and atavistic nostalgia became the norm again on “The Light at the End of the World” two years later, a marvellous look back at the band’s very roots with some death metal fury even called in for help, and the situation hasn’t been altered drastically… again. Until the next pack of mushrooms brought from distant lands, of course.

A lazy experiment - 63%

gasmask_colostomy, October 19th, 2014

This album is totally inconsistent, both in MDB's career and in its shifts between songs. Kudos to the band for pulling in a few ideas from way outside the box, but goddamn are those ideas patchy as fuck! If I slice the album into pieces, I'm left with a delicious 20 minute slice, an appetising 20 minute chunk, and a stale hunk of pie left over.

'The Whore, the Cook and the Mother' is delicious and was probably the least surprising thing on here when it came out. The lyrics are sexually driven (though no longer poetic, as on previous and later albums), but the real gold is the huge, overpowering guitars that sweat and soar and swoon all over the soggy bed - the ascending guitar "chorus" is one of the best things Bride have recorded, and even the quiet mid-section is great. The 2 closing tracks are also pretty tasty, but don't progress the good ideas they begin with to any real conclusion. 'Base Level Erotica' is slow and full of effects and menace, which MDB would return to on songs like 'Le Figlie della Tempesta', while 'Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms' is a great closer that only feels long because it's a fast song for Bride and seems to get away from them. The guitar tone imitates the fullness of 'The Whore...', giving great washes of riff that focus more on strumming and chord patterns than Bride's more traditional plod-and-harmony affair. The lyrics and title of 'Under Your Wings...' seem as well to be a surprising (and interesting) take on Stainthorpe's rather rocky relationship with God, though that might be just my reading.

The parts of this album that are average are at least average and interesting which, looking back over MDB's discography, isn't always possible to say, so it's refreshing to hear weird but mediocre songs like 'The Stance of Evander Sinque' or 'Der Überlebende', since they approach the problems of faith, loneliness, and melancholy from a very different angle to the doom death norm. The obsessively rhythmic, deliberately uncatchy riffs of the former strike me as the sort of metal that Helmet might come up with if they were given a lot of meds and a Renaissance history textbook, while the slow repetition and monotone nature of the latter almost brings to mind some of the more difficult Brit rock bands that were clogging up the late '90s. It is worth noting that Stainthorpe's vocals take on not only a completely clean style here (that also happened on the last album), but they drift into a kind of Northern sneer that isn't a million miles away from the regional accents of Oasis and all that followed in their wake.

That voice and that street-level grit is perhaps what prompted MDB to write a song like 'Heroin Chic', which abandons metal and goes for a nasty, miasmic trip-hop vibe that really doesn't suit the band, though isn't actually that horrible. Drums are distinctly processed, which doesn't surprise as much as it might, since this album uses the drums more like a downer rock band than a doom metal one, and bass pops up for a rare moment, though of course it's not the moment that any Bride fan was looking for. Not a pointless experiment, but should not be on this album. 'Apocalypse Woman', on the other hand, is so inoffensive, it actually offends me. Unlike 'Der Überlebende', there is no hope of turning its directionlessness into an advantage. There's a kind of post-punk bass riff, but other than that I cannot remember anything about this song after more than 20-30 listens. It is unforgivably boring, simple as. There are no guitars that hook or to pound the listener, not even in the same billowy unrifflike way that Bride manage to master on some of this album's better songs, but there is simply a slow drift with nothing to anchor the song, a lack of substance that drills a hole right through the heart of this album.

Bride broke free of their post-The Angel and the Dark River stagnation and tried to experiment, but produced a half-hearted album with some fairly worthless tracks and a few beautifully unique moments in their career.

A very solid MDB album. - 84%

caspian, November 16th, 2009

I can't help but feel that the dislike/indifference towards this album is based on the title moreso than the music. The title alludes to a bunch of pretty irritating things- an arrogant boast from MDB that it's a rush job, a failed attempt at being deep (which based on interviews seems to be what it is), and just general shittiness all round. But really, aside from Heroin Chic this isn't that big of a departure from the typical MDB fare, and some of the material here sits easily among their best. It's hell of a lot more interesting than most of their mid-era stuff, anyway.

My generally favourable viewpoint here can probably be entirely attributed to that flat out beast that's the first song (first impressions and all that stuff). "The Whore, The Cook and The Mother" is one of the finest songs MDB have done. Aaron's nasal, soaring vocals over that massive guitar riff is hard to beat. The album seems to carry a theme of "having sex with someone while on drugs" (or alternatively, drugs in general), and the ecstasy fueled moneyshot that's this song is a fantastic example of. Sure, the ambient section is a bit long but it just makes the return to the massive intro riff even better.

Yeah, the first song doesn't really get touched by the rest of the record but that's hardly surprising; it's a fantastic song and MDB always have that one song per album that rises above the rest. Things continue on a fairly solid note throughout the album, however. "Der Uberblende" is typically solid death/doom/sob rock from these guys, "Apocalypse Woman" a competently done faster track with some pretty cool riffs, and the one-two punch of the last tracks end this on a really solid note- wah pedal abuse aside "Base level erotica" mines a rich vein of slow, desperate and hypnotic doom- the majestic and really damn depressing outro is a really fine bit of music, whereas "Under Your Wings..." is typically solid My Dying Bride; a few excellent riffs and leads arranged with a very careful hand, graceful, despairing, pretty damn solid.

One amazing song, two great songs and a few decent ones.. no different from the usual, then? The whole "not really all that different from the usual" theme is continued by the one typical a-grade turd (and ironically the only genuinely weird song on the album), "Heroin Chic". It's not a bad idea and I can sort of applaud them for trying something genuinely different, but the simple fact is that 8 minutes is way too long for a trip-hop song, especially one as lacking as this. Not really any progression, just a repetitive drum beat, the instruments meandering on uninteresting, worthless patterns, and a rather boring vocal delivery by Aaron. It's a really, really average bit of work, just a bunch of ideas thrown together for no real reason then, perhaps, to be different. It's an awful song.

But again, when we come down to it, when you have a look through their catalogue, this is nothing new. Heroin Chic is musically their worst song, possibly, but it's no more boring then, say, "Shadowhaunt", it's less cheesy then "The Blood, The Wine, The Roses" and it's a lot more daring then the entire "Like Gods of the Sun" album. Ok, so perhaps the production and mix is somewhat weak; keys are too loud in places, drums sound flat, the vocals sound cheap and fairly average. Nonetheless, with a skip button handy I think this is quite a good album; not MDB's best, perhaps, but certainly a few of the songs hold their own with anything else they've done, and most of it is decent enough. I'd recommend this to everyone, whether you're a fan or not you owe it to yourself to check out the first song.


(originally written for www.heathenharvest.com)

Avant-Goth - 83%

chaos_aquarium, July 18th, 2009

After the loss of a major band member, most bands are often stuck at a crossroad. They ether try and find a replacement and continue releasing albums in the vein of the ones prior,or take the loss as an opportunity to experiment and try thing they wouldn’t have otherwise. In the case of My Dying Bride, with the loss of violinist Martin Powell, they took option B.

“34.788%... Complete” is sort of the black sheep in the My Dying Bride discography. Fans are often divided on it, some calling it a masterpiece, wishing that they never returned to their doom roots, while others treat it like an unwanted child cursing its very existence. My stance is somewhere in between, it is a very strong and unique album indeed, but it lacks the beauty that makes a majority of My Dying Bride’s releases so special.

First off, this is not a doom album, not in the least. It has doom elements but it has a more industrial, gothic and experimental sound. The music is still dark, but in a different way than previous albums. While albums such as “Turn Loose the Swans” are dark in a more tragic and theatrical sense, “34%” is dark in a more dirty, scummy and drug fueled way.

This may not be apparent on the first three tracks as they all retain their doom roots to a certain degree but once the almost dance like synth of “Heroin Chic “ starts up, the album keeps descending in this direction. “Heroin Chic” is possibly one of the strangest and dirtiest songs My Dying Bride have ever made. The song itself is very synth driven song, with Aaron pseudo-rapping over a very Euro- pop sounding female vocal sample. The lyrics revovle around a very blunt description of the drug lifestyle, and are void of the poetic nature of their previous albums.

The next two songs “Apocalypse Woman” and “Base Level Erotica” both are lyrically centered on raw dirty depictions of sex, which is a major change from the romantic depections of sex and love portrayed on their album's up to this point. “Apocalypse Woman” is probably the highlight of the album as it features one of the best bass lines and catchiest choruses in any My Dying Bride song. Another major change can be found on the album closer “Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms”, which is probably the catchiest and most upbeat song in the bands career. The main riff is very bouncy, and dare I say it….fun.

“34.788%... Complete” is not a bad album, quite the opposite in fact, but those looking for a doom album with the traditional My Dying Bride sound might want to look elsewhere. Fans who embrace change or who may not have liked My Dying Bride prior should give this unique and drug fueled album a chance, its well worth it.

A Dark Opera! - 85%

Soldier_of_Christ, May 11th, 2009

At first I did not know what to make of this album. But it kept haunting me. The first song, “The Whore, The Cook and The Mother” is a dark voyage on its own. Let alone the rest of the album. You might find yourself repeating this song over and over again on your playlist. Needless to say, the music is very mysterious, the lyrics are erotic and it keeps on rolling and rolling over and over again for the first few minutes and then suddenly there is a total breakdown and it just gets more and more mysterious as some sort of hypnotherapy can be heard in the background. It ends with a “fuck you!” and then the song returns back to something I guess you could call a “normal state”.

The rest of the album is also very unique and neatly done. “Heroin Chic” contains some very chaotic sound and lyrics that irritated me first, but later I realized that this song is quite a masterpiece, as it makes you aware of the maddening effect of heroin. “The stance of Evander Sinque”, “Apocalypse Woman”, “Der Uberlebende”, “Base Level Erotica” and “Under Your Wings and Into My Arms” are all very unique in their own way, as each one of them attributes a deep, dark gothic and doom type of sound to make this album one of the best gothic \ doom metal albums I’ve ever heard. What also amazed me, was the way the lyrics of “The stance of Evander Sinque” was written – it tells a story of an anti-hero type of guy and what makes it so unique, is the fact that the story ends in a tragic, dark humorous kind of way. The music on this song also sounds like some sort of death march and it is as if you can feel the Angel of Death approaching to take poor Evander Sinque away from his miserable life on earth.

The whole album’s lyrical content is a mixture of erotic material and dark, sinister philosophy that keeps on repeating over and over in your head. What is so brilliant is the way in which the music complements the lyrical content. Each song has a very unique intro and it is as if the intro prepares the listener for the dark opera that is soon to follow.

This album is a coherent work of art that does not contain seven songs, but seven dark operas that will enlighten the human mind!

ExperiMETAL! - 100%

grimdoom, June 15th, 2008

As stated once before, every band or at least most bands have a point in their career where they change and/or experiment which always causes an issue with the bulk of their core fan base. This happened to Paradise Lost on 'One Second' and to Avernus on '...of the Fallen. After My Dying Brides' style defining album 'Turn Loose the Swans' they significantly lessoned their deathlier side and opted for a more tradition yet highly original Doom Metal sound. This has often and wrongly been confused for Gothic Metal when there's absolutely nothing "Gothic" about it. This album is many things to many people but one thing that no one can deny is that it left its mark on the Metal underground.

This is a curious and sprawling release. The production is excellent and as such, helps to bring out the ponderous nature of this work. The guitars sound as if the are tuned to standard, but they remain heavy all the same. The bands trademarked drawn out guitar dirges and crunchy riffs are here, but in a new light. This is the album where MDB learned how to reinvent themselves while staying true to their original vision. There are no solos, but the riffs and leads are memorable.

The bass follows the guitars for the most part deviating in places here and there. The drumming is somewhat standard, but in the bands classic form, creative and complimentary to the music. Martin left after 'Like Gods of the Sun' and his loss is felt as there is no violin and the keyboards are missing his trademarked influence but the music doesn't suffer for it.

The vocals are decent at best with Aaron opting for a more clean/spoken word approach. His lyrics are deep and abstract for the most part. There is some humor as well specifically on the song "Heroin Chic" where he intelligently mocks the European drug scene. The only real complaint would be that the "foul language" is fuzzed out on this song. This could be a joke however as it is fairly amusing. There is also a female vocalist sharing duties on this track. This track is also interesting as its very trip-hoppy and ambient while during the choruses and various verses it’s undeniably Doom Metal.

The last track on this is more in the vein of older MDB but still unique to this recording. This album has a rather odd atmosphere to it, drifting between ponderous and creepy, from sexy to odd. There is a lot going on if you pay attention.

This album is an accomplishment in the fact that it's so different from anything the bands done before or since. This is truly a masterful work of art that they need to revisit at some point in their illustrious career. This is one of the best experimental Doom Metal albums ever. Even the album's art work is different as it’s perhaps their most abstract to date, it only adds to this odd little gem. This is a must have for any true MDB/Doom Metal fan.

When will the other 65.212% be released then? - 88%

Neowulf, June 25th, 2007

This album starts out with a few distorted chords with delay, twanging, hanging in the air above you for a short second before they come crashing down. The beat is not at all slow, but the strumming is hardly discernible through the distortion and drums. Aaron Stainthorpe begins singing, and it is distorted and sounds quite nasal. “Tell me that I'm a sinner / Lay me down again / I need a soft flesh bed”… It’s sludgy and dirty, and thick with keyboards. A melancholic guitar melody enters and ends. And then, after a few minutes, the music breaks down into feedback fluttering with tremolo effects, finally fading and leaving you with only a distant clean guitar in a bare, clinical building, with what sounds as the bleeping of a medical apparatus keeping a hypnotizing beat. Some murmur is heard after a while; apparently Stainthorpe is answering questions about his life: “Umm… Thirty-one”, “Uh yeah, two cats”. However, you are left guessing what the questions actually are, unless you speak the Asian (?) language they are asked in (or look in the booklet). After one final question, Stainthorpe snarls “Fuck you” as an answer – and another heavy part concludes the song, its final words “Be mine forever more / Until I'm fucking sick of you”.

That monolithic twelve minute track opens this infamous My Dying Bride-album, and is one of the best of the songs. The juxtaposition between the heavy and filthy parts and the slow, ambient-ish interlude is absolutely brilliant. But having listened to other MDB-songs, you might be in some confusion about certain statements here. Distorted vocals? Swearing? Everyday-life-themed? Not slow?!

My Dying Bride is known for their dark, romantic, sad soundscapes. This album, however, while pretty “dark”, is hardly romantic and not very slow. The tempo is mid-paced for most of the time, and the feel is rather “anti-romantic” than romantic, the attitude being quite cynical and the atmosphere dirty. When shutting your eyes and listening to this music, you may find yourself lying sleepless in the shaggy bed of a tiny, untidy apartment; or walking through a littered alleyway at night, tramps and low-lives lying or sitting hunched in doorways and corners. The lyrics deal with loneliness, monotony, and sex. And sex is here viewed as nothing beautiful or tender, but merely a perfunctory routine, a destructive addiction.

The very odd track “Heroin Chic” exemplifies this. The track contains little metal elements at all, it is more of experimental rock. Electronic sounds, a trippy beat, and Aarons vocals sound like a drugged and/or dead tired rapper. Yes, a rapper. As in hip-hop. The line “Calmly walk from slut to slut” pretty well summarizes the theme of the lyrics. The monotonous, apathetic vocals contemplate the utter lack of meaning in the life depicted, and the whole track sounds like a wretched parody of the cockiness in hip-hop and r’n’b-music. The only thing that stops this song from being brilliant is that someone in a deranged moment decided to add white noise to the vocal track whenever Stainthorpe cusses.

In contrast to the rough sexually directed songs there is for example “Der Überlebende”, another of my favourites. The song is 7½ minutes and only consists of three semi-slow riffs, being repeated again and again and again… The slightly distorted chords rock you into a peaceful state of mind and give a pause from the gritty feeling of the other songs. Also the lyrics display a streak of hope, “…but I'm alive, I’m alive”. A very comforting song; something to listen to those days when life feels like shit.

Then there is “The Stance of Evander Sinque”, the probably most accessible song here, about a man living and dying oppressed without accomplishing anything. Heavy and a little doomy.
There is “Base Level Erotica”, another ugly song about sex, with squealing harmonics, and a riff repeated endlessly at the end. The song gives the impression of a sexual act more like a fight. Horrible and great.
“Apocalypse Woman” is a decent song following the same theme of relationships that only bring misery to both parts.
The album ends with yet another song along that theme – or is there some hope here, a wish to break free? “They come, they go / Will you stay here?” - the lyrics can be interpreted in different ways. Unfortunately, the ending is a bit sudden and anti-climactic.

The musicians’ playing skill and style has not been dwelt into in this review, and really, there is not much to say. This is a doom band after all, even if this particular album does not stay within conventional doom boundaries. The whole point is not to play extravagant solos, but to conjure up an atmosphere. With this, My Dying Bride succeeds just as well as they almost always do. Even without violins, without dual guitar melodies, and without playing slowly they manage to convey a bleak, yet strangely comforting feeling, different from anything else they have ever made, and probably ever will make.

This album stands unique to me; I cannot think of anything it really sounds like. I cannot say who will like it and who won’t, the best anyone can do is judge for themselves, without preconceptions. This album is different.

A few songs that only qualifies as "pretty good" are all that prevents this album from getting a really high rating.

34.788%... Complete garbage - 34%

Sean16, April 9th, 2006

I am a huge My Dying Bride fan... and that’s why I WON'T defend this album. It would be far too easy to hide behind statements like “At least, they’ve had enough balls to try something different” or “They don’t care for selling” or whatever. At least when Moonsorrow, well-known for their epic and bombastic Viking metal, recorded a grindcore album, they had the good taste to release it under a different band name (Lakupaavi). When you release something under My Dying Bride name, make it good or bad, but make it at least sound like My Dying Bride, not like some atmospheric/indus/gothic/avant-garde/noise crap.

Ultra-distorted vocals and guitars, overwhelming use of keyboards, lyrics about sex and/or mental illness, shitty artwork between raw art and industrial trend or neverending tracks filled with useless background sound effects are never likely to give a good release. This is indeed not. The songs here, without being utterly fast, are slightly higher-paced than on any other MDB release, but that don’t prevent them from being incredibly boring. Actually, the majority of MDB slow-paced death/doom songs are NOT boring, while these are. Why? No structure, and far too much of the crappy indus stuff mentioned before, which almost constitute the core of most of the songs.

Overall, this album bears one good track, and the six others rank from average to unlistenable. Average includes Der Uberlebende, a slightly melancholic piece of work with solemn keyboards and not too distorted guitars, but which is just too repetitive and sleep-inducing, and Under Your Wings And Into Your Arms. This last track is said to be the only 34.788%’s song a bit close to usual MDB work, and it’s indeed the only song from this album the band is used to playing live, as far as I’m aware of. Granted, it is less atmospheric and industrial than the other tracks, less keyboard-filled, far more guitar-driven, but it’s still not standard My Dying Bride, if only because of the faster tempo. And to be honest the band has done far better.

Then, mediocre tracks includes first the opener The Whore, The Cook And The Mother, which is one of the best works here musically-wise, but which is ruined by the use of distorted vocals and above all by the awful over-long middle part of noise, electronics and senseless background babble. Then The Stance Of Evander Sinoue and Base Level Erotica which, apart from boasting some of the worst titles I could think of, show just too much guitar distortion and vocal effects to be really enjoyable. A pity, because Base Level Erotica especially exhibits otherwise one of the most haunting and beautiful tunes MDB has ever thought of, and the end, when the aforementioned tune, backed by eerie and majestic keyboards, is repeated over and over again, can stand the comparison with the band’s finest moments. So the connoisseur just feels like screaming: why the fuck didn’t you use all your great ideas to produce a genuine MDB masterpiece rather than wrapping everything in this pseudo-avant-garde shit?

The unlistenable is the fourth track Heroin Chic, which is, well... unlistenable from the first minute to the last. Other tracks may be crappy music, but are still music, while this one is not. This one is pure indus noise, and I’m ready to bet half of my metal collection that the drums and more generally two thirds of the “music” here are programmed. Aaron, singing in duet with some unknown chick, sounds just pitiful, even more pitiful than on The Whore, The Cock And The Loser. Oh, sorry, he doesn’t sing, he raps. I’m not joking. If you like MDB as much as I do, please do yourself a favour and scratch this track to never be tempted to give it a listen.

To conclude on a more positive note I will eventually mention the good track, Apocalypse Woman, some song about a stalker and a slut or something similar, lyrically nothing really different from the rest of the album. Musically-wise it is another story even if it has strictly nothing to do with standard MDB and with doom metal in general. A minimalist semi-acoustic riff, neverending drums rolls and a slight touch of background atmospheric keyboards concur in building a very gloomy and oppressive atmosphere well in touch with the lyrics. And you know what? The song even exhibits a genuine SOLO. To sum up they just should have released an EP with this track and a bunch of live versions of some of their good old doom anthems; I would have been the first to praise them.

The mark is written on the cover. Stupid joke, but My Dying Bride themselves have been stupid to record this album in the first place. Granted, it is art. But it is shitty art.

Highlights: Apocalypse Woman