A Line of Deathless Kings

Arguably the least annoying out of My Dying Bride's 2001-2006 outputs, A Line of Deathless Kings remains too dull and too unconvincing for its own good. In a nutshell, the record takes a step back in the terms of heaviness, features Aaron's best vocal lines in in a long time, but the guitarists continue to provide little magic. That doesn't sound very promising, does it?

Starting off with the good things first; the vocals are a breath of fresh air. By speaking less and singing more without the nasal tonality that became annoying quick, Aaron gives his best performance since Like Gods of the Sun. The man hasn’t learned much from a technical perspective ever since, but he’s capable of selling a chorus, relies on self-harmonies with superb results and croons like he was supposed to on the few albums prior. The few death metal growls that are scattered in between the heavier pieces aren’t too impressive, but since the harsh vocal lines are extremely limited, that's hardly something to complain about.

What I will complain about is the way A Line of Deathless Kings is executed. The album may have been written with melodic intentions; meaning that the amount of extremity is remains restricted, but it’s hard to point out riffs that stand out on their own and what's a My Dying Bride album without captivating guitars? Usually, the guitars support Aaron gently and the heavier moments are made out of simplistic chugging that’s neither original nor features much substance to begin with. ‘To Remain Tombless’ and ‘I Cannot Be Loved’ give a closer look and demonstrate how Aaron is surrounded by these generic riffs that simply exist, but hardly provide any headbangable fun, sentimental moods - or anything worthy, for that matter. Even the less generic tunes come off as a mess and you can bet that there are plenty of them. ‘Love’s Intolerable Pain’ features riffs so dull that they resemble a beginner’s band first attempt at My Dying Bride-esque doom and if that wasn’t enough yet, Aaron’s vocal fry make him sound like a frog. Other weak cuts include ‘L'amour détruit’, which haunt the narrative with its somber guitar work that shine in dark alleys… but it doesn’t take long before the song loses track and the momentum gets ruined. I also find it comical how ‘Deeper Down’ promises a return to heaviness with those engaged guitar shots, but basically every other section - including the one that features a growly Aaron, sounds way too plain for My Dying Bride’s standards.

So, the average track doesn’t have much going on, but you could have made a decent EP out of A Line of Deathless Kings. ‘And I Walk with Them’ punches hard due to that main riff, yet the final result is more of a familiar English doom theme than anything physically heavy. ‘Thy Raven Wings’ makes an unexpected surprise with its vocal-orientated narrative and while that’s usually risky business for My Dying Bride, it’s a solid tune for sure. Aaron croons over these smooth guitars with majestic results and the track features a catchy chorus... surely it's nothing heavy, but a good song is a good song, right? Saving the best for the last, ‘The Blood, the Wine, the Roses’ marks a return to the stomping doom era of Like Gods of the Sun and it’s easily the best song that the album has in store. With guitars that remain on all the time, there's no second wasted here and surprisingly enough, you'll even encounter an unpredictable finale of death metal-driven aggression.

Simply put; A Line of Deathless Kings just doesn’t do it for me and while It’s not as bad as Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, that’s not much of a compliment. Fortunately, My Dying Bride would soon get their act together again... but that's a story for next time.

For an album with very Spartan keyboard arrangements, more haunting abstraction than classical melody, for an album incredibly riff and drum-heavy, the emotional depth of A Line of Deathless Kings is quite impressive. I consider this to be the second best My Dying Bride album after The Angel and the Dark River, but its charms are subtle. The thickness of production is highly satisfying and Bennett's drumming is flawlessly slack and emotive. The feeling he puts into strange odd-metered bass drum, snare, and cymbal interplay is uncanny. It's an object lesson in playing for, and within, the song.

The guitars are slabs of warm distortion, always playing the minimum to heft an emotion or convey an atmosphere. Stainthorpe's vocals are mixed exceptionally well, and his singing is more restrained than usual, with plenty of whispers and only the occasional roar. Lyrically, his sexual metaphors are pared back, thankfully, but the funeral roses, decaying gravestones, lashings of rain, red wine shirt-stains, melted candles, and romantic hopelessness, are all present and exquisitely intertwined.

I really enjoy how long and fuzzy and cryptic A Line of Deathless Kings is. In a way, it's a perfect slice of 2006, which was itself a decadent, dark, uncomfortable year, oversaturated and corrupt. The keyboard orchestrations, and sampled choir vocals are stunningly layered, so organic and ethereal at the same time, nothing dropped clumsily on top of the metallic din.

The honey of romance, so sweet for us
Through swaying grass we run in arms, just us
The honey of romance, our treat to us
These arms I fold around you. It's just us.

On another album the lyrics of Love, Ruined (L'amour détruit) would immediately go full sex, full Gothic, but A Line of Deathless Kings shows Stainthorpe can do innocence and heartbreak, without the grimy sluttiness his lyrics usually evince. Actually the more My Dying Bride moves away from sexuality as a theme the better their lyrics and music are. The Angel and the Dark River is more about existential despair than witches, wolves, cunts, black magic, and cum. So it's no surprise their next best album should in fact be next best precisely by going a little asexual also.

I Cannot Be Loved is the only overtly sexual song on A Line of Deathless Kings, and it's a great example of that My Dying Bride trope.

Your pain, it talks to me and I heed it well
My hands, your neck, they greet each well in a loving hell
This hold we have can't last because it's killing me
Farewell my love. Please walk away and take away my pain.

Love, sex, suicide, self-loathing. We've heard it before.

It's OK, the rest of the songs are more mature and interesting. All the songs on A Line of Deathless Kings are similar, in a good way. It's all about a really solid album experience. Everything is mixed identically all the way through, and many of the guitar lines are re-used from song to song with small adjustments. It's not a sign of lack of inspiration, it's a sign of total confidence in the themes, music, and atmosphere of A Line of Deathless Kings. The whole thing is cripplingly redolent of specifically British Isles unhappiness, it's hard to know if it travels coherently. Would a guy from Brazil or Sweden really feel the stings of Gothic metal lashed by humid sideways rain, oily black tar roads lit sporadically by industrial yellow flickering streetlamps, no company except your own mortality, and black forests on one side, and closed down boarded up what used to be family businesses on the other. Look! There she is! With someone else, I can smell her hair from here, I hate him. They seem so happy together. Why are my parents so old and frail now? My life is just a cheap dream, fading in time, brittle and cliché.

Anyone who has heard A Line of Deathless Kings before will know about the middle break in Love's Intolerable Pain.

What if you love someone you know you shouldn't love?
What will your dying father's last words to you be?
What now, the painting of young lovers is complete?

Deeper Down was released as a single at the time though it's the most familiar procedural sounding of the songs on A Line of Deathless Kings, and One of Beauty's Daughters is slightly throwaway lyrically but the looping groove is really compelling, and the ornamentation of ride cymbal-bell is exquisite. The Blood, the Wine, the Roses is a great album closer and brings the musical level back up to the heights of the first two thirds of the album.

So overall apart from two slightly weaker songs towards the end of A Line of Deathless Kings, and the slightly passé sexuality of I Cannot Be Loved, this album is completely intoxicating and sombre and quite mature, and My Dying Bride hasn't captured an emotional depth like it since, with the possible exception of the mysterious opacity of The Ghost of Orion. This line-up deserved more albums, but then again A Line of Deathless Kings is so intense and reflective you probably couldn't summon it up twice. I have no idea why it isn't mentioned more, but anyway it's certainly the most overlooked My Dying Bride album, and nearly their best.

‘A Line of Deathless Kings’ was released in 2006, exactly ten years after I discovered My Dying Bride. I’m not sure if there is any symbolic significance in that anniversary, but I can admit that of all the band’s albums from their inception to today, this is the one that I’ve changed my opinion of the most since it was first released. Oftentimes, the impact and therefore value of an album can be linked to the personal circumstances of the listener, and ten years is a long time for a young person who had been on a steady diet of Bride, perhaps to the point of overfeeding. By the time ‘A Line of Deathless Kings’ was released, I had drifted off the band a little bit, having grown temporarily weary of their tried and true style, while other musical beasts lured me away with their siren song. If 'A Line of Deathless Kings' does have a fault, it's that there aren't really any surprises or elements of innovation.

This drifting away wasn’t helped by some superficialities attached to the album that I found off-putting. Straight out of the gate, the cover artwork by Matthew Vickerstaff – who at this point in time was largely working on death metal album covers – was perplexing in the extreme. Looking like Star Wars helmets on spinal columns, with a strange Eddie like character in the centre, this semi-circle of bodiless kings certainly didn’t contain traditional doom metal elements, and it was bemusing at best. 2006 was smack dab in the era of dodgy digital art, but I’ve warmed to the cover since then and I can enjoy it for what it is, sort of. The other aspect that initially put me off, and this is more to the point, was track one, the admittedly awesomely named ‘To Remain Tombless’, with its straightforward riffing and absence of any real emotive melodies. It’s not a bad song, but as an opener it really doesn’t provide an accurate overture of the songs to follow and I still feel that it’s the least exciting element of the whole album as it bangs along without a whole lot happening. In 2006 that was enough to not take the album seriously.

I can state without reserve that my previous assessment of the album as a whole was premature. ‘A Line of Deathless Kings’ has actually developed into one of my favourite albums of the 2000s from this band and it has a great deal to offer. Once the fairly bland opening track is out of the way, it’s all systems go with emotive riffing and passionate composition, and while I wouldn’t say there is anything revolutionary going on here, it is at least entertaining, emotional and atmospheric.

‘L’amour Detruit’ offers some immediate melody and romance with that recognisable melodic guitar work and a slower pace, although it doesn’t quite keep its momentum up for its full 9 minutes, and there's a degree of drag by the end. The next track, ‘I Cannot Be Loved’ is a highlight of the album, with its clever clip-trip opening and a descending harpsichord melody before stepping it up into a groovy riff with Aaron Stainthorpe caterwauling all over it like a demented Romeo. The crowning moment of the album, however, comes in the form of the incredible ‘Thy Raven Wings’, a powerful gothic ode to atmosphere. You never hear people talking about this track, but I think it’s one of My Dying Bride’s masterpieces. A slow, melodic, yearning track that starts with some subtle piano, with Aaron’s voice sliding along with the plaintive guitar lines in the verses creating a trademark MDB riff that is at the same time forlorn and passionate. The amount of emotion this band has been able to generate over the years really is astonishing and ‘Thy Raven Wings’ is a great example. ‘Love’s Intolerable Pain’ is bookended by a fairly riffs-by-numbers heaviness, but contains an interesting slower mid-section that is extremely creative and atmospheric. The clean guitars in this section work in harmony before a heavier bridge that manages to retain a great cutting emotion.

‘Deeper Down’ was released as a single, which I also bought and which only compounded my lack of interest at the time. I’m not sure who it was designed to win over as a fan, but it’s much more of an experiment, or outlier, and there's little reason to go back to it. The album ends with the grand, imperial, ‘The Blood, the Wine, the Roses’, which pogoes along at the start before moving into a fairly sinister sounding twin guitar interlude, with the groove picking up in variation once more. The final 30 seconds is a full-on death metal explosion, which is unusual and enjoyable. It’s an entertaining song and a fitting end to the album.

The personnel on this album is worth discussion. Aaron is all over this album with his warbling vocals, and for me it sort of begins his tendency to sing a little more than is required. It would be good to hear more instrumental moments - and I say this as a die-hard Aaron fan. This is also the one and only album featuring drummer John Bennett from British doom band The Prophecy. I own their ‘Ashes’ album, and it’s certainly got its moments of quality. Bennett’s drumming with My Dying Bride is competent and tasteful, with his tendency for fast snare rolls suiting the tunes nicely. There’s a sense of looseness and flamboyance in his playing that contrasts with previous drummer Shaun Steels’ more powerful and controlled approach, but there's no question Steels would be missed. The mysterious Sarah Stanton occasionally plays some keys, although apparently lost the address to the studio as she is largely absent, so the album is more guitar-driven than in the past. This is also the great Adrian Jackson’s last album on bass with the band, and it was sad to see him, a co-founder, finally hang up the four string. His playing was always fairly understated, but what he did he did well, and it’s always disappointing for fans when another true member slips away. Indeed, 3 of the 6 musicians who played on ‘A Line of Deathless Kings’ would not be around for the next album ‘For Lies I Sire’, and I’m certain that this significant disruption hurt the band’s sense of direction, unity and depth.

‘A Line of Deathless Kings’ isn’t the greatest My Dying Bride release, but it’s certainly a very good one, and it’s worth more than I was prepared to give it back in 2006. Once you crack the strange shell open and experience its delectable innards you will find its rewards forthcoming. Perhaps the album’s quality is eternal after all, and that these kings never will truly die. You have to admit - they have some backbone at least.

I'm not sure how this ended up in my car, but it has, and with the absence of bluetooth and (until today) other CDs in my car, I ended up revisiting Deathless Kings in far, far greater detail than I'd ever planned to. Some of it holds up, it's much, much cheesier than 20 year old Caspian thought when he first heard it, but I'm sure I was listening to much worse at the time.

The two main things that occured to me was that the riffs are actually much better than I remembered and the vocals much worse. Stainthorpe has his moments, I'll give him that, the doomy little singalong of Raven Wings and Deeper Down's excellent, chilling coda two prime examples, but he also fairly often sucks, both in vocal delivery- too whiny, too nasal, not enough power, no range- and the occasional beyond cheesy bit of gothicness in the lyrics, Love's Intolerable Pain, Beauty's Daughters etc etc. It's not quite enough to ruin tunes, but I think that says more about the proud metal tradition of ignoring bad vocals (Thanks Mustaine, thanks the dude in Diamond Head!) than whether they're remotely close to good or not.

Onwards to the riffs, then, because when I was studying teaching I was told that I should try to say 2 positive things for every negative.They're really good! Consistently dark and grim, bit of that ornate Candlemass-ish vibe at times, othertimes quite brutally blunt in their death-doom approach, and with that intangible, much-harder-to-do-than-you'd-think quality that while there is decent variety in the tempos, how aggressive they are, what scales they're using etc etc it's still very much My Dying Bride. L'amour Detruit, Raven Wings and those weepy dual guitars, Tombless's very simple two chord bridge riff, the way Deeper Down does a remarkably accurate job of increasing water pressure via riffs, none of these things sound very similar, but they all sound quite heavy and very My Dying Brideish. The occasional throwing in of haunting clean parts and tremelo-y, black metal-ish-ish-ish sections is sparingly done, but in a restrained, know exactly what they're doing sorta way, so all good. The rhythm section isn't really there, but they hold things together and aren't really awful; I feel one sentence (this one!) about them is basically all that's required, to be honest.

The end result here is that while things are certainly not perfect- the occasional awkward bit of songwriting, a tendency for things to get a bit too laughably grim (cheer up eh!!), a bit too earnest, a bit too cheesy at times and all that, it's still a fun album. It's probably not good enough or weird enough to get it out of fans only, relatively obscure territory, likely sharing space with.. I dunno, mid era Obituary, 2000s Iron Maiden, etc etc but if you like crunchy gothicy death doom (or deathy gothic doom) and you haven't heard this you could do far, far worse.

A Line of Deathless Kings is one of a trinity of My Dying Bride albums I’ve never actually owned (although Evinta lies among them, so we should probably call it a duo). I don’t have any specific reasons, mostly just never seeing it cheap enough at the right time and it not being a classic by any stretch. In fact, if I were trying to look for reasons, there would be plenty, like being sandwiched between my personal biggest disappointment from Bride, Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, and a fairly meh sort of “comeback”, For Lies I Sire, which reintroduced violin to the equation without much effect. I feel like A Line of Deathless Kings just screams “solid” and little else. I mean, this 2006 effort seems even plainer than The Light at the End of the World, which was plain and solid but at least had some extra long songs and another chapter of ‘Sear Me’ to give it some features.

Obviously, the album in question will only seem plain and boring in the context of Bride’s rich discography, seeing as lamenting gothic doom like this always has the potential to seem slightly floral and overloaded. We cycle through slow melodic riffs, mid-paced chugging riffs, twin guitar melodies, crooning clean vocals, a few cleaner sections, and even a couple of (very brief) ambushes of death metal aggression - and remember, this is without the violin or greater death metal traits that Bride utilized at other points in their career. At this juncture, the smoother sound parallels well to Draconian and Saturnus, while the deliberate sombre tone of the collection puts A Line of Deathless Kings more in favour with the gothic poetry types than those who are here for riffs. I mean, it’s not that ‘I Cannot Be Loved’ couldn’t induce a headband or two, but with lyrics like “God, I want you, just be mine / Because you haunt me all the time” you’ll be chuckling at the same time unless you’re taking it as seriously as the band. For me, Bride had edged too far into a bland sea of clichéd tropes by this point, though at least the guitars do more of interest than the preceding album, meaning that I won’t be scarred by nonsensical stuff such as this:

I paw at your golden flesh
Golden breast
I sail on your, on your sea
Of ecstasy.

Now, thematically A Line of Deathless Kings doesn’t do itself any favours, since you can sense how similar ‘I Cannot Be Loved’ will be to ‘The Blood, the Wine, the Roses’ or ‘Love’s Intolerable Pain’ or ‘L’Amour Détruit’, and you don’t even need to be a French speaker to guess about the last one. An hour of the stuff certainly doesn’t help, though the general flatness of the sound helps make highlights easy to pick out. ‘And I Walk With Them’ cuts some nice shapes without jumping out of the laconic mould of the album, while ‘One of Beauty’s Daughters’ has itself a very pleasing momentum and interesting conclusion with distorted breakbeats. The only real heaviness turns up on ‘Love’s Intolerable Pain’, which thumps into higher gear before breaking down into a patch of narration right from Anathema’s transitional phase, plus the closer ‘The Blood, the Wine, the Roses’. This last song has almost attracted more attention than the rest of the album, largely because of the out-of-place death metal coda; personally, I don’t find it to take away from the fact that the verses contain the album’s best riff, a loping groove that Stainthorpe meets with storytelling energy. Elsewhere on the album he seems limp and tired, particularly on ‘Deeper Down’, which harms some decent riffing.

In the end, my feelings about A Line of Deathless Kings seem to match the band’s attitude pretty closely. It sounds like they tire of certain songs quickly, didn’t have the patience to finish the entire album properly, and got stuck in a single mindset. As such, I find the lengthy listen a bit testing, although the album definitely has its moments. I can’t imagine that anyone would find this enthralling throughout, but I’m constantly surprised that there are people who seem to be into this drawling defeatism. However, there’s nothing intrinsically bad about A Line of Deathless Kings, more that it’s a forgettable spot on the My Dying Bride tour.

In the past few years My Dying Bride have arguably crafted their finest works to date. 'A Line of Deathless Kings' is no exception to the newer, fresher sounding material as there is a little something for everyone in here.

This album has been subjected to an array of mixed reviews due to Aaron's choice to sing "properly". This is the first time he's sung clean for an entire album and as such probably won't be the last. The biggest difference in this and say 'Like Gods of the Sun' is that he's actually singing and not just speaking. His grim vocals have been in decline in more recent years and as a result most of his growls sound forced and dry. This album truly shows his versatility as a vocalist.

The guitars are thick and heavy and generally menacing. This is due to the stellar production job. This album has a lot of attitude in its riffs and leads. All of the bands hallmarks are here, but this is far from being rehashed. This is MDB at the top of their game. This is possibly one of their crunchiest (if not their crunchiest) album to date.

The bass is more or less what we've come to expect from the band. The drums (which have always been a standout point for the band) are just as brilliant as ever with session member John Bennett bringing yet another original color to the bands already bright pallet.

The keyboards add the requisite atmosphere where it would have been otherwise lost by the guitars. While Sara is certainly able to hold her own, she's no Martin. They lyrics are the usual Doom & gloom that we've come to expect.

This album, while sorrowful and bleak is also tough and robust. There is a lot going on here in terms of mood and feel. The harmonies and leads only add to the misery brought to life by the lyrics. This is by far one of the best MDB albums to date. This album takes the heaviness of the 'Dreadful Hours' and mixes it with the pure Doom that was 'Songs of Darkness, Words of Light'.

You could certainly do far worse in the bands catalog. This is highly recommended to any and all Doomsters. However, with that being said, those who might be new to the band might find this a decent starting place as it literally encompasses some of the bands better/best sonic attributes.

While the last few years certainly have been up and down for My Dying Bride, a promise was made to make a return to their majestic doom/death style of old with this album. I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but this certainly isn't doom/death metal aside from a few small moments. A Line of Deathless Kings sees MDB continuing to explore even more progressive gothic metal territory without losing their edge. The thing is, the whole album is very samey, a fairly exhausting listening experience, and seems to be straight-out boring sometimes. This does a favor for the album in a very strange way, though.

Musically speaking, this isn't too far from the band's past two albums, except for one huge issue that I was forced to take points off for: the interplayed gothic harmonies on guitar and keyboards are barely present here. In fact, keyboards in general are almost totally absent from the songs, with "I Cannot Be Loved" and a few others being slight exceptions. Most of the songs are more guitar-based, but truth be told, there are only a handful of good riffs during the entire album. There seems to be less focus on atmosphere, (one of the things that made this band brilliant) and more emphasis put on the song structures, which are slightly more complex than anything else the band have done. You wouldn't think so when listening to this album, though; many of the songs follow a rigid tempo template that ranges from scorchingly to the lower end of what many would call mid-paced. As a result, most listeners will get bored quite easily and think the band are treading waters of lacking inspiration.

But that's the handle of this album; though things may seem boring, this may very well be MDB's heaviest and darkest offering since The Angel & The Dark River. "Deeper Down," while a bit generic and long-winded, shows the band balancing powerful palm-muted riffs and double bass with a dragging, unchanging tempo. While not as sonically heavy as past offerings, A Line of Deathless Kings takes the band into even more dirgy, menacing territory, and it is indeed a demanding listener that grows over time. "And I Walk With Them" is a perfect example, where sacriligeous lyrics play perfectly into the sparse, brooding guitar riffs. The repitition in riffs sometimes kills this, but songs like the tragic "L' Amour Detruit," which is one of the more melodic outings, brings back the long-missing Gothic flair to the band's sound that we have long yearned for. Aside from that, there's not much on an ear-candy level; the despair in the music is channeled through the pounding and slightly technical drumwork, eerie clean guitar interludes, and bludgeoning, fully voiced power chords, rather than the traditional keyboard melodies or searing guitar harmonies.

Aaron only uses growls two or three times during the whole album, but his clean vocals shine through wonderfully. Some may say that his voice sounds weak and uninspired here, but the darker context of the music brings out the bleakness of his voice. The opener "To Remain Tombless" shows Aaron's most fragile and sensitive performance, which coorelates perfectly with the lifeless lyrics. One of his best performances here is "I Cannot Be Loved," where a renewed sense of melody brings a sort of catharsis to everything. Though on the surface Aaron may seem to be inferior to even his own past offerings, his desperate croonings are as effective as ever, especially on "Love's Intolerable Pain." Lyrically, it's about the same for MDB, but songs like "One of Beauty's Daughters" take an almost sardonic, sadistic approach to dark love affairs. The album's closer "The Blood, The Wine, The Roses" is a grand tale of lust and damnation, and may be some of the best Aaron has ever written.

The rest of the band is a bit of a double-edged sword; it's certainly heavier in a round-about way, it just takes a few listens to realize and grasp it. Generally, the guitars still have quite a bit of melody, but most of it has been ditched in favor of a darker style that relies less on keyboards. When the keyboards do enter the mix, it's generally a miniscule role for background ambience, which is a shame in my opinion. The drums have a somewhat "broken" feel to them, and by that I mean that there's a return to the style where amourphous time changes interject with the songs through the means of jarring fills and stop-go cycles. This is a refreshing breath of air from the lumbering, bleak drone of everything else in the music, and adds a little bit of ear candy to the mix.

It comes down to this: some people will like this album, some will hate it, and some won't know what to think. Whatever it may be, keep in mind that this album is a grower; a a difficult one at that.

Favorite tracks: All tracks 2-5, "One of Beauty's Daughters," "The Blood, the Wine, the Roses."

This is as old as My Dying Bride: this band has always played with a dangerous double-edged sword. The one consisting in changing style with almost every release. We’ve known them playing death-doom, then softer clean-vocals driven melodic doom, then avantgarde music, eventually gothicized death-doom on their two last full-lengths – and now, they seem to have switched to another trend once again. Though this little game enables the British act to always explore new horizons and arouse the listener’s curiosity, it nonetheless ends up becoming a tad frustrating. Being one of those who considered The Dreadful Hours and its follower as the best MDB outputs, I was expecting a third one from the same flour. But I was forgetting this band had NEVER released three successive similar albums.

The change isn’t drastic though – another 34,788%... Complete it isn’t. My Dying Bride haven’t turned to nu-metal, industrial, pop music or whatever (fortunately). No, they still play fully honest, straightforward doom metal. But the gothic elements of their previous releases are gone – exit the emphasis on atmospheric keyboards, the bass-driven songs or the distorted vocals, and exit the growled parts as well! Indeed, this is another all-clean vocals album, the first since, precisely, 34,788%. Actually, the work the guys were willing to mimic becomes quite obvious listening to the song they chose as herald of this album, the one they released on EP, that is, Deeper Down: said track is furiously reminding of Like Gods of the Sun, save that Sarah Stauton’s keyboard is now replacing Martin Powell’s legendary violin.

So, Like Gods of the Sun part II? That means mellow, kind of sleep-inducing tracks which all sound more or less the same, with a little spark of melody here and there, doesn’t it? Well, you’re partially right, and that’s the main weakness of this release. Several very linear parts are revealing an obvious lack of effort, imperfectly compensated by the overuse of old recipes coming from earlier albums, especially the one quoted above, hence an occasional annoying feeling of déjà-vu. The aforementioned Deeper Down for instance amounts to one of the less interesting songs, which is moreover likely to twist the listener’s opinion as it is supposed to be the most representative one. Similarly, most of And I Walk with Them is filler and, coming to the closing The Blood, the Wine, the Roses, it’s nothing more than an upbeat, fundamentally ridicule track. And what can be said about those grotesque titles, “I Cannot Be Loved”, “Love’s Intolerable Pain”, “The Blood, the Wine, the Roses”? How couldn’t have the guys noticed they’d fallen into the worst self-parody ever?

You’d have understood by now, everything is combined for this album to give a very negative first impression. But then, everyone paying a bit more attention to it will notice great musicians are still behind. Most of the time the less inspired, easiest bars are soon redeemed by both crushing and melodic passages MDB are renowned for or, at the other end of the spectra, acoustic parts – even if those are overall scarce. Love’s Intolerable Pain, which combines both, is consequently and in spite of its stupid title one of the most agreeable tracks, maybe the most reminding of the two previous releases. Furthermore, it remains the only song exhibiting a little, tiny bit of growls (well, there’s The Blood... as well, but let’s just forget it) which only makes anyone regret there aren’t more. Not that Aaron is a bad clean vocalist, he can even sometimes sound incredibly moving, but he nonetheless always tends to get a bit whiny, which is the main reason why none of the exclusively clean-sung MDB albums can really pretend to the masterpiece status. All the more as A Line of Deathless Kings already shows a large amount of spoken or whispered parts, what isn’t what the band has made best either.

While Love’s Intolerable Pain is a truly impressive song, a couple of others don’t have anything to envy it, like the long, melancholic L’Amour Detruit and its creepy central part once again reminding of Songs of Darkness, Words of Light and its predecessor. By contrast, Thy Raven Wings is a short, but intricate track from which suddenly emerges a haunting tune which may stick in your head for longer than you expected. Without forgetting To Remain Tombless and its slow, harmonious chorus – and the list could go on.

Don’t believe those who’ll tell you this album is crap. They’ll most certainly have listened to it only once, as I more or less shared their opinion the first time I heard it. But after one or two more listens it began to reveal itself far more complex than it looked at first glance – and far better as well. Though, considering the two previous MDB full-lengths, A Line of Deathless Kings remains undoubtedly disappointing, it may still perfectly get a place on the shelves of every doom lover.

Highlights: To Remain Tombless, L’Amour Detruit, Love’s Intolerable Pain

I have respect for this band. My Dying Bride shows how a good band should evolve. On each album they bring something new, I dare say even something I never heard before [which alone most bands miserably fail to do ever]. And yet they still remain the same band with riffs and melodies typical for them [unlike bands for which "change" means completely different style or even genre]. Even after 14 years, you can hear this is the same band that recorded "As the Flower Withers".

I have gotten used to the fact that I have to listen to MDB's new albums several times before i can really appreciate them. First listening gives various impressions, some passages feel strange but others are catchy enough to keep your attention and for you to have patience with the album. The more you listen to it, the more you grasp these new and "strange" ideas and find their peculiar beauty.

Even though sometimes I like new MDB album more than its predecessor and other times less, I have yet to hear a bad album from this band. "A Line of Deathless Kings" is giving me somewhat better impression than previous "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light", though I can't explain why and it's probably a very subjective feeling. What I am sure about is that if you were following this band's works from the beginning like me, and haven't given up on them by now, you will definitely not throw this album away. I advise to give it at least 3 listenings though before you judge it. It gets better every time.

I'm not much for detailed descriptions of each song, it's simply a good album as a whole. The production is flawless, needless to say in case of such a band. Some melodies remind of previous albums and a few of them may feel perhaps a bit "too familiar" but it's not to an extent that would disturb me. If you get the impression some riffs seem too familiar the first time you hear "ALoDK", it will probably fade the more you get to know the songs.

There aren't any significantly ultra slow passages on this album [as in the "The Angel and the Dark River" kind of slow], and faster riffs [like "The Fever Sea" from '99] are very scarce. And there's almost no growling voice, but these are things that come and go in case of MDB, so not necessarily a sign that they disappeared for good. Still the pace is quite variable, mostly ranging from slow to mid-tempo and there are at least small bits of everything we are used to hear from MDB.

I must give credit to the drummer. The drums catch my attention quite often in case of MDB. Rarely any band shows that drums can do more than just give rhythm to the song, but MDB is one of the few exceptions. I was surprised how small role keyboards play here. After first listening I wasn't even sure if there were any, apart from the piano at the beginning of "The Raven Wings". There's actually more, but barely noticeable, staying in the background. Lyrically I haven't noticed any changes, the title of the track "Love's Intolerable Pain" sums it up pretty well.

I can't really find a weak point of this album, except things of personal preference & choice. MDB are too proffessional to make mistakes. It may not be the best MDB album and I don't think anyone would expect that either, but it's definitely a good one and the band shows that they're not getting weak. And while most of the bands that i liked 10+ years ago are horrible/boring/ridiculous today, My Dying Bride can easily keep the status of one of the best bands in their genre.

My Dying Bride return with the follow up to Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, which was a somewhat inconsistent/average release in my opinion, lacking a unique identity and only achieving a high level of quality on just a few tracks. Upon first hearing "A Line Of Deathless Kings" I was surprised and a little dissapointed to hear no death vocals (other than a few background screams) until the 6th track, Love's Intolerable Pain. However, after listening to this CD several times, I am amazed at how beautiful and unique this is. There are very few traces of the aggression from the Dreadful Hours here, but in its place is a somber, convincing, and grief stricken performance by frontman Aaron which surpasses anything he has done in the past and a noticeable progression by the band. Aaron's voice has never sounded more amazing....he does some singing here which includes some of the most haunting and heartbreaking moments in the history of this band. His voice is stronger, his vibrato and range is improved tenfold, and vocal harmonies appear consistently, and he employs some interesting and highly memorable melodies, which all but renders the (for the most part) absence of death vocals meaningless, that is how good he is here. The music is equal parts excellent melodic guitar harmonies, which also come across as more heartfelt and convincing than in years, a heavy Candlemass/Like Gods Of the Sun style of riffing (more of a true doom style), your typical doom/death sections which are very dark, and some great experimentation on a large protion of the songs (this is easily their most unique record since 34% but it is not like that record at all...has a few elements of it but is firmly rooted in MDB darkness). There is also a noticeable change in the style of drumming at times compared wiht the last release which does work well. There are absolute gems in the songs in To Remain Tombless, I Cannot Be Loved, L'Amour Detruit, Thy Raven Wings (I almost weep every time I hear this track when the vocals come in...amazing), and Deeper Down. My only complaint with this CD is a few riffs I do not care for at the beginning of The Blood, The Wine, The Roses, Love's Intolerable Pain, and One of Beauty's Daughters (a little too "rockin" for me) but otherwise these tracks are good and this is a band reinventing themselves while also staying true to their inherent sense of sorrowful doom. Absolutely fantastic stuff here, and by far their most unique CD since 34%.