My Dying Bride
As The Flower Withers

THE REVIEW

In the same year (1992) that Paradise Lost released Shades Of God, and Anathema were taking their first steps in the underground scene, My Dying Bride, the second important name in the Albion Doom/Death scene to release an album (again for Peaceville), released their first full-length As The Flower Withers, a still immature but indicative work of what would be the evolution of the dying bride's sound. To avoid any misunderstanding, it must be said right away that thirteen years ago, Aaron Stainthorpe's band sounded decidedly different.
After the orchestral intro Silent Dance, the first true song presented to us is the first, legendary (and too often forgotten) version of Sear Me. The melody is very similar to the version on Turn Loose The Swans with the difference that the track is entirely electric and accompanied by Aaron's growl. The song does not shy away from tricky accelerated breaks only to return to very slow sections clearly inspired by Cathedral and less epic Candlemass. Nonetheless, a masterpiece. The third track changes the tone significantly. The Forever People, lasting only 4 minutes (compared to an average of 8 per song), represents another classic of the English band, still performed live as a concert closer.
The reason isn’t hard to guess, the song is very fast (for the band's standards) and engaging, supported by frequent and sudden accelerations that make it a much more effective song live (see the DVD "For Darkest Eyes").
Then comes The Bitterness And The Bereavement, a decidedly more doom-oriented track, slow, rhythmic, and dark just right.
Vast Choirs, the fifth track of the record, is the most peculiar. Here Doom practically goes out the window as influences from Death, Obituary, and early Bathory take over. The track is a real shard shot at unheard-of speeds. The voice descends into the deepest and most cavernous growl and throughout the entire eight minutes of the track, there is not a moment of respite. The result is annihilating, an authentic masterpiece of malice set to music.
But the best comes with The Return Of The Beautiful, endless and tormented.
The track alternates various passages of different nature, yet linked by an underlying oppressive discomfort with no way out.
Absolutely terrifying is Aaron Stainthorpe's vocal performance, still in growl, inserting sadistic laughter here and there (like the one on the words "She Gives Herself To Me", I would say there's no need for comments) and disturbing. Every comment on the lyrics is superfluous, you must read it because it's impossible to describe how unsettling and disturbing it is. Musically, the track unravels over eight slow and dark minutes, then gives way to terrifying sounds in the ninth minute of the song that seem like a woman's harrowing screams. Finally, in the last two minutes, very fast partitions follow. The track closes as it began, like a funeral march, very sad and tormented. The album closes with another fast track, Erotic Literature, to be honest, quite anonymous but still of a good level.

Without a doubt, As The Flower Withers is a difficult and extremely heavy album, probably unlistenable for those unfamiliar with the genre.
However, thirteen years after its release, it remains something incredible. In fact, although the concept of extreme in the Metal field has gone far beyond in the last decade, oppressive discomfort and despair like this you will hardly find elsewhere, if not in other albums by this legend called My Dying Bride...