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Rating:
What could be expected after the whiny, dull "For Lies I Sire"? The artistic drift was now evident, and what initially could be called consistency and loyalty towards their audience and music quickly turned into flatness characterized by recycling, self-parody, and clichés. "Evinta" is the ideal continuation and conclusion of this discourse: having reached a stalemate, My Dying Bride decided to lavishly celebrate their twenty-year career (as well as their lack of ideas) by reimagining some of their great classics in a symphonic-neoclassical way; a choice as predictable as the result itself.
"Evinta" is a colossal, redundant, self-indulgent, ambitious, too ambitious work. It is a gothic concoction that drags on mournfully through its 87 minutes (for those who will decide to purchase the deluxe edition with an included third CD, over two hours) of endless tearful suites, drops of blood, foggy cemeteries, lost lovers, gloomy cathedrals, Shakespearean English, saccharine overdose, and razor blades. And it matters little about the elegance and sophistication that the tracks exude; even less if they are ennobled by the Bride's most famous motifs, which I won't even enumerate. The substance, in "Evinta", is entirely missing. The inspiration dissolves into pure sonic vanity.
On the other hand, there's no need to be too alarmed: every artist is born, grows, matures, experiences highs and lows on their path, and finally fades and "dies". It's physiological; it's normal, and as such, it must be accepted. At this point, there's only hope that the Bride, now more dead than dying, refrains in the future from also showcasing her charming rigor mortis.
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