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THE REVIEW
Well, yes! I too was a fan of the woeful My Dying Bride! Then what exactly happened? Ah yes! It happened that, for a long series of reasons, that dark and monolithic sound began to seem far too melodramatic and whiny to me.
Let's be clear: albums like "As The Flowers Withers" and "The Angel And The Dark River" remain milestones in the death-doom genre! I consider the controversial "34.788%.. Complete" a brave attempt at renewal, but what the dying bride released with immense effort from '98 onwards has always seemed to me too tied to boring and moldy clichés.
"Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light" clearly expresses this chronic lack of ideas. The usual riffs, slow and depressive, the usual voice halfway between a metallic growler and a Nick Cave (latest style, of course!!), Martin Powell's magical violin replaced by gaudy keyboards and lyrics that, in hindsight, make you laugh out loud!
Was I a bit too mean? Not at all. Take the lyrics of "My Wine In Silence" and, after reading them carefully, tell me why a cursed poet like Aaron Staintrope has resorted to writing such trivialities! Money? Not at all! It's more about compositional sterility.
If "The Dreadful Hours" had some interesting elements, listening to this little album we are faced with a disheartening attempt to "recover" sounds already proposed and widely experimented with during the nineties. "My Wine In Silence", as previously highlighted, but also tracks like "Catherine Blake" and "The Wrekage Of My Flesh" add nothing new and indeed make us doubt quite a bit about the band's state of health.
A couple of nice tracks are there ("The Blue Lotus" and "A Doomed Lover"), but the atmosphere of compositional "disillusionment" that reigns supreme does not favor the listening of this release.
Katatonia and Anathema have managed to renew themselves. Maybe not always convincingly, that's true, but they've done it with courage and maturity. Unfortunately, the Bride preferred to tread the usual ground, and this choice, in the long run, has proven to be unconvincing.
A real shame!
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Summary by Bot
The review criticizes My Dying Bride's Songs of Darkness, Words of Light for lacking fresh ideas and relying heavily on tired death-doom clichés. While earlier albums are praised as milestones, this release feels uninspired and repetitive. Some tracks stand out, but overall, the album reflects a disheartening creative stagnation. The reviewer contrasts the band’s reluctance to evolve with peers who have renewed their sound more successfully.
My Dying Bride
Formed in Halifax, England in 1990, My Dying Bride are a seminal English doom/death-doom band led by vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe. They are noted in reviews for long, melancholic compositions, prominent violin parts and literary, gothic themes.28 Reviews
Other reviews
By Norvheim
Never before has the band managed to convey such dark and claustrophobic atmospheres as with this album.
Every single note... is like a stabbing pain in the stomach for its heaviness, obsessiveness, and despair.
