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Rating: Winter is approaching. Cold
Evening is approaching. Fear
Memory is approaching. Hypocrisy
A friend is approaching. Comfort
A sound is approaching. Analgesic
This is a very strange time we're going through... On one hand, the crisis that started in America and has now arrived, without even being announced, in our homes. They tell us everything is fine, but it's not true. In reality, this is what they want from us, to make us believe what we are not, what we would like to be, without letting us know that in the meantime we are sinking into the most desolate and dark abyss of our entire life, death.
The melancholic frame of all this is winter. The days grow shorter, the rain blocks the roads, kills people. Snow is a double-edged weapon, white and shiny on the outside, sad and depressed inside.
It is useless to deny that in these moments we are overwhelmed by solitude, which embraces us in its evil and dark spiral and makes us fall into a state of semi-sleep from which we will find no awakening.
In this way, we will forget all the memories of the past, all the bad moments we have gone through, mocked by others, isolated from friends, without anyone to protect you and give you their heart as protection, as a weapon to defeat evil, the pain.
But at the same time, we would no longer have the possibility to show others what we feel, to confide our feelings to someone, or simply on a damn sheet of paper! The rebellious part of ourselves would be definitively enclosed within a placenta of hypocrisy and cynicism, of dismay and disappointment.
Do you prefer this path?? Well I don’t, and I will try to defend myself in some way, one of these could be music, yes, the one that has accompanied us in the car, in our room, before an exam, before a meeting, before a dark and cold night.
In this context, I will analyze this album by My Dying Bride, but it's just one of the few CDs that truly move me still, but above all, open my eyes and make me realize that I must not stay still, but get up and damn fight!
7 songs... almost an hour of delirious poetry... is enough to fill my soul with good intentions and free it from the worries it holds. Passing through genuine gems, such as Cry of Mankind or Black Voyage or even Your Shameful Heaven, you reach the end of the disc with something new.
These gothic, spectral, lugubrious, dizzying atmospheres and that warm, seductive, terrifying voice, those electrifying, melancholic guitars, those theatrical, exhausting keyboards... It is in those moments, even though it is only a useless song of a useless CD, of a useless band from a useless place lost in the world, that you realize what death is and how it can be close to you, it can abduct you at any moment.
And it is then that you understand it's not what you want, you prefer to live, gripped by remorse, but alive, not in a silent, cold, and above all suffocating coffin.
The blood stops flowing in the veins, the heart stops beating, the brain stops thinking, the eyes stop moving incredulously in this new space that surrounds them, you are there, in the middle of a deserted place, in the most unconscious of your dreams, in the darkest of your nightmares, wondering what would have happened if what happened had not happened, what you could have done at that moment, who you could have saved for an instant.
With all the respect and humility in the world, I wish Malaika all the best and to find that world she never would have wished to encounter but life has set before her without warning her, without giving her one last kiss, without giving her one last look.
We Will Remember You Forever!
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 The Cry of Mankind (12:13)
You can't expect to see him and survive
You'll swallow his tongue of thorns
His mouth, dripping with flies
In his glorious kingdom of fire
But I believe he wept
I will make them all lie down
Down where hope lies dying
With lust, you're kicking mankind to death
We live and die without hope
You tramp us down in a river of death
As I stand here now, my heart is black
I don't want to die a lonely man
This is a weary hour
This is a weary hour
02 From Darkest Skies (07:48)
Take your own
Sick with fever
And cry out loud
to God
Your sorry own
Will be piled upon me
That I can't see
My God
I've cried for earth
More than once
But rivers still run
With reddest tears
Be lost in me
And I'll never need to ask
Who wants me? Who wants Me?
Be mine tonight. The sight of your light
I'll breathe in you. I'm a fool, just for you
I'm in pain
And I don't know why
Under heavy rain
From darkest skies
We're in pain
The two of us
And I no longer know
Which way to go
Open wide. Let me see
Your bleeding heart cries for me
Look straight up. Look at the sun
This song's for her. Her requiem
Open wide. Let me see
A poisoned soul in agony
Self pity strangles me
I'm lashed by grief
And I'm killing me
Don't fear. My fire is enough
For both of us
04 A Sea to Suffer In (06:31)
The field of blood I'd left
They mean nothing to you
That war left scars on me
Without you now, I'm free
I'd found out what you'd done to me, girl
I hate with as much passion as I love
And so now, your time's come, for me girl
The end. Your end. And my birth
Walk away. Laughing away
Remember you always, and wonder why?
I'll suffer in your sea
Your ocean bleeds into me
I'll fall through your endless sky
But never, ever cry
Wounded by your cruelty
Yes, I'll suffer in your sea
The fields of blood I'd left
They mean nothing to you
That war left scars on me
Without you now, I'm free
06 Your Shameful Heaven (06:59)
You, who stand there now
I will not tell you not to cry
Without fail my purpose
Will be fulfilled
I can crown you a God
And I'll suffer for your sins
Bound so tightly, pain is everything
Far from kindness. I am your king
Believe you're in Hell, but your's is Heaven
Cry to die. You'll love me forever
On a pale, teary cheek
Tears cascade to your feet
Whipped to the floor once again
Laughing and lashing you away
Burning pain scars through your skin
But it's 'more' you cry, for you are a sinner
We suffer in love, but you love to suffer
Your misery is your majesty
Though your skin may burn and your wounds, bleed
The only real ache is between your legs
You've learned well, through your Hell
Your pain was nothing. You longed for more.
Your shameful Heaven is full of devils
Just like me. Just for you
07 The Sexuality of Bereavement (08:04)
In soothe I lend a gracious ear
Your sobbing, somehow sexual
Come to my bosom. The help I bring
Is all my pleasure you lonely, dear thing
Oh, cruel love, when held by you
My sanity does fly
You lie there mourning with looks of desire
'T is beauty when you cry
Drink my grieving love
Desire and wine go well
Sleep, I'll watch over you
Relief? Time will tell
Secrecy fosters passion
You stay untouched
I know you are alone
With peace I care much
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Other reviews
By cliffburton86
With 'The Angel and the Dark River,' the English band shakes off the label of a 'death metal band' and moves toward sounds and settings of depression and sadness.
The violin acts as Charon in this situation, transporting us from one shore of haunting melodies to another.
By ale9t0
In this album, the band almost completely abandons the growl and dark atmospheres... to move towards more melancholic and romantic atmospheres thanks also to the splendid work performed by the violinist Martin Powell.
Thus ends the splendid journey that the listener has experienced and will probably relive many, many times, captivated by the beautiful melodies and splendid lyrics of the album.
