My Dying Bride
The Dreadful Hours

After the release of The Light At The End Of The World in 1999, it was easy to think that with their seventh album, My Dying Bride would stick to the same coordinates as the previous one. Instead, The Dreadful Hours represents its evolution. And it marks yet another step in a career that has been lasting for ten years and more.
The album starts with the sound of rain that leads us into the title track, a good song but, overall, it goes fairly unnoticed. It is entirely different compositions that provide the extra touch that distinguishes good albums from masterpieces.
First of all "The Raven And The Rose", a track that very much recalls the more aggressive compositions of Turn Loose The Swans. The first part is very Death and reaches its peak in a wonderful vocal performance by Aaron, who displays a series of truly impressive growling vocals, particularly noteworthy is one of the last verses where the singer obsessively repeats the phrase "My God Is My Want". The song ends in the most unexpected way: the moving notes of a piano and then a gothic riff bring a perfect song to a close.
Equally perfect is "Black Heart Romance", a more atmospheric track although in its central part it does not disdain more direct moments.
But shortly after, on the sixth track, here comes another, this time truly sensational, masterpiece: the poignant "My Hope, The Destroyer". For this track, the band chose to limit the growling vocals to two very brief verses in the central part and accentuate the more romantic and moving side of their sound.
The result is memorable, the song is of incredible intensity and engaging just right, and it also possesses one of the most beautiful lyrics Aaron has ever written. All of this contributes to making this track one of the cornerstones of an already extremely high-level album.
Finally, it is enough to add that the band has reintroduced as a bonus track the legendary "The Return Of The Beautiful", here called "Return To The Beautiful", already present on As The Flowers Withers, the band's first album. What else to add?

If you still have doubts about this band, surely the best in its genre currently around, I invite you to let yourself be carried away by the river of emotions that their music is able to recreate and ultimately, I would like to point out that out of eight albums released so far, the English band has four absolute masterpieces (it goes without saying which, I think it's obvious what records I'm talking about). Which I think is quite telling, you be the judge.