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I'm ready to bet with everyone who reads this review that none of them will manage to listen to this album (if they ever do) without feeling at least a little scared. Listening to it feels like traveling through Darkness.
The melancholic notes of a piano accompanied by a violin and the mournful voice of Aaron Stainthorpe open this "Turn Loose The Swans," the second full-length of My Dying Bride and also one of their greatest masterpieces. The first track is SEAR ME MCMXCIII, a terrifying song, beautifully composed to convey that typical feeling of anguish that permeates the group's tracks (needless to say, the result has been more than achieved). The track proceeds somberly and fades away after seven minutes to introduce another masterpiece of genuine art: YOUR RIVER, which brings an atmosphere this time of sheer desperation, culminating in a sonic explosion at the end with the deadly Growl of the Singer adding a cursed touch to this Song. The entire album is imbued with existential unease that at certain points borders on pure cruelty and masochism, as in THE SONGLESS BIRD or in THE SNOW IN MY HAND.
The winning card of Turn Loose The Swans is undoubtedly the inclusion of some parts on the edge of pure Death Metal, which make the album very aggressive, slightly setting aside the romantic influences that will instead predominate in the future, making it almost unique and unmistakable.
Memorable is the never-ending THE CROWN OF SYMPATHY, which features an initial clean and almost moving vocal part, a terrifying dark-toned interlude (one of the most intense moments of the album, you'll barely manage not to tremble with fear) to end once again with the deepest sadness taking over. The album continues with the Title-Track, a piece that demonstrates how aggressive, even cruel, tracks can be composed without falling into the banality of many Brutal groups who, with their stupid lyrics and chaotic sounds, think they are the epitome of badness. The last track is BLACK GOD, the shortest on the album, a true funeral hymn, a symbol of decadence and Death. We have thus reached the end of the journey into Darkness. Relax and take a break.
Because the darkness that remains in the heart is something that will hardly leave you soon...
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Sear Me MCMXCIII (07:23)
Pour yourself into me
Our time approaches so near, that I sign.
What danger in such an adorer?
We dance and the music dies.
We carry them all away
As we glide through their lost eyes.
You lift me above myself
With the ghostly lake of your mind.
Arise from your slumber in my arms.
Your beauty took the strength from me.
In the meadows of heaven
We run through the stars.
Romantic in our tastes.
We are without excuse.
We burn in our lust.
We die in our eyes and drown in our arms.
02 Your River (09:23)
Your bloodied body is what I cling to.
In powerful rain, they laid down their heads to die.
Let your dark, thirsty eyes drink deep the sights of me.
It's sad that, in our blindness, we gather thorns for flowers.
Your river holds a feast of danger.
The suffering you have had to bear.
I'd die for that moment one more time.
The loved one falls below your ideals.
Pleasure too safely enjoyed lacks zest.
The brave lick their sickening lips.
Rigid, handsome and a poet.
A king in his passionate castle.
Where now?
Feed me!
Hold me!
Save me!
Save yourself!
Where now?
Which way?
Dear god, show me.
Take your own.
Struggle free!
Arise!
You're Ruined!
Stand down!
Your kin, piled thick around you.
Save yourself!
04 The Snow in My Hand (07:09)
I've seen them. so dark.
Black.
And yet fine.
The flower they carry had once been mine.
Get away from me, man of stories.
Robe of lies.
Stay far from me.
I lie to myself (it's not hurting).
I need help, but not from you or your father.
No! Jesus Christ.
Who's my saviour?
Lose myself in gods death.
No!
I can't bear all this pain.
I had watched the snow all day.
Falling.
It never lets up.
All day falling.
I lifted my voice and wept out loud, "So this is life?"
05 The Crown of Sympathy (12:15)
See the light and feel my warm desire, run through my veins like the evening sun.
It will live but no eyes will see it.
I'll bless your name before I die.
No person in everything can shine, yet shine you did, for the world to see.
All a man hath will he give for life?
For life that's lost bleeds all over me.
I'd fallen before but it never hurt like this.
Don't leave me here to crawl through the mire.
I'm without fault before the throne of god.
Take from me the crown of sympathy.
What do you think you'll see?
What do you think there will be?
Sit down!
Did you see the sun?
What will we become?
Great ones?
The mouths that dare not speak his name, behold them, raised, complete and fine.
The battle for our lives is oh, so brief.
Take my hand and please walk with me.
When I was young the sun did burn my face.
I let its love and warmth wash over me.
The melting voice of many, in the hush of night.
Whispering tongues can poison my honest truth.
Come dress me with your body, and comfort me.
I dreamt of a dead child in my sleep.
I wear a terrible mark in my head.
My clean, white bed.
It calls to me.
I must lie down.
And I want you to lay with me, in sympathy.
No sad "adieus" on a balcony.
For one last time, just walk with me.
At the beautiful gate of the temple, we must be saved.
For deadened, icy pain, covers all the earth.
06 Turn Loose the Swans (10:08)
So little of what we observe, is the girl herself.
Elaborate, scented coiffers.
Adieu d'amour.
Vast is the heirs ballroom.
Let the rich give you presents.
Heaven pours from her throat, as she sings and as she dances.
The fumes of rich swine, honeyglazed and dripping, playing in the air.
My mouth eager and wishing.
But I return to this nightingale.
Her hair all fiery red.
Deep it is and wild.
My weakness will be fed.
Boys whipped on the alter of diana, sometimes until they died.
The cunning wily merchant, and his four crippled horses.
Tales told in warlike manner.
The storyteller by the fire.
While musing deeply on this sight, the songster stirred my desire.
You are sweet and fine to listen to.
Long tresses about her neck.
Yet much is false.
This mighty evening, I've seen no face.
This is crushing me.
My quill it aches.
Turn loose the swans that drew my poets craft.
I'll dwell in desolate cities.
You burned my wings.
I leave this ode, splendid victorious through the carnage.
I wanted to touch them all.
I wanted to touch them all.
09 Transcending (Into the Exquisite) (08:37)
If I live you will be sorry
I have a thousand forms
If I live you will be sorry
Uninjured by your tongue
If I live you will be sorry
I have a thousand forms
If I live you will be sorry
Uninjured by your tongue
We've lived with our suffering
But now...?
If I live you will be sorry
I have a thousand forms
If I live you will be sorry
I'm working to ensnare you
My desire
Turn loose the swans
If I live you will be sorry
I have a thousand forms
If I live you will be sorry
I'm working to ensnare you
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Other reviews
By StefanoHab
This is one of the most important works in '90s metal — a work of art, to be adored in all its completeness.
My blood ran cold at the first riff of 'Turn Loose The Swans'; the emotional intensity is hard to control.
