October 15 is the appointed date for Peaceville Records’ release of A Map of All Our Failures, the 12th studio album from My Dying Bride, in this, the 22nd year of their existence. I’ve previously quoted guitarist Andrew Craighan’s memorable description of the album as “a controlled demolition of all your hopes”. My hope at the moment is that the album will be demolishing. There is some reason to believe it will be.
Today, via an e-mail from Peaceville, I heard an edited version of the first track on the album, “Kneel till Doomsday”. Not only is Peaceville streaming the song, they’re also making it available as a free download to fans who sign up for the band’s mailing list. There hasn’t been much fanfare about this yet on a Saturday, but I did manage to find an embed code for the player so you can listen to the song after the jump. I also found it on My Dying Bride’s official web site, which you can access via this link.
The demolition of hope, indeed. This edited version of the song is about five minutes long, and even in that abbreviated length it’s a dynamic, riveting piece of music. At the outset it’s ponderous, bleak, and crushing, but it begins to move with increasing speed — without losing the black aura of hopelessness — before fading out following a return to the chain-dragging weight of the beginning. The vocals are both clean and harsh, the riffs infectious, the atmosphere doomed (of course). Have a listen . . .
A Map of All Our Failures in various formats, and a new MDB shirt, can be ordered here.
7 Responses to “MY DYING BRIDE: “KNEEL TILL DOOMSDAY””
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I like what I hear.
Since I didn’t really get into MDB until For Lies I Sire, I’m not sure what all I’m missing from before then, but this sounds heavier than most of the stuff I’ve heard from them. It doesn’t all have to be at this level, but I can only take so much of the slower, sad and gloomy sounding stuff. I liked The Barghest O’ Whitby and I found that Aaron’s clean vocals were a helluva lot better that on FLIS and the other stuff I’ve heard, mostly because he was making an effort to actually sing and not just sort of rhythmically recite above average emo poetry. Even with just this edited version, I can hear some effort to sing the lyrics.
As for the other side, I think he does well, even if he doesn’t growl and howl as often as some might like him to. He’s no Mikael Åkerfeldt, with a mastery of both approaches, but do I think he does a decent job.
I’m a real latecomer to doom (I guess my tastes are evolving), but at times in the past when I’ve listened to a MDB song here and there, it didn’t grab me. The vocals were part of it, and the pacing and general aura (though that’s part of what I’m now warming up to). But I also thought the vocals on this track were good (both styles), and I really did like the injection of the up-tempo sections.
after hearing this I feel sooo depressed!!!! liked the track a lot!!!!
September 1st, Swedish metalcore band ”Imminence” releases their debut video of the track “The Devourer”.
Check out this teaser!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glHpMbWCzbM
Listen to The Dreadful Hours and tell me it isn’t a perfect album without a single wasted note.
I’m surprised I didn’t injury myself or anyone when they played this song on 70K to end their 2nd set:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yx7BeIMLYE
(and if you can’t get into this when it finally build and then kicks in, you’re dead to me)
Wow. That was simply amazing.
And since I’m in a giving mood, here’s a bunch of songs from oldest to newest material:
(they have changed and gone back and forth over the years and never made the same album 2X in a row)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im2u8YzTsNg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvLP6EKHATA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqLIMC_Y2FU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDdVQiiaw34