My Dying Bride are the only band of the so-called ‘Peaceville Three’ (the other two being Paradise Lost and Anathema) to never abandon the doom/death style of their 1990 inception in Bradford, England. Their debut ‘As the Flower Withers’ dropped in 1992, delivering epic, powerful riffs and a luscious dark atmosphere that foreshadowed what was yet to come. ‘Evinta’ (2011) bears testament to the band’s versatility by reworking existing material into classical and ambient-sounding gems, a recipe that was also applied to the ‘The Barghest O' Whitby’ EP, which consists of a single 27-minute track of wonderfully depressing doom metal. Over the years the keyboard melodies, soaring violins, weeping guitars and melancholic feel of the music have remained key ingredients, as has singer Aaron Stainthorpe’s unique delivery: he growls, grunts, laments and proclaims his way through the lyrics with heartfelt emotion, depicting as much as singing them. A few years ago that pain became unsettlingly real when Stainthorpe’s young daughter fell seriously ill and had a close brush with the grim reaper. By the time she recovered COVID had happened and now that things are more or less back to ‘normal’ My Dying Bride are straining at the leash to return to GMM for the first time in eight years and finally showcase their most recent album, ‘The Ghost of Orion’ (2020).#GMM23
