My Dying Bride Excels on The Ghost of Orion

My Dying Bride
The Ghost of Orion
Nuclear Blast

Links: My Dying Bride | Nuclear Blast

For My Dying Bride to release The Ghost of Orion is a testament to human perseverance. When they released Feel The Misery it quickly was prospected to be their last. Vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe’s daughter, five years old at the time, was diagnosed with cancer. Stainthorpe put the band on hold while he poured all of his energy and spirit into eradicating on what he called, “the cruellest of god’s bitter and loveless creations.”

Then original member and guitarist Calvin Robertshaw left the band with no explanation given. As the bell chimed and Stainthorpe’s daughter announced she was cancer free, drummer Shaun Taylor-Steels departed from the band. Yet, Stainthorpe and the rest of the group soldiered on, churning out the magnificent The Ghost of Orion.

If you listen to “The Long Black Land,” you peer upon a refreshed band with roaring intensity, proving they are not six feet under and indeed alive and in your face. Fans will soak up the cacophony of glorious vocal scowls from Stainthorpe as each beat comes crashing down into the barrelling abyss. It’s a dimensional perspective that is heightened from the monastic meditation of “The Solace.”

The death waltz of the title track disturbs the night and its prolific idolized intensity with soft-spoken incantations towards the stars. Their expressionistic lust for experimenting into cold and dark musical architecture is where their beauty shines on this album. Stainthorpe dives into his own personal lunacy:

“Sometimes, when I have a glass of wine I write,” says Stainthorpe. “I don’t think I’m going to write a poem, a lyric, a short story, or a stanza. Whatever is going to come out of me just comes out. I start with a blank page. When I’m done the page is full. They’re the writings of a madman—just gibberish—but after a day or two, certain sentences or phrases stick out. That’s when you realize whatever you’ve written down has legs. A Ghost Crawls Out of the Mouth of Orion was a line in all the gibberish. I liked it and thought about working on it more, so when I told Andy the phrase, he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s got title all over the place on it.’ But since we wanted this album to be a bit easier on the ears, easier on the eyes, and easier to read we didn’t want to blow away newcomers to the flock with an outrageous title. So, we shortened it to The Ghost of Orion.”

Then there is Andrew Craighan’s guitar work on “The Old Earth.” It truly is amazing, accompanied by lyrical chanting as if the ghosts of the gods of antiquity surrounded them. As the song contorts into a monstrous metal epic, this is My Dying Bride’s moment. Over ten minutes, feeling Stainthorpe’s unearthly growl, getting lost in the conveyor belt rhythm, the intensity can be dizzying adding to the aura of the insanity of human history.

Maybe it took them arising from their grave to come into a redefining moment. As Stainthorpe states, “There’s no stopping My Dying Bride.”

My Dying Bride – Your Broken Shore (Official Music Video)

Tracklist:

Your Broken Shore
To Outlive the Gods
Tired of Tears
The Solace
The Long Black Land
The Ghost of Orion
The Old Earth
Your Woven Shore