My Dying Bride – ‘Evinta’ Album Review

Following the release of ‘For lies I sire’ and working for another publication, I had the opportunity to speak to Andrew Craighan and during the interview I pointed out that My Dying bride have maintained a catalogue of consistent quality over the years. By that, I didn’t mean that the band had stagnated or grown stale, but that each and every album can hold its own against the others. Indeed, while all MDB fans will have a favourite album it is rarely the same favourite album, which highlights just how deeply each MDB release resonates with the band’s audience and how each album, often laboured over by the perfectionist band, represents a subtly different take on the bands blackened take on doom metal. There have been experiments; 1998’s ’34.788% complete’ contained the head-scratching ‘Heroin Chic’ and the glorious wah-pedal-abusing ‘Der uberblende’, but overall My Dying Bride have crafted a unique niche in the hinterland that sits between black metal’s sonic assault and doom metal’s lethargic, bleak misery so it stands to reason that they should celebrate their twentieth anniversary by releasing a two CD set (three CD if you get the ultra-rare, ultra-limited, ultra-beautiful version) that sounds like nothing the band have ever released. Contrary bastards!

So what exactly is ‘Evinta’ then? A celebration of the band’s glorious, gothic soundscapes rendered a new as an entirely symphonic work that ebbs and flows seamlessly across the two discs and covering a wide musical territory from avant-opera (‘in your dark pavillion’) to Orb-esque ambient, ‘Evinta’ is the dazzling work of the band holed up with a handful of classical musicians and allowed the time and space to produce something truly magical . Metal is conspicuous by its absence and you won’t hear a guitar strummed in anger across the whole release, but then that’s what makes ‘Evinta’ so special; it’s a love letter, a dark missive to fans of the band who are credited as being open-minded enough to receive such an offering and also a labour of love for a band who have always strived to create atmospheric and intelligent music over their lengthy career.

Opening with a stunning reworking of ‘in your dark pavillion’, the track is augmented by operatic vocals and Aaron’s tortured voice while a lone violin introduces the track. It’s so radically different, so utterly unexpected, that it takes a moment to adjust to what you’re hearing but once the shock wears off you realise that this is the band operating at the peak of their creative powers to create some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful music ever recorded. Moreover, removed from his usual environment Aaron’s vocals shine yet brighter and his dark, Shakespearean intonation perfectly captures the mood and the eloquence of his never-less-then astonishing lyrics. ‘You are not the only one who loves me’ sees the band expand the template from classical to a more modern angle with shimmering synths backing Aaron giving the track an almost Pink Floyd feel, albeit Pink Floyd covering the Swans, and it becomes apparent that even stripped of guitars MDB have moved slightly less far from their roots than you might initially think. Simply dripping with atmosphere, the sparse arrangements are never over-the-top or thrown together, rather each section of the song is allowed room to breathe and expand for maximum effect and it becomes rapidly obvious how much thought and care has gone into this very special project.

With the previous track fading into blackness, the sounds of nature slowly appear before a lone piano invades the tranquil atmosphere and Aaron enters sounding more like Michael Gira than ever on a track that could be Angels of light until an operatic vocal adds soothing balm to Aaron’s raw and weeping sorrow in what must be one of the most stunning and heart-breaking tracks the band have ever worked on. Really quite impossible to capture in words, the best that I can manage are two adjectives that repeat themselves over and over while listening to this mini-masterpiece: stately and elegant. This beautiful and emotive music conjures up images of decaying castles, of knights in tattered armour treading o’er the fields of ancient battles searching for their youth whilst everything decays. Out of place and time, My Dying Bride have found a way of projecting their music both forward and backward creating timeless music with the sole purpose of stirring the emotions. More than ever the band’s album title ‘a line of deathless kings’ seems apt here as the music summons to the mind countless images of the ravages of time and the tragedy of decaying youth. Few bands are this emotive; this brilliant at creating atmosphere and it makes it all the more important to treasure this remarkable work as you would a cherished book or work of art.

The band then stray way off course with the beautifully ambient ‘the distance busy with shadows’ which hauls itself out of a haze of synth to become a quite beautiful track that is remarkably somewhere between ‘Tubular Bells’ and ‘Orbvs Terrarvm’ albeit narrated by a dark stranger with grime on his clothes and eyes that speak of countless tragedies encountered across the pathways of life. Final track on the first disc, ‘of sorry eyes in March’, continues the band’s descent into a blackened ambient hell, a dark and malevolent place indeed where the chiming synths could just as easily be the rusted chains of hell and the effect is similar to that of Chris Morris’ seminal ‘blue jam’ radio series, with the terrifying soundscapes providing the backdrop for Aaron’s dour intonation of the track’s lyrics. Progressive, and almost unbearably oppressive at high volumes it may not be metal as we know it, but it’s still a brilliant piece of work from a band who seem ecstatic to have new areas to explore.

If it strikes you that this is a more wordy review than usual, it is largely because some music desperately demands more interpretation than others. While with some bands (and this is in no way intended as a slight upon them)  it can be enough to say “hell yeah, the riff on this track is amazing”, with music such as this the only way to really put across its impact is to try to capture the stream of consciousness that it fosters and so you’ll have to forgive me if I run on a little.

Disc two of the set opens up with the bombastic ‘Vanite Triomphante’ which is a mixture of lilting piano, violin, operatic vocals and kettle drums providing the weight. It’s an ambitious reworking, like all of the tracks on offer, and it quickly draws you back into the fire-lit ambience of the previous CD. Following a lengthy orchestral coda, the listener is then led to ‘that dress and summer skin’, a terrifying tale of obsession set, initially, to the most skeletal of backing tracks before the soundtrack to your blackest childhood nightmare is unleashed adding to the already unbearably tense atmosphere and highlighting again just how imaginative MDB can be. ‘And then you go’ is a darker, more ambient work that sees choral vocals and shifting minor chords creating a near magic spell. It is the music of the haunted dell, simple and yet evocative, that recalls the groundless fears of childhood when one enters a dark and desolate spot and it evokes a sense of deep sorrow and aching loneliness amidst its tranquil serenity. The final track, ‘a hand of awful rewards’ is an instrumental that closes out an album that is utterly remarkable and almost mystical in its ability to convey the dark emotions of the source material.

‘Evinta’ is a bold, brave step into the unknown. Quite what fans will make of it is uncertain. For the most part, I imagine, those who have followed the band will find this every bit as stunning as I have, although there is bound to be few lost souls who get onto the web forums bemoaning the classical nature of the music on offer but you have to believe that that will be their loss. A celebration wrapped in the most delightful misery, this is a stunningly beautiful work that never loses its sense of purpose or takes the easy, conventional route. Every piece here has clearly been through about, laboured over and loved by the musicians involved and I can imagine no more fitting a way for a band such as My Dying Bride to celebrate such a landmark date. Emphasising the haunting literary qualities of Aaron’s lyrics is a masterstroke and everything from the packaging to the liner notes shows care and attention to detail, a trademark of Peaceville records and of My Dying Bride’s, and this astonishing collection of music, beautifully presented and packaged, should be at the top of any doom fan’s list. Certainly a candidate for  album of the year and without a doubt one of the bravest stylistic leaps ever taken by a band, ‘Evinta’ is truly, and unequivocally stunning.