My Dying Bride - A Line Of Deathless Kings
Peaceville Records - CDVILEF150P - October 9th, 2006
By Brandon Strader
From the first chugga-chug-chugs of
A Line Of Deathless Kings, it is easy to tell the album will be a lot more uptempo than
Songs of Darkness, Words of Light. It even sounds a lot less depressing when the vocals enter, following along with the basic melody laid down by the guitars. The introduction to their last album was absolutely classic. Their last album is probably one of the best, if not THE best doom album of all time. Needless to say, they could probably never top that, and if they had I would be truly amazed.
A Line of Deathless Kings does not top their last album, doesn't even come close, but it seems to be directed in a different area. Rather than trying to make this extremely sad-sounding stuff, the guitars are faster, the tempos faster, and for the most parts, growls are gone... only making a couple brief appearances during the whole album. The vocals that introduce "To Remain Tombless" even sound a bit wimpy, and generally not Stainthorpe's best. It will have you wondering, "Oh my God! Has the guy lost it?!" The answer is no, as the chorus quickly attests. I'll just shrug it off as a creative choice. I was so determined to love this album after the immense joy of
Songs of Darkness, Words of Light that I actually lit a bunch of candles, burned some incense, laid on red satin sheets covered with rose-petals and began listening... for maximum effect, of course.
That is the biggest dissapointment, I think. Their last album was utterly depressing, and Stainthorpe's vocals made me want to drive blindly off a pier while listening, and no - that's not a metaphor. Life-shattering performances are what made their last album so great. It almost made you want to put a bullet in your head after listening, or perhaps hang on just so you can hear it again... The upside of the new album is that there is definitely more varied guitar performances, and leads. The broodingly mournful harmonic lead sections are pretty much vacant on this release, and the lead sections that
do arise are not nearly as harmonic as they could have been. Near the middle of "L'amour Detruit", the song mutates into a very atmospheric acoustic verse with a nice acoustic broken chord accompanied by a squealing guitar lead and some lightly layered vocals. "I Cannot Be Loved" begins to display some of the sorrowful sound they mastered on
Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, though it doesn't quite reach that level. Also the vocals are a lot better here than they were in the beginning of the album, so I suppose that really
was a creative choice... About 1/3 of the way into the song, it speeds up with some chuggy guitar leads and throws the verse back in at a slightly higher tempo. This might be the most enjoyable song to sing along with! Ahh I can see it now, The "
My Dying Bride Singalong Collection" and what joyous karaoke fun we could have with that! About 2/3 into the song, and it really starts to deal out some slower doom riffs that slowly merge into an acoustic performance of the same riffs. Overall,
A Line Of Deathless Kings seems a lot thrashier than their previous album with the exception of the occasional excursion of straight-up doom metal the way only
My Dying Bride can do it.
All this sorrow over some chick. Really Stainthorpe,
she's not good enough for you! Break up with her and start singing happy songs about cute little puppies, and flowers. I take that back; keep torturing yourself with your impotence and releasing magnificent doom records! Oh yeah, and keep crooning about your disdain for God. "Deeper Down" is the thrashiest track on the album, and also the most uptempo. Of course they chose this one to be the single. The vocals are surprisingly perfect on this track. The double bass sounds like someone hitting a plastic coffee can with a spoon... It's unique, I suppose, and really sounds better than you are probably inferring at this moment. Odd, I didn't notice that sound of the bass drum until this song. Perhaps because this is the first one to actually use a fast double-bass. The song really doesn't sound depressing or sad at all, and is actually enjoyable, and due to the heavy tremolo guitars, headbangable to the max. Oh, and the growls are mainly in this song! They are spectacular, thick, and demented. I just wish they would have appeared more often on the album. Stainthorpe's growls always sound fantastic on the albums, though perhaps he is limiting them because he is losing the ability? In conclusion, this is really an album you can grow to love for what it is, but you really shouldn't expect it to be as depressing or touching as their previous album. Despite not surpassing the glory that was
Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, it is still great and will probably receive just as many spins. Definitely worth buying!
8.5/10
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Official My Dying Bride Website
Official Peaceville Records Website
