This is the fifteenth album from UK doom metal band My Dying Bride.
A Mortal Binding contains 55 minutes of new music from this legendary act. My Dying Bride have returned with a doom-drenched descent into the abyssal depths of loss and despair. It’s rich in moody darkness, and resplendent with emotive colour. Balancing atmospheric immersion with aggressive melancholy, the songs are captivating examples of a band’s vision expertly rendered.
This is an album with a potent presence. The music makes strong use of its component parts to produce something inimitably My Dying Bride. A Mortal Binding takes inspiration from a few different My Dying Bride eras and fashions them into something bleakly gorgeous, yet also suitably harsh in places, for 2024.
The guitars are expressive, managing to move seamlessly from massive riffs to nuanced melodic grace, and atmospheric weight. The violin is as richly alluring as always, and the keyboards strategically layered for maximum, yet frequently subtle, effect. The underpinning drums and bass provide a good foundation for everything else to be built on. My Dying Bride’s charismatic vocalist sounds great. His growls are dark and brutal, while his effortlessly appealing and luxurious clean singing draws you in like a siren’s call. All of this exists within a structural framework that emphasises feeling above all else. Wrap this up in a luscious production that’s immaculately full and well-rounded, and you have an immensely effective slab of doom metal.
I confess that this brief analysis doesn’t really do justice to A Mortal Binding. An album of beauty and anguish, My Dying Bride’s latest is a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding listen. Although I liked 2020’s The Ghost of Orion, that record didn’t connect with me anything like this new one has. A Mortal Binding is the sound of a gloomily revitalised My Dying Bride, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Wonderbox Metal 