Offers more than I previously thought – 70%
Absinthe1979, February 24th, 2020
Written based on this version: 2011, 2CD, Peaceville Records (Slipcase)
Icouldn’t pass up an opportunity to contribute to the review collection of this strange and curious release from the mighty My Dying Bride, especially as it has received some very harsh criticism.
I’d like to argue that the release is actually a welcome addition to the My Dying Bride oeuvre, albeit one that is very reliant on the correct listening context and the mood of the listener.
It’s a long album – there’s no getting around it. I’m reviewing the 2CD edition and even that is a mighty 87 minutes long; an epic listening experience by any measure. I can only hold in awe anyone able to sit through the full three disk version. As a work that is essentially ambient in nature, with no guitars, bass or drums to be found, there are not many opportunities for expelling any visceral energy, and I can empathise with fans who have found the whole project to be a bridge too far with its soundscapes, strings, and melodic moments that later disappear with the breeze. When I first purchased this back in 2011 (gosh time flies…) I largely felt the same, dismissing it as an experiment that failed.
However, at 40 years old I’m really coming around to this as a concept and as a musical work. The general standard of the production, courtesy of Jonny Maudling and Andrew Craighan, is actually very high. The swelling string sounds and the various musical accoutrements, like violin, voice and digital classical instruments, create a rather beautiful atmosphere of peace and melancholy. I don’t recoil from the standard of the sound in the same way that I do with Cradle of Filth’s similar experiment in ‘Midnight in the Labyrinth’, which sounds a bit cheap and tinny. The sound here is quite lush.
The incorporation of thematic motifs from My Dying Bride’s musical history is generally done quite tastefully. Yes, I agree that there probably should have been a few more clear links with the past albums, and there’s probably too much ambient rather than melodic inclusions of the wonderful songs ripe for the picking. Yet there is quite a bit of ‘Like Gods of the Sun’ worked in through these tracks, which pleases me greatly, especially the very effective version of ‘For My Fallen Angel’ that can be found in ‘Vainte Triomphante’ and ‘A Kiss to Remember’ in the opening song ‘In Your Dark Pavilion’. The surprises that appear throughout ‘Evinta’ are part of its allure. Maudling again deserves praise for the huge enterprise that this must have been, not to mention the vast amount of additional composition that has gone into the project.
Aaron’s spoken voice sounds great too. Yes, it’s grandiose in its solemnity, and is cheesy enough to go well with crackers, but gosh it’s a good speaking voice. The poetry that he’s composed for the album is certainly overwrought, but I like this about the album and it largely fits. I’ve criticised the song titles on ‘Feel the Misery’ for being a bit random, yet here I think that the esoteric nature of the titles works quite well, as the whole project is such a side-step to an almost dreamlike and phantasmagoric world. It all belongs to the distant past somehow.
Of course, this is not a release that is ever going to be played in many contexts, but I believe it serves its purpose quite well on a quiet lonely evening. It’s a pity that it hasn’t been embraced more by fans – myself included initially. In fact, a perverse part of me wishes that this was the follow-up to ’34.788%… Complete’ and functioned as the very final MDB release. What an amazing epitaph that would have been, rather than the pretty good but hit-and-miss MDB albums of the 21st century. Obviously history turned out differently and that’s perhaps for the best.
Overall, this is a beautiful and sometimes moving collection of ambient sounds and moods that explore My Dying Bride’s back catalogue, and while it’s certainly not for regular rotation, and probably a good 15 minutes too long, I’m finding it more and more effective as I grow older. Try it again in the right context.
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