Artist: My Dying Bride
Label: Peaceville
Release Date: 10/12/99
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Title: The Light at the End of the World Artist: My Dying Bride Label: Peaceville Release Date: 10/12/99 |
Judgment Committee Reviews | Rating |
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Abyss's Review:
If goth is the soundtrack to sorrow, and metal is that of anger, My Dying Bride must be the sound of frustration.
"If goth is the soundtrack to sorrow, and metal is that of anger, My Dying Bride must be the sound of frustration." Never has there been a band that has been able to so effectively bridge these two different styles. While goth and metal might be loomed together for sharing certain moods and imagery, they are actually quite different, and while it seems altogether obvious that they could be fused, it can often be a difficult proposition in practice.
My Dying Bride have long been the kings of this hybrid. They are one of the few bands that seem to be centered in true goth, yet can appeal to a large portion of the metal audience. There are a lot of metalheads out there that have no other goth-inspired discs in their collection other than My Dying Bride. Turn Loose the Swans is often given the highest praise, but even the less metal inspired Like Gods of the Sun was able to win acclaim from metal and goth fans alike. I must admit I even enjoyed their last release 34.788% Complete. Although I do feel that it was an overall disappointment, it had its moments. Even though I didn't like the direction the band was going, I wasn't ready to give up on them yet. With their new disc, The Light at the End of the World, My Dying Bride see a return to a more metallized concept and achieve astounding success.
The reappearance of the old logo foreshadows a return to the past, and many I've talked to seem quick to label this Turn Loose the Swans II. Now while, admittedly, that album is most easily compared to this one, there is definite growth involved. Most importantly, the band have become more accomplished songwriters. This album seems to place goth and metal into the same songs, but melds them so well that the edges have become blurred. While the goth vocals remain prevalent, I am happy to see a return to harsh metal vocals as well. I always thought that they added more emotion to this style than the average death or black metal band. I'm not sure what changed this band around, very few that stray from their initial sound ever return, and they really never seem to return with something of this quality.
"This is quickly becoming my favorite Dying Bride album, as it takes their older concepts and isn't afraid to add a little touch of the melody many would expect to find on an Opeth record." This is quickly becoming my favorite Dying Bride album, as it takes their older concepts and isn't afraid to add a little touch of the melody many would expect to find on an Opeth record. The whole album is killer, my favorites include: "She is the Dark," "Eden Beast" and the title track. Only the closing song, "Sear Me III" (obviously part of the series not visited on the last two albums) seems to drone on a little too long for me, but that's really the only bad point. I can't recommend this enough for fans of Swans, and while some may think this is a throwback born from declining record sales, I have to disagree. I can't imagine the band coming out with such a strong effort if it didn't come from the heart.
Death's Review:
On first listen, I was very quickly turned off by the annoying introductory vocal which quickly interrupts a totally killer opening riff. Warning for the future: this type of blasphemous behavior will not generally be tolerated. Coming off the universally disappointing 34.7888 % Complete album, my enthusiasm for digesting a new MDB album was not all that high. And on that first, casual listen it landed mostly like monotonous drivel. But after giving the album another go with a fresh set of ears, I can now honestly say that The Light at the End of the World is pretty cool. When it is heavy, it is monstrously heavy. And when it is slow, . . . man, oh man, is it monstrously slow.
Yes, there are death vocals. But not enough. The almost Elvis-derivative snarl and/or eighties pop lightness which comprises about 50% of the record is not all that interesting to me. Brief and casual listening to the nasal, monotone drivel heard on the verses of "Eden Beast," or the beginning of the title track, for example, are more than enough, thank you very much.
"When it is heavy, it is monstrously heavy. And when it is slow, . . . man, oh man, is it monstrously slow." What do I make of the ultimate sickness of riffs like the first distorted, midtempoed masterpiece which flashes between the quasi-torturous wailing of the verses of "Light at the End of the World," or the straightforward headbanging power of the opener, "She is the Dark," the album's best track? What else would I think? They rule. But they are mixed in with too much meandering and wallowing to achieve the steady, pulsating power they deserve.
Still, Pantera or Chaos A.D. -era Sepultura could have written the "Territory" -type riff which dominates the second half of the title track. And thus, the ping-pong game which is my true opinion of MDB wages on. The doom of the instrumental portions of "Christ Liar" is awesome, "The Fever Sea" has some pretty killer riffs, and "The Isis Script" has some neat drumming as well. The metal is sick. But the bad Roger Waters / Cure / Smiths / whatever-influence really detracts from it all, in my opinion. I realize that's probably the point -- the singing style represents a substantial part of the band's character. But, try as I might, I just don't always get it. I thought we metalheads always hated the Cure. At least I did. To be fair, the non-death vocals do sound kinda cool on parts of songs like the interestingly desperate sounding "The Isis Script." But, unfortunately, most of the time they're simply tedious.
I just read an interview from 1997 where MDB band members said that, at that time, they were going for kind of a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds thing. Thank god that the death-style vocals get to rip shit up a bit on the new record to counterbalance too much of that type of influence from continuing to seep too far into the trip. The death metal vocals sound awesome here. If we had a lot more of them, we'd be in four skull territory. But I just can't listen to too much of many of the clean vocal passages here (most of "Into the Lake of Ghosts," for example). Sure, I want to pump my fist in the air and thrash around to "She is the Dark." I just guess I might need some more convincing for some of the more adventurous passages.
"I thought we metalheads always hated the Cure. At least I did."
Hel's Review:
I can't barely begin to tell you how badly I'd been wanting to hear this album. A few months ago, I was hitting every record store that was even remotely close to my apartment repeatedly, trying to find it, hoping it would appear magically. Now, finally, it's in my ears, and I'm sad to report that it's not what I hoped it would be.
It's a good album, no doubt about it. The riffs are heavy and driving. There are some complex melodies and lots of changes. There are epic songs. But there are also a few details that were unsettling to me. For one, the first riff in the first song, "She is the Dark", sounds so much like the main riff in Skinlab's "Second Skin: New Flesh" that it's disconcerting when the next part starts and I'm brought back to the reality that it's My Dying Bride I'm listening to instead, and when the riff repeats I start the cycle again.
"I'm sad to report that it's not what I hoped it would be." "The Isis Script" bothers me. At first, I begin to squirm when I once again forget momentarily what band I'm listening to because the vocal style suddenly sounds too much like recent James Hetfield, and I know many of you can empathize with my discomfort over this. Even more baffling, I realize a bit later, during the same song, the vocals now sound very strongly like Dave Mustaine. I'm so confused! Neither are what I'm looking to hear in a My Dying Bride song.
Fortunately, the tracks following this, the final two tracks on the album, are awesome. "Christ Liar" and "Sear Me III" are the epitome of what I was looking for this album to be. Epic and heavy in their own ways, "Sear Me III" being more ballad-like and "Christ Liar" is the metal masterpiece I longed for. It's all good, but any song that had one of the unhappy aspects I mentioned above, lost a great deal of its impact because of that.
I know it's hard to believe, but I'm actually pretty picky. An album has to be good for what it is, and anytime I find something about an album that is lacking or annoying, it unfortunately colors the entire product. If it were not for my complaints, I would have probably given this album 5 skulls. I certainly can't do that now and I am, in fact, so put off that I seriously considered giving it 3 skulls. But it in the interest of objective fairness, I can't. Blemishes aside, the rest of the album is superb.
"Blemishes aside, the rest of the album is superb."
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