THE DREADFUL HOURS

My Dying Bride is a rare breed, a band that can bring aggression and harshness to reside in a world that is also full of beauty and emotion. It is music that aches and yearns, looking for solace that it is never going to achieve, while at the same time stamping it's authority on the world beneath it. Such is the power of 'The Dreadful Hours', which has the nerve and temerity to open with the title cut which is in excess of nine minutes long. It finishes and begins, reflective, and almost apologetic for the nature of some of the music that has gone on in the middle. No sense of restraint in "The Raven and The Rose" where the band show that they can riff and bring in Hammer House of Horror keyboards and death vocals to match anyone. Vocalist Aaron can sing meek and mild, or he can rip his throat out as the occasion rises, and the band is more than ready to change the pace and the attack.

This is quite some album, and the keyboards such an integral part of the sound that it is strange to notice that they are sessioned. This is music that is not for the faint hearted, or for those who like to neatly pigeon hole what they are listening to. In many ways this is progressive music that is not afraid to mix and change, but in other ways this is an extreme metal band that just don't care what anyone thinks and wants to create a musical entity of their own choosing. Emotional, atmospheric, and at others blindingly honest and brutal, this is an impressive work.

Originally appeared in Feedback #70, Oct 02