TOWARDS THE SINISTER

The rush of winter, its piles of snow and dark desolate street views motivated me to listen some old heavy metal records, and I got immersed to some feelings from early My Dying Bride albums. Hence some impression reports for your amusement.

This demo tape from 1990 has some interesting moments and feelings, though it is evident that it does not reach musically similar heights as the forthcoming releases with better production quality. One of their greatest composition for me is already present here as a beta version; Possibly the longer time spent on developing "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium" has ensured the glory of later incarnations of this grim romantic epic. On this early version I liked the raw riff sequences and rustic minimal synths, though the later recordings achieve vaster amount of merits in my opinion. Especially the vocal arrangements appear here slightly clumsy.

"Vast Choirs" is also another highlight here for me - The effect of hollow glue sniffing intro evoking trashy fast guitar motives similar to early Carcass leads to a convincing slower riff passage with gloomy synthesizer enrichments. Structural approach to song composition philosophy isalso strongly present on this track, which succeeds fairly well in its dramaturgical curves, and also brings memories from the violent streets of youthhood powerfully back to my mind. The recording is also in my opinion here more working in its brutality than the forthcoming cleaner version on "As The Flower Withers".

The two other tracks are not so appealing, "The Grief of Age" being more straightforward death metal grinder with few slower licks in the end, and "Catching Feathers" balancing between full throttle smashing and whisper-accompanied guitar riff webs. The sounds of the recording are quite muddy, but pleasant ears open to old school lo-fi tones of early 1990's heavy metal sounds. In my opinion a good starting for succesful career with gothic romanticism, a journey which I personally felt ventured later to bit more duller and commercial straits.