My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding (2024)

The legendary My Dying Bride is back with another mournful release filled with their magical Gothic/Doom Metal exploits. With nearly 55 minutes spread around in seven tracks that showcase the band’s signature powerful style. Never disappointing, the band always delivers very engaging and diverse releases and “A Mortal Binding” is no exception.

Opening with “Her Dominion”, we instantly get the signature Andrew Craighan riffs alongside the band’s crafty tempo changes, with the drumming handled by Dan Mullins since his return to the band last year. The perfect balance between the fragility of the atmospheric elements like the subtle keyboards and violins is nicely outflanked by the staple combination of growls and dramatic clean vocals of Aaron Stainthorpe, and tracks like “Thornwyck Hymn” and “The 2nd of Three Bells” really exploit these elements.

A very understated element of the band’s sound has to be Lena Abé's pulsating bass guitar line that is always subtle but powerful. Our favorite track in this release has to be the dramatic “The Apocalyptist” and its very moody tempo changes and melodic interludes. Changing the intensity from one minute to the other, the switching of vocal styles has always made the band’s music stand out from the rest. As a close second favorite, “A Starving Heart” is another standout track with its lush atmospherics.

Closing the release with one more tear-jerker, “Crushed Embers”, the My Dying Bride completely levels the listener with “A Mortal Binding”. We have been huge fans of the band over the years and we are highly impressed with their consistency in the last couple decades, as their sound gets more polished their core style remains the same, and we love that. If you are a fan of the band or the genre, this is definitely one of their best and should be in your radar in 2024.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: April 19th, 2024

Genre: Gothic/Doom Metal

Country: UK