''The Angel and the Dark River'' is the third album by the British
doom/
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
band
My Dying Bride. The 1996 re-release contains one bonus track "The Sexuality of Bereavement" and a bonus CD titled ''Live at the Dynamo''. The Live CD was recorded during their appearance at the
Dynamo Festival in 1995.
Aaron Stainthorpe's lyrics continued in the vein of ''
Turn Loose the Swans'', focusing on religious symbolism and relationship problems. Stainthorpe has said in many interviews that "Two Winters Only" is his favourite My Dying Bride song.
Five of the album's six tracks appear on the band's
VHS and
DVD For Darkest Eyes.
Production
For the first time in the band's history, guitar player
Andrew Craighan was the sole composer of a My Dying Bride record, which was considered “strange” to the guitarist. Many song ideas for ''The Angel and the Dark River'' were completed during the recording of the album at Academy Studios. Craighan cites "The Cry of Mankind" as an example: "we had the vocals, we had that guitar line
alvin Robertshaw's repetitive arpeggio background guitar we had the drums and the bass. The other guitar line, the heavier guitar line, was non-existent."
Musical style
''The Angel and the Dark River'' was arguably the release that saw the band travel furthest from their
death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...
origins.
Aaron Stainthorpe dispensed with his
death grunt entirely, and
Martin Powell's violin and keyboard playing now seemed to be the basis around which the rest of the arrangement was built. Apart from the final track of the original release ("Your Shameful Heaven"), the tempo was unremittingly slow.
Themes
This water-charged inspiration comes from their home, the north of England. Andrew Craighan said that they "subscribe very much to the ideas of the mist and the fog and the castles. All of that typical English stuff. Constantly fucking raining. And it's just always bleak here. It's always cold. It's always miserable. We actually kind of enjoy that in a sick way, so to write about it and to sing about it is nothing new."
Touring and Promotion
My Dying Bride were invited by
Steve Harris Steve Harris may refer to:
* Steve Harris (musician) (born 1956), founder member and bassist of the band Iron Maiden
* Steve Harris (actor) (born 1965), American film and TV actor
* Steve Harris (basketball) (1963–2016), American basketball playe ...
to be the opening band of
Iron Maiden's European tour. Harris himself made the invitation, phoning Andrew Craighan to tell him that he thought ''The Angel and the Dark River'' was "a killer album".
Peaceville later on reissued the record in a limited double-CD edition, featuring an alternate cover scheme and an extra disc with their 1995 ''
Dynamo Open Air'' live performance. About the concert, MDB guitarist Andrew Craighan revealed:
Reception
In October 2011, ''The Angel and the Dark River'' was awarded
IMPALA
The impala or rooibok (''Aepyceros melampus'') is a medium-sized antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The only extant member of the genus '' Aepyceros'' and tribe Aepycerotini, it was first described to European audiences by Germa ...
's
gold record for sales of at least 75,000 copies throughout Europe.
Track listing
Digipak ed. CDXVILE 50 only, and re-issue 2CD)
Live at the Dynamo
# Your River – 8:13
# A Sea to Suffer In – 6:21
# Your Shameful Heaven – 6:21
# The Forever People – 4:52
Credits
*
Aaron Stainthorpe - vocals, cover art, photos
*
Andrew Craighan - guitar
*
Calvin Robertshaw - guitar
*
Adrian Jackson - bass
*
Martin Powell - violin, keyboard
*
Rick Miah - drums
Charts
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angel And The Dark River, The
My Dying Bride albums
1995 albums