THE THRASH OF NAKED LIMBS

MY DYING BRIDE had such positive reaction to their innovative use of symphonic embellishments and violin in their unique signature sound that by the time they got to their 2nd EP they made violinist a full-fledge member of the band and steered their sound incrementally away from the aggressive death metal world more into atmospheric doom metal arenas. THE THRASH OF NAKED LIMBS followed the debut full-length "As The Flower Withers" and was the turning point where heavy guitar assaults were deemphasized and the dread inducing atmospheres accompanied by poetic visions of woe became the dominant force. While Aaron Stainthorpe utilized his death growls exclusively on the title track, for the first time he introduced his clean Gothic styled vocals which offered a new mood setting feel to their music.

While the title track is an expected death-doom track with heavy Sabbath inspired guitar in slowed down splendor, "Le Cerf Malade (The Sick Stag)" introduces a new aspect of the band, namely a propensity for thick brooding dark ambient passages. This track is exclusively instrumental with no metal to be found and has brief lyrics in French that are a fragment from a poem of the same name from the 17th century Frnech poet Jean de la Fontaine. "Gather Me Up Forever" proves they indeed a metal band and jumps back into the death-doom metal pattern that the title track dished out only some harder driving uptempo passages. This track is quite successful at showing how MY DYING BRIDE was masterfully composing doom metal with ambience and progressive touches and lots of attention paid to the most minute sound dynamics.

As heard on THE THRASH OF NAKED LIMBS, the transition was near complete but remnants of the early death metal stage of the band was still a significant part of the band's sound although less emphasized than on the previous releases. MY DYING BRIDE was cautious about morphing too quickly from one world to the next and only proceeded as it made sure that nothing sounded stilted or done so without a satisfying unification of the styles at hand. Personally i find THE THRASH OF NAKED LIMBS to be yet another exemplary and satisfying listen with three tracks equally interesting as they place emphasis on different aspects of the band's different strengths. As with the "Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium" EP, this one can be found on the box set "The Stories" or the much easier found "Trinity" compilations.