ANTI-DILUVIAN CHRONICLES

Probably the best My Dying Bride sampler of the older material and an excellent intro to this band.

I am pretty close to being a My Dying Bride fan. I have followed them from their first EPs and I rate their first outputs very highly. This 3 CDs compilation album includes all the best songs of that period.

For those who does not know My Dying Bride or this period of their career, this compilation album contains music somewhere between slow doom metal and some faster death metal. My Dying Bride was not Black Sabbath copies that time and has never been that either. But there is no denying that Black Sabbath in spirit is a huge influence on My Dying Bride. But instead of Black Sabbath copying, My Dying Bride were more classical music and opera influenced. This in addition to the death metal influences from the underground scene they once were a part of. The tape-trading scene to be more precise. That is exactly what you find on these three CDs. That and some remixing of some of the tracks. I do not like compilation albums at all, but this one is rather good. Although I have to admit that my musical preferences is rapidly moving away from the type of music presented to me on this album, I think this is a good three stars output. Good.

3 stars

"Anti-Diluvian Chronicles" is a compilation album by UK doom/death metal act My Dying Bride. The album was released through Peaceville Records in May 2005. The compilation was released as a 3-disc digipack featuring a poster and a booklet with an in depth interview with lead vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe. Each disc features more than 70 minutes long music, making "Anti-Diluvian Chronicles" quite the comprehensive release. Although it features remix versions of some tracks (some of which also features newly recorded parts), and a couple of live tracks too, it is more than anything just a representation of the band´s music from their early days until 2004-2005, featuring a tracklist which covers most of My Dying Bride´s releases up until then. In that respect it´s quite different from the band´s earlier compilation albums, which focused more on rare and hard to get material. "Anti-Diluvian Chronicles" is more of a "best of" compilation, although that expression may be a bit vulgar when speaking of My Dying Bride´s music.

The compilation is build in reverse chronological order, which means that the tracks on disc 1 are the most recently released material (in 2005), while the tracks on disc 3 are material from the earliest part of the band´s discography. You can always argue about the choice of tracks for the compilation, but overall I think the chosen tracks serve their purpose well and provide a fine representation of what My Dying Bride is about. Although it´s always preferable purchasing the regular studio albums, and the few remix tracks, changes to tracks, and live versions on this compilation don´t change that, "Anti-Diluvian Chronicles" is still what I would label a successful compilation album with great quality material by a unique sounding artist and a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)