THE THRASH OF NAKED LIMBS

"The Thrash of Naked Limbs" is an EP release by UK doom/death metal act My Dying Bride. The EP was released through Peaceville Records in February 1993 and bridges the gap between the band´s debut and second full-length studio albums "As The Flower Withers (1992)" and "Turn Loose the Swans (1993)". A shortened version of the title track was used for a promotional video which received some rotation on the prolific MTV Headbanger´s Ball show in 1993, which further helped to enhance My Dying Bride´s profile on this early stage of their career. The material from the EP has since become available on various compilations.

"The Thrash of Naked Limbs" features 3 tracks and a full playing time of 18:00 minutes. The title track and the closing track "Gather Me Up Forever" are in the slow, heavy, and melancholic doom/death metal style of the debut album while the second track on the EP titled "Le Cerf Malade" is a dark melancholic, atmospheric, and ambient track. Both The title track and "Gather Me Up Forever" are relatively well written material that could well have fit unto the debut album while "Le Cerf Malade" is a bit repetitive and not especially exciting. At 6:31 minutes it also drags and it feels a lot like a filler track.

The sound production is very heavy and dark, suiting the music perfectly. So upon conclusion "The Thrash of Naked Limbs" both has good and not so interesting moments, but especially the title track is quite the great track. "Gather Me Up Forever" is a rather standard quality track though and as mentioned "Le Cerf Malade" isn´t much to write home about, so a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.

My Dying Bride as they were in the good old days........

This is the follow up to their excellent first EP and the subsequent album. The Thrash of Naked Limbs takes up the thread where the album left it. Dark, Wagnerian doom metal with death grunts and downtuned guitars and some violins. Enough to scare the wits out of most people. This is the doom metal version of the Zeuhl band Shub Niggurath's hell as described on their debut album. The Thrash of Naked Limbs is a heck of a superb epic.

The next song Le Cerf Malade is a sound collage without any value whatsoever. The closing song Gather Me Up Forever is another doom metal song and a very good one.

In short; this now long sold out EP is a good EP. It is a pity the middle track Le Cerf Malade is such a dud. But overall.............;

3 stars

The three songs EP give some early signals about the forthcoming long-player, which I consider the grandest achievement of this group I have yet heard. The stinging guitar melody themes unite yet more deeply with supporting instruments, and there is much emphasis on song arrangements. Yet however the compositions are not very interesting on this release, I felt "The Thrash of Naked Limbs" appearing as quite hollow heavy metal trashing at the studio without yet reaching contact to desired undivine forces. Atmospheric ambiences of "Le Cerf Malade" are then quite fancy to adore, dark freely floating motives creating wonderful dreamy scenery between more sinister songs. "Gather Me Up Forever" works as a composition better than the opening track, but these two songs do not in my opinion justify rejoicing of this release. There should be more convincing content than wonderful mood conjuring of the ethereal middle part, but certainly the elements are formulating for something grander.

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.

My Dying Bride's first release for Peaceville is this EP, rerecording some material from their early demo and independent releases. God Is Alone and De Sade Soliloquay are probably the most traditional death metal songs that My Dying Bride ever put out through Peaceville, and are competent but not enormously interesting. The real treat here is Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium, an early expression of the band's death-doom style, with its extended running time and mournful violin contributions making it clear that this right here was no simple rehash of early Paradise Lost but an intriguing new take on death-doom in its own right. On balance, I'd say that this EP constitutes a four star title track backed up by some three star B-sides.