EVINTA

"Evinta" is the 11th full-length studio album by UK doom metal act My Dying Bride. The album was released through Peaceville Records in May 2011. The regular version of the album is a 2 disc release, but a deluxe 3 disc version is also available, featuring a third disc of recordings and a 64 page 12" hard-back book.

"Evinta" is a bit of an experiement for the band as the album is lacking any form of metal elements. Instead it´s ambient keyboard/piano driven music overlayed by viola and cello. There are sparse vocals on the album in form of opera type soprano vocals by Lucie Roche and at times spoken word type vocals by lead vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe (who is actually the only member of My Dying Bride who is actively participating on the album). The tracks are made up of themes and ideas from previous releases by the band, but that´s not necessarily obvious when you listen to the music. It´s actually only a couple of times where some of the most known themes from the band´s back catalogue appear, that I recognise where elements of the music come from. The tracks on "Evinta" are by no means ambient/chamber classical cover versions of whole My Dying Bride tracks. The atmosphere is dark and melancholic so in that respect all is as usual when talking about My Dying Bride.

The tracks are generally very long and atmospheric, but maybe also a bit too long. That goes for the whole album too. It´s very long and as there isn´t that much variation between tracks, "Evinta" quickly becomes an album where my attention wanders. It´s nice as background music but my patience is seriously challenged when sitting down listening to the full album. And I´m talking about the 2 disc version. I can only imagine how hard it would be to keep focus on the music all the way through the 3 disc deluxe version. There´s nothing on the album that´s particularly bad though. It´s just a style of music that requires a lot of patience and probably the right mood too.

...as an experiment I think "Evinta" is relatively successful. It´s always interesting when a band temporarily break out of their usual style to pursue something different. As an enjoyable listening experience I´ll be completely honest and say that "Evinta" isn´t an album I´ll put on very often. Still a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t wrong. I recommend that even the most hardcore fans of My Dying Bride should listen to samples before a purchase though.