EVINTA

My Dying Bride have been one of my favourite bands since "as the flower withers". I love the riffs, the sadness, the lyrics, the atmosphere created and the vocals both clean and growled.

Quite differently from how metal music effects most people i find all forms of metal relaxing.

Riffs from some of their greatest songs are easily identifiable throughout the 3 CDs, but if you were expecting MDB in all their glory then you will be disappointed. The closest comparison would be with "for my fallen angel" from the excellent "like gods of the sun" set a track consisting of violin, keyboards and Aarons spoken vocals.

There are no guitars, just classical instruments, Johnny Maudlings keyboards and Aaron Stainthorpe and french opera singer Lucie Roche's vocals throughout. Aaron has written new lyrics for all tracks and they are in my opinion some of his most poignant and introspective.

The music throughout is just fantastic, its what i want when i listen to MDB, sad, sorrowful, but this time different. I found myself drifting with the music and then identifying yet another recognisable riff, blended in masterfully with the underlying theme. At the start of "the distance, busy with shadows" and again in "of sorry eyes in march" i was reminded of Phaedra era Tangerine Dream.

I had expected, prior to this release, that it would be similar to other rock/classical recordings...deep purple with orchestra etc and on first listening i suppose i was half anticipating the band to be playing along. But that is not the intention of this CD and i applaud MDB for "doing it properly". The playing throughout is superlative and is a great representation of MDBs large collection of work put to a classical score.

Opera singers, i know little of opera, seem to generally give bombastic and larger than life performances...that is the nature of opera i suppose, but i couldnt help feeling at times that a sultry female vocal performance, similar to that of Kate Bush on the Peter Gabriel track "dont give up" would have been more in keeping with the flow and nature of Evinta. This is my only criticism if you like, at times i found it to be a little overbearing.

I love this album, it sounds great on headphones and i thoroughly recommend it to MDB fans, to those who want something a little different and to those who appreciate good music.

Just approach it with an open mind and enjoy what it brings you. After all, thats what all music should be about...MDB is about a certain atmosphere, a certain feel....and this gives me that......just from a new perspective.

"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.