THE GHOST OF ORION

"The Ghost of Orion" is the 14th full-length studio album by UK doom metal act My Dying Bride. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in March 2020. It´s the successor to "Feel the Misery" from 2015 and it features a couple of lineup changes since the predecessor. Guitarist Calvin Robertshaw has jumped ship and has been replaced by Neil Blanchett. Blanchett does however not perform on "The Ghost of Orion". Instead all guitars were recorded by Andrew Craighan. Drummer Shaun Taylor-Steels also decided to leave My Dying Bride and he is replaced here by former Paradise Lost drummer Jeff Singer.

My Dying Bride have been laying pretty low since the release of "Feel the Misery (2015)" (at least for their usually busy standards), but there is a natural explanation for the band downtime, as lead vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe experienced the worst that can happen to a parent, as his young daughter was diagnosed with cancer, and he therefore pulled the plug to spend time with his family. Stainthorpe´s daughter was fortunately cured and he was able to concentrate on his music career again.

In the months leading up to the release of "The Ghost of Orion" in March 2020, My Dying Bride released a couple of teaser singles in "Your Broken Shore" and "Tired Of Tears" (released in January and February 2020 respectively). Both are great quality doom metal tracks in the classic My Dying Bride style featuring heavy doom metal riffs, atmospheric sections, guitar harmonies and counterpoint melodies, soaring melancholic violin melodies, and Stainthorpe´s dark and poetic vocals on top (both clean and growling vocals on "Your Broken Shore" and only clean vocals on "Tired Of Tears"). Along with "To Outlive The Gods" they are the trio of opening tracks on "The Ghost of Orion" and feature a relatively similar and consistent style, but the album changes direction with the fourth track "The Solace", which is an atmospheric track featuring female vocals performed by Lindy Fay Hella (Wardruna). It´s unfortunately a bit of a dull track and things don´t really pick up on "The Long Black Land", which is a relatively unremarkable doom metal track. The short atmospheric instrumental title track is decent enough, but nothing out of the ordinary either, so it´s a slight relief to listen to "The Old Earth", which is a much more interesting and varied doom metal track. The album ends with another short atmospheric instrumental in "Your Woven Shore", and again it´s decent enough, but nothing out of the ordinary.

So "The Ghost of Orion" is a bit of an uneven affair. Both stylistically and quality wise. Highlights to my ears are definitely the opening trio of tracks, and especially "Tired Of Tears" is bound to become a My Dying Bride classic. On that particular track the lyrics are probably the most personal and painful Stainthorpe has ever written and performed (...and this is a man who has made a career out of writing and performing some of the most melancholic vocals and lyrics on the scene), as they evolve around his daughter´s illness and his own despair and fears. The lyrics are truly moving/infinitely sad and anyone who is a parent should be able to relate to the feelings of helplessness and despair Stainthorpe conveys on this track. His realization of his own mortality facing the possible death of his daughter (a parent´s worst nightmare) and his plea to death not to lay a hand on his daughter (during the chorus) are probbaly some of the most powerful lyrics I have ever read (and proff that context is everything...). On the other end of the spectrum unremarkable tracks like "The Solace" and "The Long Black Land" pull in a less positive direction, and it´s only because of "The Old Earth" that the latter part of the album doesn´t sink into complete mediocrity.

"The Ghost of Orion" features one of the most professional, clear sounding, and accessible sound productions yet on a My Dying Bride album, but honestly I miss a bit of grit and rawness and could have done with less polish. Objectively though this is a high quality sound production. The musicianship is as always strong, and Stainthorpe takes his clean vocals to a new level on this album. They are often layered and he sings longer sustained notes here rather than his more usual subdued almost speaking type vocals. So evaluating "The Ghost of Orion" is actually a bit hard, as there are some high quality features and tracks on the album, but also some less remarkable ones, and I guess a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating isn´t all wrong.

(Review originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

To say this band have been through the wringer since their last album, 2015's 'Feel The Misery', is something of an understatement. Not long after the release, vocalist and founder member Aaron Stainthorpe's daughter, just five years old at the time, was diagnosed with cancer which of course caused Stainthorpe to place all band activities on hold while he and his family pulled together. Then in 2018, returning original member and guitarist Calvin Robertshaw texted his departure, effective immediately and when the band regrouped after Stainthorpe''s daughter was declared cancer-free, returning drummer Shaun Taylor-Steels also left right before the band were supposed to go into the studio. The album itself had been written totally by guitarist Andrew Craighan, who had been unable to reach out to anyone else with Stainthorpe obviously unavailable, there was no other guitarist, and bassist Lena Abé was on maternity leave.

With all these challenges, it is amazing there is an album here at all, but there is, and it is one of their very best. They may not have had a drummer, but ex-Paradise Lost drummer Jeff Singer already had his kit set up at the studio and he stepped in. If that was not enough, this was the first album since the band moved to Nuclear Blast from Peaceville and the first in aeons where they weren't working with Rob Magoolagan, but Mark Mynett has conjured something very special from the band indeed. They produce some wonderfully delicate and ethereal numbers such as "The Solace", which is a superb contrast to the rest of the album, but against that there are the doom-laden atmospheric heavy pieces one has come to expect from the band over their thirty year history. There are very few who produce doom of the grandeur and majesty of My Dying Bride, and over the years they have moved through different styles and timbres, and on this album they do it all. While old time fans of the band may wish there were more gruffness, and less pure melody, this is an album I have enjoyed immensely. It is incredibly broad and deep, so the more time the listener can give to it the more there is to discover. My Dying Bride may have been away for five years, during which time they have been through some sort of hell, but they are back with an album which re-establishes their control of the genre, as if there had ever been any doubt.

Emerging as My Dying Bride suffered a swathe of personnel issues and behind-the-scenes difficulties, The Ghost of Orion finds the veteran death-doom unit in fine form. (It's a genre which thrives on gloom and world-weariness, after all.) In some respects it's a bit of a back-to-basics album, because the musical backing is very much in their classic style, though Aaron Stainthorpe's vocals tend more towards a clean approach than in the band's earliest days.

Their Spinal Tap-esque turnover of drummers, with Jeff Singer (formerly of their Peaceville Three compatriots Paradise Lost) slipping into the drum stool and doing a decent job. Meanwhile, Andrew Craighan takes on all the guitar duties, rhythm guitarist Neil Blanchett having only joined to help out live at this stage, and does a credible job there.

It's not a genre landmark or classic of the field, but it's a much better album than one might have expected from the band given the challenges facing them at the time, and will be enjoyable to anyone who enjoyed their early style.