My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours review

Reviewer:
8.0

601 users:
8.74

Band:	My Dying Bride
Album:	The Dreadful Hours
Style:	Death doom metal, Gothic doom metal
Release date:	November 13, 2001
A review by:	Sephiroth

01. The Dreadful Hours
02. The Raven And The Rose
03. Le Figlie Della Tempesta
04. Black Heart Romance
05. A Cruel Taste Of Winter
06. My Hope, The Destroyer
07. The Deepest Of All Hearts
08. The Return To The Beautiful

Well, they're definitely back. Forget the times of "34,788:Complete" and it's electronic influences, their trademark mood- obscure, heavy, but melodic- is back.

A step forward from "The light at the end of the world" but maybe also a step backwards (in positive), regaining their old sound which is closer to their previous masterpiece: "The Angel and the Dark River". I said previous masterpiece, yes because this album, six years later, is their NEW masterpiece.

70 minutes for 8 songs (a lot for a normal band, but not for our english team) that hurt you with a stream of wide-range emotions from the melancholy of "Le figlie della Tempesta" to the anger of the "Return of the Beautiful", 70 minutes that MUST be listened to entirely and without interruption so as to better grasp the mood and throw yourself into the dark world built by their complex musical lines.

Complex, indeed, it is not an album which you can listen to easily, you'll have to repeat the experience more and more times to find the line that runs through it.

The voice of Aaron Stainthorpe ranges from a melancholic and profound tone to a typical Black-metal screaming and, even further, to a pure Death-metal growling- harsh and evil- underlining the heaviest passages of the music. This also goes from acoustic parts with an excellent bass working of Adrian Craighan to rotten and heavy Death-metal riffing to piano introductions. Only one thing disappointed me: the violin appears not as often as it did in their previous albums. So, a technical album, a complex album, an intelligent album.

If it is your first one of this English band don't be taken aback by the initial hard impact of their music, but go beyond, close your eyes and let yourself be swept by the feeling that only good music can give you.

Written by Sephiroth | 22.09.2003

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Talvi Posts: 825	Permalink 08.11.2006 - 23:24 Talvi Posts: 825 This was my first contact with the band, so I really love this album. ---- My account on other musical pages: http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/ http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi Loading...
Syrack Account deleted	Permalink 11.11.2006 - 19:54 Syrack Account deleted Well it si good as almost everything from My Dying Bride. But this album is somekind different, actually in times it reminds me a lot of Katatonia's dance of desember souls. Loading...
Danzig666 Posts: 183	Permalink 22.12.2006 - 03:39 Danzig666 Posts: 183 Quite possibly my favorite mdb album...but I like them all so its hard to say. ---- Open your Mouth to my Bloody Reign! Loading...
Magatouve Account deleted	Permalink 07.12.2007 - 21:31 Magatouve Account deleted A great album.... and a good review except for the rating which is not consistent with the review itself. I wonder why u some reviewers give a very positive review to the degree that u'll expect to c a 9 or 10 below only to discover that they rated the album as 8 or even less!!! Loading...
Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071	Permalink 08.12.2007 - 21:41 Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 Written by [user id=291] on 07.12.2007 at 21:31 A great album.... and a good review except for the rating which is not consistent with the review itself. I wonder why u some reviewers give a very positive review to the degree that u'll expect to c a 9 or 10 below only to discover that they rated the album as 8 or even less!!! An 8 is a very very good mark, so I don't see a problem with that here. ---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 Loading...
duyhung Account deleted	Permalink 09.12.2007 - 00:05 duyhung Account deleted One of the best albums of all times.., my 3rd favourite album by MDB, after Turn Loose The Swans and The Light At The End Of The World Loading...
Magatouve Account deleted	Permalink 10.12.2007 - 20:56 Magatouve Account deleted Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 08.12.2007 at 21:41 Written by [user id=291] on 07.12.2007 at 21:31 A great album.... and a good review except for the rating which is not consistent with the review itself. I wonder why u some reviewers give a very positive review to the degree that u'll expect to c a 9 or 10 below only to discover that they rated the album as 8 or even less!!! An 8 is a very very good mark, so I don't see a problem with that here. Well it might be... but it's just a feeling. Cos I wonder how a 10 or 9 album review would look like! Loading...
Lucas Mr. Noise Elite Posts: 13427	Permalink 10.12.2007 - 21:04 Lucas Mr. Noise Elite Posts: 13427 Check out the reviews for Green Carnation's Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness. Good reviews, with very high grades. ---- SLUDGE. DOOM. DEATH. Wait, what? "The reason I'm running for president is because I can't be Bruce Springsteen." - Barack Obama Loading...
THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted	Permalink 12.04.2008 - 14:27 THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted well i think 8 point fot this album is very unjusly now at least u had to rate it 9.5 Loading...
BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287	Permalink 02.05.2008 - 02:05 BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 8 = very good. why the hell do people have problems with this? not every album is earth shattering in it's brilliance, nor in it's suckitude. not every album deserves a 9-10, nor a 1-2. The AVERAGE metal album should score a 5-7 with only the really, truly good - or the truly bad or putrid - getting marks outside that range. It's the jackasses who think everything is perfect/life changingly brilliant or absolute garbage that have rendered what should be a good scoring system far less effective than it ought to be. ---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes! Loading...
Sulvrot Posts: 22	Permalink 05.07.2008 - 08:35 Rating: 9 Sulvrot Posts: 22 I think the problem people are having with the review stems from the fact that it takes away 2 points and doesn't really say why. An 8 is a relatively good grade; however, if you are going to give an 8, it means that you did have a problem with the album, and just saying that the violin wasn't as prevalent as you might like isn't good justification for taking two points. If every minor issue was punished with a 2-point deduction, most albums would have scores in the gutter, as none are truly perfect. An 8 is fine, but it helps to fully explain why it isn't a 9 or 10. Loading...
the napalm rain Posts: 26	Permalink 18.12.2008 - 22:50 the napalm rain Posts: 26 In every My Dying Bride album there are always 1-2 songs that I really like. Intro of the first song "The Dreadful Hours" is really good and I always listen to that song if the weather is rainy, Black Heart Romance is also awsome, but that's all Loading...
Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955	Permalink 05.06.2009 - 00:24 Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955 Quote: Complex, indeed, it is not an album which you can listen to easily, you'll have to repeat the experience more and more times to find the line that runs through it. That's very true. I'm only starting to enjoy this album now, after some 10 times. The only song I liked from the beggining was the album title ''The Dreadful Hours''. 9min well spent ---- ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/ Loading...
SatyriconChick Posts: 248	Permalink 12.11.2009 - 20:14 SatyriconChick Posts: 248 I'm so in love with the title track on this album! Loading...
THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted	Permalink 23.12.2009 - 00:36 THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted Written by BitterCOld on 02.05.2008 at 02:05 8 = very good. why the hell do people have problems with this? not every album is earth shattering in it's brilliance, nor in it's suckitude. not every album deserves a 9-10, nor a 1-2. The AVERAGE metal album should score a 5-7 with only the really, truly good - or the truly bad or putrid - getting marks outside that range. It's the jackasses who think everything is perfect/life changingly brilliant or absolute garbage that have rendered what should be a good scoring system far less effective than it ought to be. take it easy! maybe cause ppl write comment on their favorite albums. for me if MDB has just 2 best album this is one of them after TLTS. and again someone like me loves to be merciful, its not a sin. you remind me bad teachers in the Univercities or high schools who dont like to give a 100 or A point. why not? Loading...
THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted	Permalink 23.12.2009 - 00:52 THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 08.12.2007 at 21:41 Written by [user id=291] on 07.12.2007 at 21:31 A great album.... and a good review except for the rating which is not consistent with the review itself. I wonder why u some reviewers give a very positive review to the degree that u'll expect to c a 9 or 10 below only to discover that they rated the album as 8 or even less!!! An 8 is a very very good mark, so I don't see a problem with that here. a lot of 8's in reviews show that Reviewers arent brave enough. cause 7 an bellow it makes fans sad and 9 or 10 makes album's enemies angry. there are a lot of reviewers who has rated 10 for an album but came here and write a review and give a 8 to it. the worst reviews are which talks so bad about an album and leave the vote empty. http://www.metalstorm.ee/pub/review.php?review_id=6610 but sometimes we have some brilliant reviewers like Jeff who knows how talk about an album for sure even if he dont like it: http://www.metalstorm.ee/pub/review.php?review_id=7361 but Jeff is brave enough: http://www.metalstorm.ee/pub/review.php?review_id=5430 so the problem is not just 9 or 10 votes, we have less 1 and 2 or 3 votes in MS. Loading...
BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287	Permalink 23.12.2009 - 01:21 BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287 Written by [user id=31891] on 23.12.2009 at 00:36 Written by BitterCOld on 02.05.2008 at 02:05 8 = very good. why the hell do people have problems with this? not every album is earth shattering in it's brilliance, nor in it's suckitude. not every album deserves a 9-10, nor a 1-2. The AVERAGE metal album should score a 5-7 with only the really, truly good - or the truly bad or putrid - getting marks outside that range. It's the jackasses who think everything is perfect/life changingly brilliant or absolute garbage that have rendered what should be a good scoring system far less effective than it ought to be. take it easy! maybe cause ppl write comment on their favorite albums. for me if MDB has just 2 best album this is one of them after TLTS. and again someone like me loves to be merciful, its not a sin. you remind me bad teachers in the Univercities or high schools who dont like to give a 100 or A point. why not? First, why are you dredging up an 18 month old post? Second, "being merciful" is a far cry from artificially inflating the entire grading scale because you are absolutely incapable of differentiating a good album from a great album from a truly amazing one. "being merciful" is saying "Metallica has been mediocre ever since ... And Justice" people like you "being merciful" wreck the curve by scoring everything so high... newcomers interested in checking bands out piss away hard-earned money on truly mediocre crap because people like you think anything with distorted guitars is flawless. there is nothing wrong with a 7 or an 8. it's not being a "bad teacher" ... hell, most bands are stoked to even get an 8 from mags like Terrorizer or Decibel. Or, gasp, even official reviews from us. if a band wants a "10" (your "A point") from me, they have to floor me. if a band wants a "10" from you, i guess they just have to show up. ---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes! Loading...
THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted	Permalink 23.12.2009 - 01:31 THE_BLACK_GOD Account deleted Written by BitterCOld on 23.12.2009 at 01:21 there is nothing wrong with a 7 or an 8. it's not being a "bad teacher" ... hell, most bands are stoked to even get an 8 from mags like Terrorizer or Decibel. Or, gasp, even official reviews from us. you are absolutely true man, but your problem is that you are talking about just yourself, no one have problem with your toughts. this is you who are trying to say that we have to like 8. (you mean we dont have 8 rates in our album votes? or just you looked at my metallica votes? even in there I have some other rates) and Im not sure that ppl care about official or unofficial reviews. they read and they judge. Loading...
Bonna Posts: 15	Permalink 28.06.2012 - 16:39 Rating: 9 Bonna Posts: 15 I'm digging up some of my old albums... they just reminded me how bloody awesome this album was, is, and for always will be! Nice review, but in the end I would rate it a 9 as well. I'm hesitant to rate this a perfect 10 because it's not an album that fits any time a day. Except for "My Hope, the Destroyer" that track must be played all the time, everywhere. Or maybe not during your practical driving test :p. Keywords: dark, depressing, romantic, doomy, doomest, and bloody in your face orgy of doomed demon doomstikels. Loading...
Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62017	Permalink 02.06.2016 - 21:00 Rating: 6 Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62017 Not a DerRoz review, we can see quality drops, no methafores and world games as he did ... about his voice, best where you can hear it is in song Nr 6 .... no more my lover, she never existed ---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die" I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing Loading...