Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 10/31/2006
In 2006,
My Dying Bride celebrated their 16th anniversary. Not every album the British
goth metal outfit recorded along the way was a five-star masterpiece, but even when they came out with an album that wasn't quite up to par, they would eventually bounce back with something impressive -- and
A Line of Deathless Kings finds
My Dying Bride very much on top of their game. This 2006 recording is state-of-the-art
goth metal -- brooding, gloomy, sorrowful, pessimistic, and darkly poetic. Very few, if any, rays of sunlight find their way to tracks like
"The Blood, the Wine, the Roses," "Deeper Down," "Thy Raven Wings," and
"Love's Intolerable Pain"; the
goth scene has a long history of focusing on darker emotions, and
A Line of Deathless Kings lives up to that time-honored tradition. True to form, lead singer
Aaron Stainthorpe conveys despair masterfully; he is the quintessential
goth vocalist. It should be stressed that
A Line of Deathless Kings, like other
My Dying Bride releases, is aggressive without being ferocious. These Brits have always been highly melodic, making it easy for
goth rock fans to get into their work even if they aren't necessarily big supporters of
goth metal. And for that matter, the
doom metal crowd should have no problem getting into this 60-minute CD;
My Dying Bride, with their passion for slow, plodding,
Black Sabbath-influenced riffs, have long had plenty of credibility among
doom metal enthusiasts. This is a band that clearly sees the parallels between
goth metal and
doom metal, and both
goth and
doom enthusiasts will find a great deal to savor on
A Line of Deathless Kings.
~Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
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