My Dying Bride - The Ghost of Orion (2020)

Unleashing relentless misery, today we have legendary My Dying Bride and their latest opus: “The Ghost of Orion”. Filled with melancholy and pain, the album from beginning to end delivers the band’s signature Doom Metal as it combines elements from their later releases with the gloom of releases like “The Light at the End of the World” and “The Angel and the Dark River”. Five years in the making, this release is a quintessential MDB album that is musically and emotionally one of their best.

The release starts with the heavy hitting “Your Broken Shore”, a very powerful and mournful track that is both punishing and very melancholic. The contrast between Aaron’s signature clean vocals and the heavy riffs is something that keeps drawing us back to the band’s music as it perfectly conveys a multitude of emotions, as we can hear in the epic “To Outlive the Gods” and its enchanting violins, as well as on the emotional roller coaster of “Tired of Tears”.

Shaking things up, the eerily ethereal “The Solace” features Lindy Fay Hella’s (Wardruna) enchanting vocals. This is a very unique song as her voice takes a whole different depth when paired with the bleak guitar work. Our favorite track is the 10-minute beast, “The Long Black Land”, a very emotional song that has excellent tempo changes and a very dramatic atmospheric component. The album title track is a very solemn instrumental that also changes things up while more typical songs like “The Old Earth” deliver that interplay between the clean vocals and the growls, perfectly wrapped up with fierce guitar riffs and a thumping bass guitar line.

As a whole, “The Ghost of Orion” is one hell of a release that showcases the band’s ability to continue to develop their sound while being 100% true to their roots and fans. For nearly 60 minutes this album will rattle your senses and lead you into a very emotional and misery filled journey, that no other band than My Dying Bride can take you in.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: March 6th, 2020

Genre: Doom Metal

Country: UK