FROM THE CRYPTS - CELEBRATING PAST ALBUM RELEASES in the HISTORY of HARD ROCK & HEAVY METAL…
On November 13, 2001, Death/Doom legends My Dying Bride released their seventh full-length studio album The Dreadful Hours via Peaceville Records.
Background:
After the release of their previous studio album (The Light at the End of the World), My Dying Bride entered a brief hiatus, releasing two retrospective compilations Meisterwerk 1 and Meisterwerk 2. At the end of the hiatus, Calvin Robertshaw left the band to become their tour manager and was replaced by Hamish Glencross. Then followed 2001’s The Dreadful Hours, which featured seven new tracks, plus a remake of The Return of the Beautiful (renamed The Return to the Beautiful) from the band's debut album, As the Flower Withers. The album was again engineered by Mags and co-produced by guitarist Andrew Craighan.
“I rate this LP as one of my all-time favourites from our canon, and it’s easy to see why; it’s epic and momentous, startling and passionate, visceral and tender. All ingredients that exist in one space to fulfil the taste requirements of both band and fanbase. Another front cover from myself depicting darkness overwhelming light, where darkness came as hope, and – once trusted – turned and viscously attacked everything before it. The album went down well with fans and the touring was spectacular with amazing turnouts throughout the entire campaign.” — Aaron Stainthorpe
The Dreadful Hours was issued in a digipak with a full colour booklet.
Critical Reception:
In his review for AllMusic, William York wrote;
“While they faltered a little bit toward the late '90s, Doom/Death Metal pioneers My Dying Bride seemed to get a new lease on life (or should that be death?) with 1999's excellent The Light at the End of the World, and The Dreadful Hours builds on that momentum. Like The Light, this is very much a guitar-based album; there are no violins like on their earliest albums, nor are there any electronic forays such as those on 34.7888% Complete. Also, the keyboards are used sparingly (and tastefully -- these guys could teach some other Goth Metal bands a lesson). The first three tracks showcase the band's diversity and songwriting strength at their best, moving from the quiet, thunderstorm-accompanied guitar introduction of the title track to the galloping death metal riffing later in that same song, then proceeding to the especially bitter and venomous vocals on The Raven and the Rose and the mournful guitar breaks on Le Figlie Della Tempesta. The rest of the album isn't quite on the same level as these opening tracks, but throughout the band still shows a real knack for alternating clean and distorted guitar passages and also for using a variety of tempos (although they seldom get especially fast) as well as vocal styles (e.g., growled, sung, spoken, and occasionally screamed). This diversity, as well as the logical flow of ideas from one section to the next, enables the band to write songs that average eight or nine minutes without getting bogged down or boring. True to My Dying Bride's trademark, The Dreadful Hours makes for a dreary, somber listening experience, but keeping that in mind, it's also an really well-done and inspired album, especially given how far the band was into their career at this point.”
Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells
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