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intothewellsabyss
Jun 12, 20234 min read

SEVEN DAYS OF BEREAVEMENT: A MY DYING BRIDE RETROSPECTIVE, PART TEN.


My Dying Bride’s sixth full-length was titled, “The Light at the End of the World” and was released on October 12, 1999 via Peaceville Records.


After the more experimental “34.788%...Complete”, this album marks a return to the more traditional My Dying Bride Doom-Death sound and style of lyrics. It was also the first My Dying Bride release since 1994's “The Sexuality of Bereavement” to feature growling vocals, although Aaron Stainthorpe has noticeably changed his style and broadened his range. All guitar parts on the album were recorded by Andrew Craighan, following the earlier departure of Calvin Robertshaw. Following Robertshaw's departure, only Craighan and Stainthorpe remained as founding members of the band. Hamish Glencross was soon after recruited as permanent guitarist. The keyboard parts were played by Jonny Maudling of Bal-Sagoth. It is also the first MDB album to feature the drumming of Shaun Steels, who would remain with the band until 2006.


“The Light at the End of the World” features some of My Dying Bride’s strongest material written, such as album opener ‘’She Is The Dark’’ and the title track, the former being very aggressive, even for MDB. The melodies over the heavy rhythm guitar adds even more haunting and melancholic aesthetics. The album ends with the brilliant ‘’Sear Me III’’ which features more of Stainthorpe’s poetic lyrics, and is full of beauty and sorrow.


With “The Light at the End of the World”, I was doing just about everything when it came to the music, and I basically said to the others "I'm going this way: I want it bleak, I want it dark, I want misery." I just asked Aaron [Stainthorpe, vocalist] to go back to the old style, go and look for the mystery that My Dying Bride once had, because I missed it, to be honest. I think that if I wasn't in this band, I would like this band a lot, so I just tried to recreate the ideas that made us put this band together in the beginning -- to create the most doomy, gloomy, the most epic misery on record ever, this is what we attempted to do. Now, through the course of time, record labels always put pressure on you, any band will tell you this; and we came to the point where they could not possibly put any more pressure on us, because we had nothing to lose, the band was either going to work or it wasn't -- so I just did what I wanted to do, and that was to write miserable music as best I knew how.” — Aaron Strainthorpe (chroniclesofchaos.com 12/9/1999)


"She Is The Dark" and "The Fever Sea" have become live regulars since this release, each appearing on both “The Voice of the Wretched” and “Sinamorata”. "Sear Me III" is the third in a trilogy of songs to bear the title, preceded by the keyboard and violin-only "Sear Me MCMXCIII" in 1993 and "Sear Me" in 1991, which is more similar in style to the third incarnation, being a full band composition.


My Dying Bride entered a hiatus after this, releasing two retrospective albums “Meisterwerk 1” and “Meisterwerk 2”.


Critical Reception:

Writing for AllMusic, William York states; “Coming after the electronic/industrial experiments and shorter, more pop-like songs of 34.788%...Complete, The Light at the End of the World marks a return to the epic doom-death metal style of My Dying Bride's earlier days. Vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe's unmistakable morose crooning is still the focal point but, for the first time since 1994's “Turn Loose the Swans”, he has taken to alternating that voice with a death metal/black metal-type snarl, which can indeed sound pretty frightening. The violin and piano touches of the group's earlier days are absent, while the keyboards are only used sparingly (and tastefully), leaving most of the emphasis on the guitars. Thus, this album has a more stripped-down feel than much of the band's other work. The songs are generally slow and lengthy -- three of them cross the ten-minute mark -- but they flow smoothly as they move from one section or riff to the next, seldom hitting any lulls. Highlights include the soaring title track as well as the opener, "She Is the Dark," which does an especially good job of weaving together heavier death metal riffing with slower, more atmospheric sections. My Dying Bride has never been the easiest band to get into since its music is so relentlessly bitter and depressing but, in any case, this is a really strong album and one that should be considered a "comeback" among listeners who thought the band to be past its prime.”


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


Click this link to follow My Dying Bride on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyDyingBrideOfficial


Click this link to listen to ““The Light at the End of the World”” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-light-at-the-end-of-the-world/73594927



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