MY DYING BRIDE — Like Gods of the Sun (review)

MY DYING BRIDE — Like Gods of the Sun album cover

Album · 1996 · Doom Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-06-07
UMUR

"Like Gods of the Sun" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK doom/death metal act My Dying Bride. The album was released through Peaceville Records in October 1996. It´s the successor to "The Angel and the Dark River" from 1995 and features the same sextet lineup who recorded the predecessor. It would however be the last album to feauture drummer Rick Miah and keyboard player/violinist Martin Powell.

The material on "Like Gods of the Sun" continue the dark and gothic tinged doom metal sound of "The Angel and the Dark River (1995)", and as the case also was on the predecessor "Like Gods of the Sun" solely features clean vocals. At this point it seemed the growling vocals had been completely abandoned and a choice had been made to continue only singing clean vocals (in retrospect we now know that would change later in their career, but back then this was the reality). "Like Gods of the Sun" feels like the natural successor to "The Angel and the Dark River (1995)" and the two albums share an overall similar sound. Dark, gothic, and heavy doom metal with clean vocals, melancholic violin themes and atmosphere enchancing keyboards/piano.

While "The Angel and the Dark River (1995)" and "Like Gods of the Sun" share a similar sound, there are also great differences between the two. The former is often quite an adventurous album with experimental ideas and unconventional song structures, while the latter is in many ways a much more formulaic and predictable release. "Like Gods of the Sun" features well defined vers/chorus structures and it´s the time in My Dying Bride´s career they came closest to sounding mainstream. Mainstream in this context should of course be understood as underground mainstream, as it´s doubtful you´ll ever hear My Dying Bride on the radio.

My Dying Bride still incorporate sections and ideas you wouldn´t hear on a normal 3 minutes long vers/chorus structured track, so in that respect "Like Gods of the Sun" isn´t easy listening material. The tracks are relatively catchy upon initial listen, although it´s not an album featuring many standout tracks. The two tracks bookending the album (the title track and "For My Fallen Angel") stand out the most. The title track because it´s the most memorable and most well composed track on the album (an album where many tracks feature rather awkward abrupt changes between sections), and "For My Fallen Angel" because it´s a track featuring only keyboards/synths, violin, and a spoken word passage by lead vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe. Stainthorpe continues his dramatic almost crying gothic tinged clean vocal style of the predecessor, but he takes it even further on this album.

"Like Gods of the Sun" features a dark and heavy sounding production, which is professional and well sounding, but actually doesn´t suit My Dying Bride´s music that well. It´s too massive and details are lost, and don´t get me started on the clicky drum sound...

...so upon conclusion "Like Gods of the Sun" is an album with both good qualities and some that aren´t that great, and to my ears it´s probably the least interesting album in the band´s discography. They sound too comfortable and not willing to experiment and push boundaries like they did on all three preceding releases (and would do again on the next album). This is the sound of stagnation. It´s overall still a quality release though, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.