Additional info Recorded & mixed at Futureworks, Manchester, England in August-September 2011.
Engineered & mixed by Mags.
Produced by Mags & My Dying Bride.
Artwork by Aaron Stainthorpe.
CD. Catalogue # CDVILES254.
The release is the first to feature violin/keyboardist Shaun Macgowan, and sees the return of Shaun "Winter" Taylor Steels to the drum-stool for this recording.
Also released on 12" red vinyl, limited to 1000 copies. Catalogue # VILELP359.
Side A: The Barghest o' Whitby (Part 1) (15:38)
Side B: The Barghest o' Whitby (Part 2) (11:28)
Well, overall it sounds fine.
Lyrically it's fairly inspired, musically it's the bleakest and doomiest thing they've done since the wonderful "SODWOL" ("A Line" and "For Lies" were more gothic). Some sections tend to drag on a bit too much and melodies blur into each other for about 10 minutes... If it wasn't for that fucking evil swirl of death/doom during the last minutes it would be really average. At least it doesn't last for 2 hours like "Evinta".
A noteworthy revival of the Bride's old times, though nothing really special.
That happened with "Like Gods Of The Sun" (except for "For My Fallen Angel") and "For Lies I Sire" too. "Turn Loose..." and "The Angel..." would've been nothing without violin, but then suddenly the band started to forget how to use it properly and it became an annoying feature of their songs, and that's one of the main reasons I hate "LGOTS" and "FLIS". Thankfully all the other albums had only keyboards.
I love the mood and tone in the melodies and Aaron's rough vocal return. Been waiting for something more sinister sounding from MDB. I'm glad this EP is lacking the ultra bright guitar/ vocal melodies that ALoDK and FLIS featured. I'd like to hear an entire album with this same malevolent, dismal feeling.
I really hope I get past the way the drums are mixed. It sounds like my speakers are popped; mainly with the kicks and toms. I can tell they're going for a somewhat decrepit atmosphere, but there are other ways to accomplish that without making it sound like the drum mics were broken while recording. The guitars/ violin/ vocals/ bass are well mixed and sound great, why single out the drums? It would have been kickass if the drums only sounded ruffled at the beginning and not the entire song. Violin could have been performed/ written better, but it isn't much of a nuisance to me, and I still enjoy it. Some piano breaks would have been nice too. Still waiting to rate this. I'll be listening to this all day.
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? Carrion Misery www.mournspire.com | Two-Man Death Doom Project
Full album streaming
This is surprisingly good. At times very dark and rough, at times reminiscent of Turn Loose the Swans. But don't take my word for it, listen yourselves:
This could be a great EP, if not for the first half that sounds uninspired and definitely not up to high MDB standards - unmemorable riffs and vocal lines, violin sounding out of place... But then, at the end of the first half (somewhere along the lines "Laid out against the sky...") things start to get good and even violin doesn't sound that bad anymore.
As for the second half... It's just great. Starts out with some trademark MDB doom riffs complimented by Aaron's singing and wailing, which provide the haunting feeling, and then... The album reaches its climax with some aggressive and ominous riffs and Aaron's cursing rasps and grunts. How I wish that all 27 minutes were filled with music of this high quality...
But, all in all, I enjoyed this album and will be sure to give it some more listens.
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"And we are not who we think we are
We are who we're afraid to be"
- Lux Occulta "The Opening of Eleventh Sephirah"
This is surprisingly good. At times very dark and rough, at times reminiscent of Turn Loose the Swans.
I have to agree with you, I was hella surprised after listening to it. It's like all of a sudden they thought "hey guys, let's make something inspired for once... remember the good stuff we did back in the 90's?...yeah, me too"
Damn, if these guys make a new album with the same quality of this EP, it would be one of the better "returns" in last couple of years for me.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49 Rod, let me love you.
Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they were inspired to set a theme around Whitby. After all it's a very dark and mysterious little town, that is well known in gothic culture, their music fits the whole ambience of the place perfectly, and above all it's in their very own neck of the woods!
This is another fine EP, very doomy as usual with a very gothic approach to the songwriting, it's like they've taken snippets of their finest work from their early material and created a very nice EP out of it. I'm getting some slight Moonspell vibes at times aswel which is pretty cool.