Reviews list for My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding (2024)

This how to do funeral doom the right way.

The production is crystal clear, no murky low-end clouding everything, 

Vocals: Aaron Stainthorpe is going to give you everything he has, and he has everything. I'll say that again, the singer on this album has everything you could want and he's going to give it all to you. He's got dirt, he's got clean, he's got operatics, but he's not trying to make a showcase of it-it's a very humble and restrained vocal performance. He doesn't have to constantly hold long vibratos, or do goofy acrobatics, you just know he's something special. Vulnerable is the word. That's what he has that the other singers in this sub-genre are missing. This is supposed to be crushingly sad and mournful music, but many of it's singers are either hiding behind a barely intelligable growl, a self-indulgent operatic showcase, or doing such a goofy over-dramatic thing that it loses all seriousness. Stainthorpe is extremely sincere and allows himself to feel. His voice is incredibly powerful, and yet you feel that if you could touch him he would be made of a most fragile porcelain and shatter at your finger tips. That's a doom vocal.

The guitar tone is beautiful and melancholy, and there is an electric violin working with them that feels like an integral part of the band rather than some pretentious post-edit thrown on for "muh atmosphere". It's actual atmosphere. 

The Bass is present and has a pleasant somber tone that accompanies the music without muddying it like so many others in that attempt this kind of music.

When this kind of music is done like this, it's just about my greatest joy on this mortal plane.  It's what beautiful heavy music should be. It's a bottle of red wine and a bouquette of flowers in sonic form. Perfection.