My Dying Bride - Meisterwerk 1 (2000)^{Release ID: 946}

A hodgepodge of rare and classic tracks that's not likely to thrill either new or long term fans.

Meisterwerk is the German word for Masterwork, which is defined as “a piece done to prove possession of skill sufficient to be ranked a master”. This may seem a fairly arrogant title for any band to choose for its own work, but when you’ve had as many great albums as My Dying Bride has, it somehow seems reasonable enough. Peaceville certainly picked their time to release the Meisterwerk compilations. The band had just released The Light at the End of the Earth the previous year and in doing so regained the faith of their fans after the courageous yet divisive 34.788%...Complete release in 1998. With My Dying Bride well and truly back in the good books and gaining a few new fans along the way, the label no doubt saw an opportunity to release not one, but two compilations within the space of a few months. Meisterwerk 1 was released on November the 7th 2000 while Meisterwerk 2 would follow it on June the 13th 2001. The band apparently had some input into the tracks selected with each compilation being a combination of classics, demos, rare tracks and a music video.

Meisterwerk 1 is undoubtedly the lesser of the two releases, mainly due to its rare tracks being fairly uninteresting. In a nutshell, it contains half of the Towards the Sinister demo, a Portishell remix of a track off Like Gods of the Sun, a very old and under-produced single, and four classic My Dying Bride tracks. With such a hodgepodge of eras and sounds in no particular order, I can’t help thinking that Peaceville tried to please everyone and yet ended up pleasing no-one. Those new to the band will likely struggle to find much enjoyment in the rare and demo material while those already acquainted with the band’s studio albums will find the classic tracks entirely unnecessary. If you listen to Meisterwerk 1 from start to finish, it’s an inconsistent experience that jumps around dramatically in both song-writing and production quality. I personally think that compilations that cover such a large period of time and styles, are much more listenable if they run chronologically, giving the listener a chance to get used to the smaller jumps in quality and recording values along the way. Katatonia’s Brave Yester Days is a great example of such a compilation.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what’s included on this first volume. The demo tracks were recorded in 1990 and as important as the cassette was at the time of release, are low in production values as you might expect. Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium is a track that most My Dying Bride fans would know, but this early version suffers due to the rawness and the lack of violin which would be included on the EP of the same name the next year. Of more interest to long term fans would be The Grief of Age as it’s one of two tracks on the demo that would not be later re-recorded, but it’s undoubtedly an example of My Dying Bride at their most primitive. A purely death metal effort with terrible solos and out of time drumming, it’s not exactly a track to get particularly excited about. Then there’s the Unreleased Bitterness single which was apparently recorded in 1991 yet wasn’t released until 1993 as a 7 inch vinyl single. It’s actually a rehearsal of The Bitterness and the Bereavement track that would eventually appear on As the Flower Withers in far superior form, so once again offers very little for all but the most extreme fans.

The only other rare track is the Portishell remix of Grace Unhearing. The original track was in my opinion one of the lesser tracks on Like Gods of the Sun and playing around with the drums and cutting the guitars in and out doesn’t really make it work any better. The remix was originally included as a bonus track on the 2003 re-release of the album and was named as such due to Aaron’s obsession with British trip hop entity Portishead at the time. The four classic tracks on Meisterwerk 1 are all great, with The Crown of Sympathy and Sear Me III being the highlights. I do have to question the inclusion of two tracks from Like Gods of the Sun (A Kiss to Remember and For You) when there are no tracks from As the Flower Withers or 34.788%...Complete to be found on either compilation. Finally there’s the bonus video track of The Cry of Mankind, but I have to question how many people bother to watch videos stuck on the end of CDs these days when they’re all so readily available on YouTube and the like. In the end, Meisterwerk 1 is hard to recommend to anyone at all which isn’t something I’d expect for any compilation of such a great band.