My Dying Bride - Anti-Diluvian Chronicles (2005)^{Release ID: 948}

A monumental collection of My Dying Bride classics that doesn't add enough to tempt long term fans.

My Dying Bride had already released dual compilations back in 2000/2001 with the Meisterwerk collections, but since those discs contained half unreleased and rare material along with selected classic tracks, they had not yet put out a true Best Of compilation. Considering the band had no less than eight full length albums, a live album and numerous EPs available when the band sat down to compile one in 2005, there was never going to be a shortage of quality material for them to choose from. Add to this the generally lengthy nature of doom metal and it’s not surprising that three whole discs were required to achieve their goal with a total running time of over 220 minutes. Anti-Diluvian Chronicles is the end result of this effort, which is a puzzling title to say the least. The antediluvian period is a biblical reference to the time between the creation of earth and the great flood (ante being pre and diluvian being deluge). Given the clearly intentional play on words here, one can only assume that anti-diluvian would mean anti-deluge, which could possibly be a witty way of suggesting that the great flood never occurred. Then again, considering antediluvian is sometimes used figuratively to refer to anything that is of great age, it would make sense to use this word when discussing the older works of the band. But then the anti rather than ante would suggest a negative connotation, so I think I might just have to give up on this particular puzzle.

There are numerous questions that come to mind when reviewing best of compilations. Firstly, the obvious question is has the compiler really chosen the best tracks by the band? I also think it’s valid to question whether the compilation covers every era of the band, giving a good overview of their entire discography. Lastly, does the compilation offer anything to tempt existing fans of the band that contain the majority, if not all, of their albums? But before I answer any of those questions, I can’t help but bring up how important it is that best of compilations are actually enjoyable to listen to. It might sound stupid to suggest that a collection of great tracks by an awesome band might not be entertaining to listen to, but this is where the way the material is presented really comes into play. For example, a collection of twenty or thirty tracks that jump all over the place in production values and styles can be jarring and awfully difficult to get through in one sitting. Thankfully, My Dying Bride chose, at least for the majority of tracks, to compile Anti-Diluvian Chronicles in reverse chronological order, which at least bunches the distinct periods of their career together. I can accept their decision to split the three remixes one per disc as otherwise the entire first disc would be made up of material off their last two albums, but I do wish they’d been brave enough to assemble the compilation in chronological order rather than reverse, as that would be the best way to understand the evolution of the band.

If I’d been given the opportunity to put a My Dying Bride best of compilation together, I wouldn’t choose a drastically different track listing to the one the band chose. They easily covered my second question above by including at least two, and in most cases three, tracks off each full length album. I think for the majority of the eight albums, they chose the obvious and best tracks too, which shows the band either responded to fan preferences or have similar tastes to their listeners. Of course they were never going to be able to please everyone in every instance, as we all have differing tastes. Sear Me and The Bitterness & the Bereavement are great tracks off As the Flower Withers and while I might have chosen The Return of the Beautiful, it’s recent re-recording for The Dreadful Hours would make it a little bit excessive here. They pretty much could have chosen any tracks off the band’s masterpiece Turn Loose the Swans and their choice of the title track and closer Black God are perfectly acceptable, even if the exclusion of the classic Your River is surprising. No-one’s going to argue about The Cry of Mankind and From Darkest Skies off The Angel and the Dark River, but they might take issue with the selections off Like Gods of the Sun. The inclusion of the exquisite For My Fallen Angel is a given, but the title track and Here in the Throat in my opinion do not compare to the fan favourite A Kiss to Remember which is sadly absent from the compilation.

It would have been easy for the band to skip the 34.7888%...Complete period as they copped so much criticism for it, but I’m really glad they included The Whore, the Cook and the Mother, Der Überlebende and Under Your Wings and Into Your Arms, as those three songs not only make that misunderstood album worth having, but actually really enjoyable despite its flaws. The Light at the End of the World is really well represented with the huge title track and beautiful closer Sear Me III, as well as live versions of She is the Dark and The Fever Sea, so no complaints there. Now we move into the new millennium, which is predictably where the band places a lot of focus, given that this is the material they are really trying to promote. There are three original tracks from both The Dreadful Hours and Songs of Darkness, Words of Light releases, and in both cases I think they got two out of three choices right. The title track and My Hope, the Destroyer are arguably the best tracks on The Dreadful Hours, but The Deepest of All Hearts is probably the track I like the least. Similarly, Catherine Blake and A Doomed Lover are fantastic My Dying Bride moments, but Blue Lotus is not really deserving of the company here. On top of all this, they correctly included the classic Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium, The Thrash of Naked Limbs and the breathtaking The Sexuality of Bereavement, none of which can be found on any full length album (if you exclude The Sexuality of Bereavement being a bonus track on The Angel and the Dark River).

Given all of the above, it’s pretty damn hard to criticise the effort put into Anti-Diluvian Chronicles when it comes to best of choices. A little tweak here or there is all I would make to create the ultimate collection for “me”, and considering the band clearly and rightfully care nothing for my personal happiness, they can hardly be blamed for that. All that’s left to answer is whether or not Anti-Diluvian Chronicles offers anything extra for those of us that already have everything they’ve released. The short answer to this is that if you already own everything by My Dying Bride, then you’re one of those freaky collector guys that will buy this regardless of whether it has anything extra (yes, I’m one of these people). The band did however make an admittedly small effort to make it worth our while. The package is impressively hefty even if it is annoying that each disc comes in a separate slipcase (within one of those oversized clamshells Peaceville seem so fond of) rather than a big drool-worthy digipak that would have been awesome. There is however a forty page booklet with an entertaining, not to mention lengthy, exclusive interview with Aaron by Dom Lawson of Kerrang! The artwork was all created by the talented and aesthetically pleasing Lady Morgana, but I have to say that as exciting as that proposition was on paper, it turned out to be a little disappointing. The cover in particular, which does manage to cunningly include the band in a painting on the wall, is not as striking as the majority of her work.

There’s a poster of the band included too, but as a thirty something year old guy, I’m fairly unlikely to pin a bunch of gothic looking men on my bedroom wall any time soon, even if I take the reasonably nice looking but not my type Sarah Stanton into consideration. There is however the remixed versions of My Wine in Silence, The Raven and the Rose and The Wreckage of My Flesh. Aaron was really responsible for the My Wine in Silence remix as he never liked the harsh vocals that the rest of the band pressured him to perform half way through the track. This version also has a completely new drum track which doesn’t add much other than a bit of reverb, and removes the bass entirely making the whole thing sound fairly empty compared to the original. The Raven and the Rose remix has only minor differences for the first half before injecting blast beats and wildly aggressive leads halfway through. Basically they took a wonderful eight minute track, cut it in half, and played silly buggers over the top. For The Wreckage of My Flesh, they simply removed the drums and most of the guitars from the song while leaving the keyboards and vocals intact. It’s different for sure and still atmospheric, but also far inferior to the complete original! So unfortunately, the remixes can’t convince me to call Anti-Diluvian Chronicles essential for long term fans of My Dying Bride either, unless you’re one of the aforementioned collection freaks. For new fans of the band or the uninitiated however, this is about as good as a best of could possibly be and highly recommended.