Review by Rexorcist for My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans (1993)

Each time I complete one of my top 100 "insert genre here" charts on this site, I go over to the next metal genre.  The death metal binge of mine involved some acts that occasionally steered into "death doom metal," like Obituary did on Cause of Death.  So I decided after comparing a couple doom albums before my death binge, like Idolum by Ufomammut and The Dreadful Hours by My Dying Bride, I decided it was finally time to revisit those classic gothic and doom masters and re-evaluate the other albums of theirs I've heard.  Everyone seems to love Turn Loose the Swans, so I went for it.

This metal album is made of several epics, and the opener is a much more simple one, Sear Me MCMXCIII, which is a simple piano / darkwave track that builds itself on monotony and simplicity, forsaking darkwave ambiance for pure instrumental hypnotism and enough slight changes along the way to keep the song inventive.  But as simple as this beautiful opener was, it couldn't prepare you for the ever-shifting follower, Your River, which goes over a plethora of different riffs and even genres a little at a time before going into the song.  Although this should scream "inconsistency," the effect is metallic and mesmerizing.  Songs have a tendency to shift their focuses from the previous track, and this includes structure and layout.  Despite the gothic metal bits we get, there are even times for pure death metal like during segments of The Snow in My Hand.  Speaking of The Snow in My Hand, sometimes the changes are very abrupt, so be prepared for that.  The album rarely looses inconsistency for it as their ambitions and their romanticism are both working together perfectly.

Any faults?  One.  While the production gets everything across clearly, I feel like the overall atmosphere of the album pales slightly in comparison to my favorite doom album: The Dreadful Hours.  Otherwise, this is a very ambitious album where the band is getting a much stronger grasp on what they wanted as a unique metal band.  Their love for the romantic and their desire to be great musicians really showed a healthier take on metal than what a lot of metal bands have been doing for years and relying on the art of a single genre for credibility.  A little less gothic but a bit more progressive than the later Dreadful Hours, I'd say if you're going to get into doom metal, Turn Loose the Swans is obligatory.