My Dying Bride

If it weren't clear with every plaintive lamentation and every ominous rumble that this is, unmistakably, My Dying Bride, For Lies I Sire would be a very good album. But coming after so many intensely powerful records, it just doesn't hold up. It might be partly a matter of production — there's thinness to For Lies I Sire that sounds more unfinished or low budget than raw or authentic. If it was an old school doom vibe they were after they lost track of some crucial atmosphere on the way. Not that the songs don't have their dirty, gritty moments, set in delightful contrast against morose hints of beauty lost. But none of these fleeting pleasures is as compelling or affecting as My Dying Bride are so clearly capable of. Here, the band actually get most interesting when they're least typical: "Bring Me Victory" entertains with evil gothiness and "A Chapter in Loathing" opens with unsettling but unexpected speed and early-Bride violence. These are twists worth noting, but if there's brilliance imbedded in For Lies I Sire it's the kind that takes a long time to uncover.