My Dying Bride

Less frozen and bleak than The Dreadful Hours, My Dying Bride's Songs of Darkness, Words of Light bleeds the warmth of a dying heart. Deep and rich, whether rolling with thunder or offering a delicate caress, the album oozes a seductive sense of blissful pain. A tidal push and pull propels a slow movement through characteristically long songs, only briefly breaking pace for faster moments of brutality, artfully balancing the doom and death with each approach stronger for the contrast. It's unusual for a band to morph from heavy to mellower and back to heavy so successfully, which makes My Dying Bride a rare treasure. That said, this record is a subtle beast, well crafted, well performed, and a delightful indulgence, but possibly lacking the endurance of older classics for those odd moments when atmosphere takes precedence over actuality. Even so, it's an album that's unlikely to leave listeners unmoved.