Band:	My Dying Bride
Album:	Like Gods Of The Sun
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	October 1996

01. Like Gods Of The Sun
02. The Dark Caress
03. Grace Unhearing
04. A Kiss To Remember
05. All Swept Away
06. For You
07. It Will Come
08. Here In The Throat
09. For My Fallen Angel

My Dying Bride, such a tragic/dramatic name for a band and the music could not be different, in the contrary, drama, mourning, poetry and death harmonize so beautifully together in the pieces of Art that My Dying Bride has offered to the world throughout the years.

One year after the magnificent "The Angel And The Dark River" My Dying Bride returned with another brilliant album, "Like Gods Of The Sun" and, truly, My Dying Bride on this album shine like gods of the sun. For the first time the band offers more and not so lengthy compositions, showing also how much they have matured as composers and players.

The overall atmosphere is intense, whether it is more serene or more imposing, and makes the listener kneel helpless to the ground, being forced by the bombastic approach of the album or willingly, caressed by a rose's petals, as he cherishes the beauty of the band's more fragile side. "Like Gods Of The Sun" owes a lot to Martin Powell whose role on this album was deeply important; just try to imagine the compositions without the violin, the piano and the keyboard melodies and you will get what I mean. Sadly, after this album, he left the band at the peak of their artistic creativity, having haunted forever the first period of the band and the doom/death metal scene.

The guitars balance between more fragile passages, keeping the doleful feeling alive, and more powerful heavy riffing that makes the atmosphere more intense and escalates the emotional charge of the songs. The rhythm section does an exceptional work, the drumming either accompanying or sounding bombastic lends the ideal groove to the songs and the pulsating bass lines, along with the drumming, create walls of sound, keeping the listener imprisoned in My Dying Bride's mourning world.

Aaron Stainthorpe interprets with his clean vocals, showing that he has matured this way of interpretation, singing in such a passionate and haunting way, more vivid at times, more heart-rending and emotional at others. The lyrics remain esoteric, personal and poetic, but this time Aaron shows a will to drown in more drama-oriented ways of expression. As I said above, Martin Powell shows the grandeur of his artistic concerns, with his violin pieces adorning like angels the canvas of heaven, his piano passages lending a romantic approach to the sound of the band and the keyboard melodies evoking either an utterly nightmarish atmosphere or an angelical fragile aesthetic on the air.

The album flows like a river of poetic sadness and affected intensity and I really can't choose some highlights, it flows beautifully from the imposing and darkly devout "Like Gods Of The Sun" to the atmosphere-evoking and intense/powerful "The Dark Caress", "Grace Unhearing", "Here In The Throat", "A Kiss To Remember" and "All Swept Away", the heart-rending and sincere in its very one way "For You", the mid-tempo oriented "It Will Come" and one of the most beautiful, lachrymose and fragile pieces of Art ever composed, "For My Fallen Angel".

A strictly must-have album for the 90s doom metal adorers, I have nothing more to say, "I hide myself in the dark?"

"I will be here for you, all I want is you, when I see your face all the angels are shamed?"