MY DYING BRIDE: Macabre Cabaret (DOOM): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Just a few months after having enchanted the Doom fans with "The Ghost Of Orion", My Dying Bride is surprisingly already back with "Macabre Cabaret"! Admittedly, it is only an EP but, apart from the fact that its duration passes the twenty minutes for three tracks, the object could not be neglected.

Coming so soon after its predecessor, it would be tempting to see in it, at best, the simple complement of "The Ghost Of Orion" or, at worst, the aggregate of compositions judged too weak and gathered for a purely mercantile purpose. In reality, "Macabre Cabaret" is neither one nor the other because it has a very different face from its predecessor and its menu should not be confused with obscure studio scraps. In any case, knowing how demanding they are, we could hardly imagine the British compromising themselves in a discount product!

The big piece of this EP resides in the ten-minute long track that gives it its name, a slow procession that surprises both by its almost romantic approach and by the importance that Aaron Stainthorpe's clear vocals occupies, even if he does not deprive himself of parsimonious descents from beyond the grave. The liturgical keyboards, spreading a misty shroud, dominate throughout, while Lena Abé's bass resounds as never before, muzzling the guitars somewhat. For all these reasons, 'Macabre Cabaret' only timidly displays the signature of My Dying Bride, which does not make it less superb.

'A Secret Kiss' is more compact but just as apathetic and sinks deeper into the basement of a miserable, sentimental Doom for a result more in line with what we expect from the English with its Victorian atmosphere and its six-string lines sculpted in a cold rock beaten by the wind and the rain. Almost instrumental (Aaron's presence is limited to rare spoken interventions), 'A Purse Of Gold And Stars' is, for its part, irrigated by a piano with funeral notes of an absolute and overwhelming sadness that seems to have escaped from the soundtrack of a gothic horror movie, an impression reinforced by a powerful cinematic orchestration.

Far from being a hastily produced object, "Macabre Cabaret" will of course seduce the faithful who collect all the objects of My Dying Bride but also more generally all the amateurs of a Doom with Victorian gleams that these twenty minutes will certainly bewitch. The English confirm a good shape and an inspiration that doesn't seem ready to dry up. - Official website

MY DYING BRIDE

MACABRE CABARET

NUCLEAR BLAST

DOOM