My Dying Bride were formed by Aaron, Andy, Calvin and Rick in the summer of 1990, and after only 6 months of writing together released the now legendary demo Towards The Sinister. Progress continued apace with the release of their first 7" single God Is Alone for the small French label Listenable. The single sold out almost immediately causing eager whispers in the underground, bringing them to the attention of Peaceville Records, who offered the band a deal.
 
The first release from this now infamous pairing was the EP Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium (featuring the bands newest recruit Ade on bass), shortly followed by the band's first full-length album As The Flower Withers, avant-garde doom metal was born.

The band followed the release with a series of shows in the UK and mainland Europe. The response was phenomenal, and spurring the band on it wasn't long before they were back in the studio recording their second EP The Thrash Of Naked Limbs.

Fans and critics hailed the band as pioneers of the new doom-gothic metal genre. Pushing these new boundaries even further, MDB recruited long time session musician and classically trained violin and piano player Martin Powell as a full time member. Writing then begun in earnest for their second album Turn Loose The Swans, released in 1993.

In '94 the band kept up the flow by releasing the I Am The Bloody Earth EP, and then settled down to write material for their third album, The Angel And The Dark River. The album was released in 1995 and an opus was born. Six epic tracks, averaging around nine minutes each immersed the listener in MDB's full sinister glory.

The band released their fourth album Like Gods of the Sun in 1996. Again a rich work of art. Experience and careful attention to detail resulted in a much cleaner sound. 1997 was the year that saw My Dying Bride hotfoot it to the US, to support Dio. Being well versed in all things MDB the US crowds went loco. Alas, with only a few weeks of the tour left, the band had to pull out when Rick the drummer contracted a debilitating illness, which sadly resulted in the original member having to leave the band altogether. Help came in the form of Bill Law, drummer with label mates Dominion, and work got under way writing the fifth album, enigmatically titled 34.788%... Complete.

At this time Martin also left the band. Bill, a native of Canada saw his visa run out and was gone. The band decided not to tour and instead concentrate on solidifying the line up. Help came in the form of Shaun Steels, ex drummer with Anathema.

After all the changes they'd recently encountered they were surprised at how quickly the new line up gelled, inspiring writing to begin for the sixth album The Light At The End Of The World. The album was released in 1999 and saw a return of the older MDB style, but with a whole new perspective on the sound. Shortly after the album was recorded the band enlisted guitarist Hamish Glencross as a replacement for Calvin, who had left after 34.788% Complete.

In August 2001 armed with an arsenal of new material the band hit the new relocated and upgraded Academy Studios to record their seventh studio album, The Dreadful Hours.  The Dreadful Hours received stunning reviews from the international metal press, re-affirming My Dying Bride as the godfathers of doom. Asked to describe the album, guitarist Andy explained, "I'm trying to create an atmosphere of angst, of almost relentless misery. So much misery that you just can't take it"
 
The band rounded off 2002 by playing all the European metal/alternative festivals, including Wacken, Graspop and Bospop with new keyboard player Sarah Stanton added to the ranks. In 2003 MDB settled into work on their follow up to The Dreadful Hours. The result was the stunning Songs Of Darkness, Words of Light LP, MDB's eighth studio album. The album was released in March 2004.

The band entered Academy Studios in Spring 2006 to record the follow up to Songs Of Darkness, entitled A Line of Deathless Kings. Drums were handled by John Bennett of fellow Yorkshire doomsters, The Prophecy, and as always, long-time collaborator and producer Mags took control of engineering duties.

The start of 2007 saw bassist Adrian Jackson and session drummer John Bennett leave the band, and replacements Lena Abé and Dan Mullins were announced prior to the first concerts of the year. The official statement from the band stated that "MDB has a new fresh focused feel to it and we are looking forward to the shows with a vengeance."

You can order A Line Of Deathless Kings (as well as other My Dying Bride CD's/DVD's) from Amazon and Play.com.



My Dying Bride will be performing at Hard Rock Hell over the weekend of November 9th-11th 2007 in the "Defenders Of The Faith" Arena.

My Dying Bride Official Website

Post any questions about My Dying Bride here, and we'll try to get Hamish across to answer a few of those and have a bit of a chat...

Personally, I thought this band deserved to headline one of the stages at this years Download.
Anyways, I recommend everyone starts with the landmark As The Flower Withers. An album that to this day is still as important as it ever was, if you want to see where the genres of Doom and Death met look no further than this masterpiece.

Hamish - what are your plans for the rest of the year ?
 
What where your thoughts of playing Download this year ?
 

ORIGINAL: Jezebel

Hamish - what are your plans for the rest of the year ?

What where your thoughts of playing Download this year ?

 
Yes, I'd love to see you guys back in the UK...soon.
 
I have a question, any news on your custom guitar?

A fine British band if ever I saw one... well brought at Download too, they should have had a longer set

ORIGINAL: rogue_entity

Personally, I thought this band deserved to headline one of the stages at this years Download.
Anyways, I recommend everyone starts with the landmark As The Flower Withers. An album that to this day is still as important as it ever was, if you want to see where the genres of Doom and Death met look no further than this masterpiece.

MDB are a f*cking superb band who consistently produce solid doom metal albums that sound fresh every time. But As The Flower Withers is (imo naturally) very poor; production is terrible, vocals are performed with what sounds like bad technique and the intrumental side, while still doom in places, is primarily death metal orientated. There are a couple of absolutely fantastic songs (Sear Me and The Return of the Beautiful particulaly) but the more I listen to that album, the more I can't get over the OTT 'raw'-ness. Turn Loose The Swans gives a good impression as to what the general sound of the band is like, and I personally rate their best albums as being:

1) The Angel And The Dark River
2) The Dreadful Hours
3) Turn Loose The Swans

EVERYONE should listen to MDB :p!!!!!!

ORIGINAL: Jezebel

Hamish - what are your plans for the rest of the year ?

What where your thoughts of playing Download this year ?

 
Aside from the Hard Rock Hell show in November, there is nothing really else I can discuss until it is confirmed, but there are a couple of other thangs in the pipeline...
 
Download was great, but it was such a shame that the choice was impacted upon the fans for MDB or Machine Head. I spoke with Robb Flynn before the how (we have played together a number of times before) and we were each lamenting the fact we couldn't watch each others' bands (he even said how much he loved the Deeper Down video). Aside from that annoyance, we had a really cool time; I got to spend a good bit of time with my good buddies at Jackson guitars (who I am so proud to be affiliated with), catch up with old friends and make some new ones!

ORIGINAL: Hamish

ORIGINAL: Jezebel

Hamish - what are your plans for the rest of the year ?

What where your thoughts of playing Download this year ?

Aside from the Hard Rock Hell show in November, there is nothing really else I can discuss until it is confirmed, but there are a couple of other thangs in the pipeline...

Download was great, but it was such a shame that the choice was impacted upon the fans for MDB or Machine Head. I spoke with Robb Flynn before the how (we have played together a number of times before) and we were each lamenting the fact we couldn't watch each others' bands (he even said how much he loved the Deeper Down video). Aside from that annoyance, we had a really cool time; I got to spend a good bit of time with my good buddies at Jackson guitars (who I am so proud to be affiliated with), catch up with old friends and make some new ones!

Mini mosher?!?!? What the piss?!?!?

ORIGINAL: rogue_entity

ORIGINAL: Jezebel

Hamish - what are your plans for the rest of the year ?

What where your thoughts of playing Download this year ?

Yes, I'd love to see you guys back in the UK...soon.

I have a question, any news on your custom guitar?

 
Well, I am a proud endorser of Jackson guitars and they treat me so great and we have spoken about a new custom spec model for me. If you are talking about the IKON custom Deathless King V, then I am awaiting that model still; their work is stunning (having seen what they did for Gregor) and I look forward to another progress resport as much as you!

ORIGINAL: SuaveLizard

A fine British band if ever I saw one... well brought at Download too, they should have had a longer set

 
Thank you. As you can imagine, it was hard work trying to cover our body of work in a mere 30 minutes!

ORIGINAL: Hamish

ORIGINAL: Jezebel

Hamish - what are your plans for the rest of the year ?

What where your thoughts of playing Download this year ?

Download was great, but it was such a shame that the choice was impacted upon the fans for MDB or Machine Head. I spoke with Robb Flynn before the how (we have played together a number of times before) and we were each lamenting the fact we couldn't watch each others' bands (he even said how much he loved the Deeper Down video).

 
I never had Robb Flynn down as an MDB fan, so on that note any other famous fans you were suprised to find about?

ORIGINAL: rogue_entity



I never had Robb Flynn down as an MDB fan, so on that note any other famous fans you were suprised to find about?

 
Well, even though they weren't on Download this year, one of our highest profile admirers is Adam Jones from Tool.

ORIGINAL: Hamish

ORIGINAL: rogue_entity



I never had Robb Flynn down as an MDB fan, so on that note any other famous fans you were suprised to find about?

Well, even though they weren't on Download this year, one of our highest profile admirers is Adam Jones from Tool.

 
Suddenly you'll have an influx of all the Tool fans descend onto this thread.
 
Ok, what about you any, bands/artists we may be suprised you (or indeed the rest of the band) like?

A line of deathless kings is a superb album. Been listening it non-stop along with turn loose the swans at work recently. Definatly a band everyone should enjoy. I wished thier set was longer at download this year also. although i was wanting to see machine head also, My dying bride were definatly one of my favorites for that whole weekend. Along with paradise lost, After forever and dream theater

ORIGINAL: rogue_entity


Ok, what about you any, bands/artists we may be suprised you (or indeed the rest of the band) like?

 
Well Andy quite surprised us earlier this year by suggesting we cover a U2 song. Aaron had suggested we do a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song, whilst I was very unsurprising and suggested a song by Swans!

What was the first gig you went to and what was the last one - not including one you were performing at.

Hamish, I was reading last months Metal Hammer, and in the interview with Heaven & Hell they're asked which Doom bands they most liked. Geezer Butler said he liked My Dying Bride and Dio piped up "I like My Dying Bride. Excellent band."

Dio has rocked for a long long time, and now it's time for him to pass the torch. How does it feel for such a legend to show his appreciation?

i read that also, Nice the see Dio likes MDB also

Hamish: what model was that jackson randy rhoads you were playing at download? im looking at buying one, was going to go for the ESP version, but after seeing the one you were playing, its so much nicer :-) and jacksons have a good record of being nice to play.

ORIGINAL: Jezebel

What was the first gig you went to and what was the last one - not including one you were performing at.

 
The first gig I went to was either saxon or Alice Cooper - I can't remember which was first; they were both at the same kinda time and were both great!
 
The last gig I went to was seeing Severed heaven (an all-girl death/doom band from Leeds). The last high profile gig I went to was Bloodstock Open Air and had a great time!