British death-doom legends MY DYING BRIDE will release their 15th studio album, “A Mortal Binding”, on April 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. Today’s news is accompanied by the release of tempestuous, heart-wrenching new single “Thornwyck Hymn”. The track comes with a stunning video directed by Daniel Gray, depicting a maritime story of unfolding desire and tragedy.
MY DYING BRIDE‘s Aaron Stainthorpe commented: “Set upon the rugged coast of Yorkshire, Thornwyck village has spent an eternity being haunted by the chill waters that wash its shore — and the hidden folk who dwell in the salty depths. Woe betide anyone who fares into the briny sea, or even steels to close to its edge for they may never set foot back on mother earth.”
“A Mortal Binding”, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2019’s “The Ghost Of Orion”, finds the Yorkshire-based quintet delighting in anxiety, loss, and toil to resplendent effect. From the raw distress of “Her Dominion” and twisted horror of “Thornwyck Hymn” to the funerary violins of the 11-minute monolith “The Apocalyptist” and the classic-feeling “The 2nd Of Three Bells”, “A Mortal Binding” is pinnacle MY DYING BRIDE. If “Songs Of Darkness, Words Of Light” (2004) elevated the band to new heights and “A Map Of All Our Failures” (2012) expanded upon the group’s mid-tens grandeur, then “A Mortal Binding” stages MY DYING BRIDE‘s next exultant phase of elegiac misery.
“A Mortal Binding” track listing:
01. Her Dominion
02. Thornwyck Hymn
03. The 2nd Of Three Bells
04. Unthroned Creed
05. The Apocalyptist
06. A Starving Heart
07. Crushed Embers
MY DYING BRIDE hired “The Ghost Of Orion” studio wizard Mark Mynett to produce, mix, and master “A Mortal Binding”. The group holed up at Mynett‘s Mynetaur Productions (PARADISE LOST, ROTTING CHRIST) in Manchester, U.K., where they tracked the album consecutively from July to September 2023.
For over three decades, MY DYING BRIDE has been the voice of the hopeless and broken, combining haunting sounds with crushing misery and melancholy. With their signature sound they’ve shaped the doom metal scene like barely any other act and integrated both soft violin melodies and violent death metal growls into their music, while always staying strictly loyal to themselves. And since the early Nineties, the band’s masterminds and founding members Andrew Craighan and Aaron Stainthorpe forged beautiful grief into studio albums with songs of epic length. As MY DYING BRIDE edge past their 33rd year, they’re aging gracefully, remaining as vital and heart-wrenching as ever.
MY DYING BRIDE is:
Aaron Stainthorpe – vocals
Andrew Craighan – guitars
Lena Abé – bass
Shaun MacGowan – keyboards, violin
Neil Blanchett – guitars
Dan Mullins – drums