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MY DYING BRIDE ‘The Voice Of The Wretched’ Peaceville (2002)
I distinctly remember leaving my first ever My Dying Bride concert just over three years ago and thinking that I had experienced a performance by one of the greatest bands in Metal. My awe was increased by the fact that I had actually gone to see Rotting Christ, another passion of mine, so I must say that it was a very successful evening overall. The reason why a start a review of a release by talking about their live performance is that ‘The Voice of the Wretched’ is a My Dying Bride live recording from Tilburg on the 4th March 2001. I have always maintained that, with any band, if they cannot deliver on stage, they are not really worth my attention (a personal opinion, of course, but there is a logic here). Can there be anything better than hearing life brought to the music you have listened to countless times on your CD or vinyl? Catching the fleeting notes that, though familiar, are given their own unique interpretation and airing to you, the privileged person in the audience, who can experience the music first-hand? To me, this is what music is all about. That is why I love going to live gigs and never hesitate to attend countless performances in a row, however physically tiring this can be sometimes.
To get back to the issue at hand: if you have never had a ‘proper’ live experience, I recommend you get your hands on ‘The Voice of the Wretched’, which is the next best thing to standing in the crowd and watching Aaron, the band’s tormented Voice, agonise on stage. The purpose of buying this precious release is, therefore twofold: one, as we have said, is that you hear a live as it should be performed and two, if you are not overly familiar with the band’s extensive back-catalogue, it serves as a [very] condensed ‘best of’, from which you can start discovering this monumental band. Of course, talking about a ‘best of’ My Dying Bride is, in my opinion, pretty pointless, as you would never really be able to fit all the worthy songs onto one release, but ‘The Voice of the Wretched’ incorporates some of this band’s best-know songs, such as ‘The Cry for Mankind’, ‘A Kiss to Remember’ and ‘She is the Dark’. There is also a good mix of early My Dying Bride as well as newer compositions.
The production of this release is a good effort, with emphasis on the heavy sound that will pound your speakers as much as your eardrums would be tested if you were in the audience.
The reason why this release doesn’t get full marks is because it doesn’t incorporate all of my favourite My Dying Bride tracks but, as I mentioned earlier, this would be an impossible task and is, therefore, a wretchedly impossible situation...
I guarantee that, if do decide to invest in ‘The Voice of the Wretched’, you will be online or on the phone immediately, booking tickets to the next available My Dying Bride performance you can find!
****½
Review by Emily Dgebuadze
Interview
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