The Voice of the Wretched

• Artist: My Dying Bride
• Rating:
• Release Date: May 21, 2002
• Type: Live
• Genre: Rock

Review

With the release of The Voice of the Wretched, it was hard for My Dying Bride fans to stave off cynicism. No less than four MDB platters surfaced between 2000 and 2002, including two rare track/best-of compilations, Meisterwerk 1 and Meisterwerk 2, and a solid new studio album in The Dreadful Hours -- so whether or not this live set, recorded in March 2001 in Tilburg, Holland, is at all necessary (besides a reason to bring in a little extra coin) depends on your level of dedication to these long-standing, downtrodden doom metallers. The show is a nice cross-section of MDB's career, mingling old crusties "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium" and "Your River" with latter-day immobile boulders "A Cruel Taste of Winter" and "She Is the Dark"; the only thing noticeably different between the live and studio cuts are ex-violinist Martin Powell's contributions on the early material being replaced with depressingly lackluster synth mush. Sure, the album is mixed cleanly and coherently, thankfully not burying vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe's moans and growls, but at least some degree of rawness in the recording would better complement the band's slowly dying shambling-beast sound. The Voice of the Wretched most likely proves that MDB's grotesquely brilliant odes to isolation are best appreciated at home, in solitude, with the lights turned off -- not necessarily in a sweaty club, where moping along to lengthy, plodding depresso-epics can only result in backaches and sore arches. Diehards will appreciate The Voice of the Wretched for awhile, it being a sufficiently morose live document, consistent in song and sound, but its overall conservative approach -- and the fact that My Dying Bride is once again mining its back catalog -- won't result in many repeat listens. ~ John Serba, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
She Is the Dark	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(8:40)
The Snow in My Hand	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(10:02)
The Cry of Mankind	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(6:33)
Trun Loose the Swans	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(6:32)
A Cruel Taste of Winter	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(6:51)
Under Your Wings and into Your Arms	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(5:28)
A Kiss to Remember	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(6:55)
Your River	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(9:05)
The Fever Sea	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(4:13)
Symphonaire Inferrus et Spera Empyrium	My Dying Bride	My Dying Bride	(10:34)

Credits

Aaron Stainthorpe (Artwork), Hamish (Guitar), Ade (Group Member), Yasmin Ahmid (Session Coordinator), Shaun (Group Member), Shaun (Drums), Ade (Bass), Hamish (Group Member), Yasmin Ahmid (Keyboards)

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)