My Dying Bride – ‘The Dreadful Hours’ CD

‘The Dreadful Hours’ is the seventh album by My Dying Bride, released on November 13rd, 2001. It contains a remake of ‘The Return of the Beautiful’ (renamed ‘The Return to the Beautiful’) from the band’s debut album, ‘As the Flower Withers.’

This album is one of My Dying Bride’s finest works, and is one of the band’s most death metal-influenced albums since 1992’s ‘As the Flower Withers.’ Though predominately rooted in doom metal, with gothic themes and atmospheres, My Dying Bride pulls a lot of influences from their early days on this record (as well as the two albums that bookend it).

The doom passages are more epic than ever, as evidenced by the absolutely heavy doom riff heard in ‘The Deepest of All Hearts,’ and the band show themselves as more than capable of sending chills down the listener’s spine with the very eerie epic ‘Le Figlie Sella Tempesta.’ As well, ‘The Raven and the Rose’ and the title track simply need to be heard to be described, they are that good.