My Dying Bride + Oceans of Slumber + 40 Watt Sun
@ Islington Assembly Hall
31st March 2016
Review by Jacob Ovington
Photography by Graham Hilling
Tonight the British masters of doom returned to London to invite us all to ‘Feel the Misery’ once more. Misery has always been their game, but this time they gave their latest album and tour the aforementioned title. After so many years, is there any feeling left at all? Or has their sound grown into nothing more than cold and apathy? Let’s see.
The night is opened by 40 Watt Sun. Their music has a detached and expansive feeling that can pretty much be described as post-doom.
The sweeping qualities of their sound fill the room pulling everybody into their sea of melancholy. They play well and made a great start to the night.
Up next and joining us all the way from the USA is Oceans of Slumber.
Their sound is highly impressive and diverse, and having not heard them before the show I was almost swept off my feet.
Their music is a complex, multi-layered and highly emotive take on progressive metal.
Their frontwoman, Cammie Gilbert has an almighty power to her voice and the way she delivers takes the music to a whole new level.
By this point the venue becomes very crowded and the queue for the bar is so long that some people miss the moment that everybody has been waiting for. My Dying Bride entering the stage. As soon as they begin to play, the melancholy pours out and submerges all the souls present in the deep and winding ‘Your River’ from ‘Turn Loose the Swans’.
As usual, the band’s performance is spot on. My Dying Bride are one of the few groups that sound better live than they do on recordings.
For one thing, I kind of got bored of listening to them at home. With their live shows, it’s like their music always has a new lease of life.
It’s bigger, louder, heavier and above all more atmospheric. Aaron Stainthorpe’s dramatic stage presence adds another dimension to the show as well.
Their set was a good mix of classic material and tracks from their latest album, ‘Feel the Misery’, with the second track of the night being ‘From Darkest Skies.’
The first track we get to hear from the new album is ‘And my Father Left Me Forever’, which feels a little faster than most of their material. It still has that sense of raw despair that gives the band its character.
Just in case we weren’t feeling it yet, as a checkpoint and to drum the negativity in a little bit more comes the latest record’s title track, ‘Feel the Misery.’
One thing that always stands out in My Dying Bride’s live performances is the searing, soul piercing violin sounds that slice through the air, cutting the hearts and minds of everybody there and even the stone that the building itself.
The highlight of the night is definitely ‘The Cry of Mankind’, its sound really does echo its title. With every note the wrenching pain of the suffering of a thousand souls can be felt.
Every moment of the song resonates decay, despair and sorrow. It’s one of their best known songs, and rightfully so. The audience feels every moment of, and tears run down the faces of many.
For the encore we’re treated to ‘Like a Perpetual Funeral’ from A Map of all Our Failures. This is followed by one of the band’s longest and oldest songs, ‘Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium’.
This is a dark and melancholic epic, one that is seemingly endless. As one of their oldest songs it has a lot more death metal influences, so is faster and more aggressive than the rest of the set, but it makes a great ending.
My Dying Bride are certainly alive and well, and as miserable as ever.
