A considerable amount of moons ago I posted on this site a review of the latest CD from an American doom metal band. The name of the band is irrelevant in this context, but the heart of the matter is that I wrote, among other things, that they reminded me of My Dying Bride.

The rating I granted the album was neither the top of the pops nor at the low end. Around 70, I believe. So not bad at all, I’d say.

The thing is, however, that the band, and the drummer in particular, took some deal of offence. From said drummer I received a long (and I mean long) e-mail in which he rated me just about the shittiest reviewer of the lot and entered into a long explanation of how they didn’t use open chords as My Dying Bride did and what have you.

The one thing that the dear drummer had missed entirely was the fact that it was their ability to capture, open chords or no, some of the moods that My Dying Bride are able to purport with their music that had lifted the album. In reply I offered him a spot as reviewer on the site – we can always use more people who know metal well.

He never replied and we never received more material from the band. So it goes.

We have, on the other hand, received something from the band I compared the US doom band to.

With ‘For Lies I Sire’ the UK doom legends My Dying Bride have planted another big, fat cross right in the heart of melancholy. ‘A Line of Deathless Kings’ (2006) was no less than a fabulous album. Get this: This one is better.

With three new members in the fold, ‘For Lies I Sire’ plays on the entire spectrum of My Dying Bride’s capacity as one of the prime purveyors of doom and darkness in the world of metal. They span from frailty of depression, melancholy and gloom, so beautifully emphasized by new member Katie Stone’s violin and Aaron’s voice, and to the drive of aggression and entrenched anger that comes out in occasional bursts throughout.

I can only love this album to bits. For its darkness, for its power, for its being so very My Dying Bride!