A Mortal Binding

British doom / death metal legends My Dying Bride unfurl their 15th  album, A Mortal Binding, via Nuclear Blast. The much-anticipated follow-up to The Ghost of Orion (2019) finds the Yorkshire-based quintet—featuring a revamped lineup of now-permanent guitarist Neil Blanchett and the return of drummer Dan Mullins—delighting in anxiety, loss, and toil to resplendent effect. 

From the raw distress of “Her Dominion” and twisted horror of “Thornwyck Hymn” to the funerary violins of the 11-minute monolith “The Apocalyptist” and the classic-feeling “The 2nd of Three Bells,” A Mortal Binding is signature My Dying Bride. If Songs of Darkness, Words of Light (2004) elevated the group to new heights and A Map of All Our Failures (2012) expanded upon their mid-tens grandeur, then A Mortal Binding stages My Dying Bride’s next exultant phase of elegiac misery perfectly.