As you may have known, or realised on reading the My Dying Bride concert review here, the band have just turned 20. To celebrate the fact, apart from the special shows just witnessed we have the release of a rather special work Evinta, a project that the band state has been 15 years in the making. This means the genesis of the idea must have been going through their heads as far back as the time that ‘The Angel And The Dark River’ was seeing the light of day. Between the hard box with stark brown cover featuring minimal art of birds flocking we have a host of rare photos of the band at various stages of their career as well as previous albums documented in the liner notes and of course the lyrics for the songs included.
The songs may well seem familiar and indeed they should be as they are new arrangements of classic numbers, which have been given a symphonic overhaul. I am not going to be a nerd and tell you which new song is which old one apart from mentioning as example that ‘That Dress And Summer Skin’ on disc 2 track 2 is my old favourite ‘She Is The Dark,’ you can have plenty of fun working things out for yourself. The songs are not short at all; they have been left to flow and are oft left to evolve to the 10-12 minute mark in no particular rush at all. It should be pointed out that there are a couple of editions available, one with two discs and another with three. I have the two disc so cannot really comment on the compositions on the third. Having said that I would struggle if I had 3 discs running 40-45 minutes each to listen to very often at all and am quite satiated with the material I have before me. I believe that if you do not pick up the 3 disc limited edition the third album is going to be released as a stand alone in the future.
Aaron has written new lyrics for this and they often go into poetic whimsy and strike as very Byronesque, I mean just look at a song title like ‘Of Liles Bent With Tears.’ His is not the sole voice here as we discover quickly on opener ‘In Your Dark Pavilion’ where we hear the operatic overtures of Lucie Roche, a French Soprano. It should also be noted that a large part of this was arranged with the help of keyboardist Johnny Maudling of Bal Sagoth, although haters of said band (myself included) should rest easy as there is no cantering off into deranged gung ho harmonies about this. In fact it is on the whole incredibly mellow and chilled, at times seriously so and it is one of those albums that if you were feeling slightly sleepy could well send you on your way with its gentle caress. There are plenty of moments that are likely to send a shiver down the spine of those who are not cast into the arms of slumber however, the placatory lyrics stating “Hold up the sun. Oh, lord hold up the sun. Shine it on me” for example really gets beneath the skin.
I have heard others casting aspersions on this saying that it is incredibly pretentious and self-indulgent. Perhaps so but the band have been going this long and their fans are going to really be keen to hear this and see another side to them, also I do not think there will be many who find themselves disappointed. I do however consider that anyone not really into the group who staggers across this by chance could well have difficulty with it; this is a release for the fans rather than a casual observer that is for sure. It’s also one of those albums that you would have to be in the right frame of mind for; possibly best for when you have the time to commit and are alone. I wouldn’t particularly recommend banging it on MP3 and going out into the big scary outside world; you may find yourself walking in front of a bus by accident. At one surrounded by nature perhaps though….
I think I have said all I really can here and if by the review you cannot envisage exactly what this sounds like, it is difficult to put into words and the best way you can experience is to listen. The one real question I do have unanswered is what or who is Evinta?
http://www.peaceville.com/mydyingbride/evinta
Pete Woods
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