Turn Loose the Swans
Turn Loose the Swans makes weight and vulnerability equally important. My Dying Bride do not abandon heavy guitars and growls, but give violin, keyboards and clean singing much more space. The result can sound threatening and sorrowful without allowing one feeling to remove the other completely from the music.
Sear Me MCMXCIII opens without a conventional metal riff. Piano, strings and Aaron Stainthorpe's low singing establish an almost ceremonial mood. It is a patient entrance that immediately shows how firmly the album sets its own pace. The band ask you to enter that atmosphere before the heavier work begins.
Your River then lets the guitars carry the story further. Tension grows through successive riffs and melodies before harsher singing adds another layer. The violin sits beside the guitars as an important voice in the arrangement. It deepens the sadness without removing the music's solid foundation.
Stainthorpe's different vocal approaches give the album considerable range. His clean delivery sounds fragile and weary, while the growls bring the threat forward again. On the title track, that heavier side connects strongly with the weighty riffs. Quiet and extreme elements give the songs more movement than their slow pace might suggest.
The length does not always help. Several pieces take considerable time and offer little support through an immediate chorus. The tension can consequently stretch before another passage restores it. The larger connection nevertheless remains strong enough to carry the extended forms. Turn Loose the Swans is an impressive doom album because its softer sounds feel as necessary as its heavy ones. The music searches for more than weight; it also finds a convincing shape for sorrow.
