My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding (CD)

The much-anticipated follow-up to The Ghost of Orion (2020) 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 Brits to new heights and A Map of All Our Failures (2012) expanded upon the group's mid-tens grandeur, then A Mortal Binding stages MY DYING BRIDE's next exultant phase of elegiac misery.