Having to listen to an album many times prior to writing a review is not always a bad indication relating to it’s quality. Most releases out there tend to receive my reaction (positive or negative) straight away, but there are others which demand my utmost attention before revealing to me their most "intimate secrets". Well, having spent two weeks under constant exposure to this album's charms, I decided that My Dying Bride's latest opus "A Line of Deathless Kings" is one of the few releases that I know which fits well to both categories.

There are many reasons why I was looking forward to this release, apart from the obvious - me being a loyal fan of My Dying Bride's music. I knew for a fact that their new album would sound somehow different from "Songs of Darkness...", a release that became a very loyal "friend" of mine during these last couple of years, but I just didn't know to what extent. Would Aaron Stainthorpe and Co continue creating long doom/epic-sounding metal compositions or go for something more technical/experimental this time round? Well, it seems that they decided to do both!

One of the first things that you will notice about this album is that both Aaron's death metal vocals and Sarah's keyboard tunes are used very selectively and in strategic points throughout, making "A Line of Deathless Kings" a predominantly guitar-based album. That does not mean, though, that the nine compositions that are featured here are as straightforward as you think. Songs like the opening track "To Remain Tombless" and "Love's Intolerable Pain" are quite technical sounding, consisting of many different rhythmical layers that are a result of John Bennett's intelligent drumming and Aaron's experimental mood.

With an average duration of six and a half minutes, most compositions would sound quite boring and repetitive if the members of this band did not possess the unique ability of bringing together different elements and applying them in their already well-tested formulas.

There are of course a few compositions in this album that will surely be given the title of "classic" in the near future, and those are definitely "Lamour Detruit" and "I Walk With Them". Whereas the former's majestic choral parts, courtesy of Sarah Stanton, will amaze you with their epicness, the sharp-edge monstrous doom metal riff and the heaviness deriving from the latter will win you over in no time. Being a real sucker for beautiful piano melodies, I felt an irresistible attraction towards the melancholic tunes of "Thy Raven Wings", and felt helpless before the rhythmical/commanding riffs of the closing epic-sounding monster "A Line of Deathless Kings".

Once again, the members of My Dying Bride have managed to perform a small musical miracle, and even though I had no doubt over their ability to do so, I am really amazed how they manage to be so up to their game for the last fourteen years. I am sure that some of you will feel at times that listening to "A Line of Deathless Kings" is quite a demanding task, but believe me - it is really worth it.

****½

Review by John Stefanis