My Dying Bride was formed in June 1990 by Calvin Robertshaw, Aaron Stainthorpe, Andrew Craighan and Rick Miah. After having rehearsed intensely for six months they released their demo called "Towards the sinister" and shortly thereafter a 7" single through a small French label called Listenable. The single which was named "God is alone" sold out almost immediately and they were offered a record deal with Peaceville records after having been a band for only one year. Soon after signing they released their debut EP called "Symphonaire infernus et spera empyrium" and their first full-length album was released in 1992 by the name "As the flower withers".

After their first real tour they went one step further with their music by recruiting Martin Powell, a well-known violinist and piano player. Since then they have recorded five or six full-length albums, depending on if you count the "Trinity" album as one of them since this is a compilation of their first three EP's. In 1995 they went on tour in the UK and Europe together with Iron Maiden and in 1997 they went across the ocean for the first time to support Dio on their US tour. At the end of the US tour their drummer Rick Miah became ill and his illness sadly prevented him from staying with the band. During the rehearsing for "34.788%...Complete" in 1998 they also lost another band member when Martin Powell had to leave the band. A temporary drummer was then found in Bill Law from Dominion. After the release they started working on their next album right away instead of going out on tour again. Now they had also found a new permanent drummer by the name of Shaun Steels (former of Solstice and Anathema). Johnny Maudlin helped them out with the keyboard and in November 1999 they released their latest album "The light at the end of the world". Since then they have also found a second guitarist by the name Hamish Glencross.

My Dying Bride plays first class Gothic Doom Metal and has always done so. However, they have changed style a couple of times during the years. The music is heavy, melodic, very dark and sad but also romantic in a nice gothic way. The pace changes from painfully slow parts to extremely fast and melodic ones. The violin and keyboard adds an extra touch to the songs and it's a pity that Martin Powell had to leave the band although the remaining band members are fully capable of producing the very best of modern metal on their own as shown on their latest release. The music is built mostly around heavy bass and well-performed drumming accompanied perfectly by violin (as long as Martin Powell was part of the band) and keyboard. The vocals by Aaron has also changed over the years. On the first releases he usually growls á la death metal but by each album the vocals become more clear and on the latest release there are only a few growling parts with the rest of the vocals being done in his unique dark and deep voice. The lyrics are sad and anti-religious, covering themes like death, darkness and unhappy love among others. The lyrics are written in English although there are also songs and parts of songs in Latin. There is one album that sticks out from the rest, "34.788%...Complete", which is a very experemental release. The sound is more unfocused and a little noisy on this one and it takes a couple of listens to get used to it, but when you do get used to it, it is really great music as on all their other albums. If you haven't heard My Dying Bride you have missed out on one of the best metal experiences of the nineties.

Taken from www.tartareandesire.com