Bone-chilling. Haunting. Emotive. The new opus from these British death/doom dealers drowns in sorrow, making it near impossible to find a life boat. It is easy to feel the tension and the outpouring of pure pain as evidenced in the lyrics and downtrodden music. It’s also hard to take in at times too just because My Dying Bride have made such a sad album, but the journey is worth it and sometimes there is a distinct beauty in darkness and the multitude of emotions that can be experienced through music. 

With so much melancholy surrounding the music, the guitars are lively and provide a tremendous punch with many sustained notes. The two singles, “Your Broken Shore” and “Tired Of Tears” provide many rich guitar riffs on the backdrop of gloomy rhythms and vocals. A stunning moment occurs with Wardruna’s Lindy Fay Hella handles the vocals for a Scottish-bagpipe type song except it’s used with guitars. A hauntingly beautiful song then erupts into the 10 minute monster “Long Black Land”. Violins begin this behemoth as the riffs just hit hard like a brick to the face and the freezing mid-point rumbles until a moving latter section that gives off a vibe that this adventurer is doomed to forever roam in this desolate space. Other interesting twists is the short (by MDB standards) title track, a piano accented instrumental with light guitar strumming and whispered voices in the background and the 2 minute ending track, “Your Woven Shore”, an outro led by a choir with piano notes and a devastatingly mournful violin sound to carry it out to the end. The former acts as more of an interlude and sets the stage for the 10:30 minute “The Old Earth”. The guitars again are mammoth with singer Aaron Stainthorpe sounding as menacing as ever, and the riff changes in the mid-section is one of the best moments of this beast. 

A perfectly crafted song to a deep and distinct album, The Ghost Of Orion is a thoroughly inspired effort and definite album of the year contender; don’t hesitate to pick this one up!