My Dying Bride have announced their 15th studio album, A Mortal Binding.
The UK death-doom veterans’ long-awaited followup to 2020’s The Ghost Of Orion will come out on April 19 via Nuclear Blast. The full track listing is available below.
To accompany the news, the band have released lead single Thornwyck Hymn and its music video.
The song takes its name from the village of Thornwick in My Dying Bride’s home county of Yorkshire.
Thornwick Bay has been the location of multiple maritime disasters throughout history. In 1923, an Italian ship called the Radium sank nearby in thick fog. Then, in 1952, a lifeboat capsized in the bay as the crew attempted to rescue two 16-year-old girls. The girls and the 55-year-old bowman of the boat, Robert Parker Redhead, drowned.
Lead vocalist and co-founder Aaron Stainthorpe comments of Thornwyck Hymn: “Set upon the rugged coast of Yorkshire, Thornwyck village has spent an eternity being haunted by the chill waters that wash its shore – and the hidden folk who dwell in the salty depths.
“Woe betide anyone who fares into the briny sea, or even steels too close to its edge for they may never set foot back on mother earth.”
My Dying Bride formed in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in 1990 and are considered part of the prestigious “Peaceville three” that shaped the death-doom genre, alongside Paradise Lost and Anathema.
The band’s third album, 1995’s The Angel And The Dark River, was a favourite of Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris. After hearing it, the bassist personally invited My Dying Bride to support Maiden on a European tour.
Stainthorpe reflected to Metal Hammer in 2021: “Steve got hold of Andy’s [Craighan, guitar] phone number and rang him up. He put the phone down, thinking it was his brother winding him up! Ha ha!
“Steve rang again and eventually Andrew spoke to him and we got all the details sorted out. It was a six-week tour all around Europe, and it was just fucking great.”
A Mortal Binding will be My Dying Bride’s second album since signing with Nuclear Blast. It was produced, mixed and mastered by Mark Mynett, following his work on The Ghost Of Orion. Recording took place in Mynett’s Mynetaur Productions studio in Manchester from July to September 2023.
A Mortal Binding is available to preorder in CD and two-LP vinyl formats now.
My Dying Bride do not have any future live dates announced at time of publication.
My Dying Bride – A Mortal Binding track listing:
1. Her Dominion
2. Thornwyck Hymn
3. The 2nd Of Three Bells
4. Unthroned Creed
5. The Apocalyptist
6. A Starving Heart
7. Crushed Embers
