My Silent Wake — There Was Death

Formed in 2005, the extremely prolific My Silent Wake have released 10 albums of gothic doom/death metal, as well as a bunch singles and EPs. Hailing from that bastion of metal greatness Weston Supermare, the band fronted by Ian Arkley have been steadily making a name for themselves during those years. Arkley himself has been around the metal scene for around thirty years making his debut with Christian thrashers Seventh Angel with their first album Torment in 1990, as well as number of other bands in the intervening years.

My Silent Wake have become increasingly experimental with their sound in recent years. This culminated in the release of their dark ambient album Invitation to Imperfection, and also worth a mention is their earlier limited-edition release Acoustic Collection. There Was Death is the band’s tenth full length album, and only the second album of theirs I have heard.

Opener A Dying Man’s Wish strikes the right chord instantly with some great Candlemass style riffery before settling into what is essentially a fairly decent slab of gothic death/doom. One cannot help but draw comparisons to some of the well established British bands from the genre, in particular My Dying Bride and to a lesser extent, Paradise Lost. This is a pleasant enough beginning and when the song changes pace midway through it chugs along nicely to its conclusion. Damnatio Memoriae is up next, this is a decent mid-tempo number that fits more neatly into the death metal side of the band’s sound. One thing that is evident by this point is that they have developed a lovely rounded sound, there is an opulence about it that you feel you could get lost in the lovely gothic keyboards that permeate the band’s sound. Killing Flaw follows a similar path, not that this is a bad thing as this is certainly one of the more pleasant and interest death/doom releases I have heard in a while.

Ghosts of Parlou Lives is up next, this is one of my personal favourites on the album, simply put this is great epic sounding death/doom with loads of melody and a fantastic epic chorus featuring some massed backing vocals, that are quite uncommon within the death/doom scene. Mourning the Loss of the Living at barely 30 seconds is a brief snapshot of the band in more reflective mode. The title track There Was Death provides more of the same really, not that this is a bad thing as the songs are strong and the band’s performances are excellent throughout. This one features some really nice melodies that carry it above the average though.

Walls Within Walls showcases the band’s heavier side, and yet it is still packed with some amazing melody. One cannot help but feel reminded of classic era Opeth, this track taking me back to the Still Life or Blackwater Park era. The final two songs change things up a little. No End to Sorrow starts off like a dark acoustic ballad the electric guitar kicks in around 1 minute in, however the song retains a certain romantic melancholy despite the harsh vocals and metallic riffs. Final track An End to Suffering is a beautiful dark acoustic track for the first five minutes, at which it swings becoming a folk infused epic gothic/death metal track for the rest of its duration. This represents and interesting conclusion to the album featuring massed choral backing vocals culminating in a prolonged fade out.

There Was Death is a successful album in that it provides us with a solid and at times pleasant ride through familiar death/doom territory. Similarities prevail with some of the leading names of the genre (My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Opeth) however the songs are well constructed, the performances are good, and the overall sound is sumptuous. This has been one of the more enjoyable death/doom releases I have heard in recent years, and one I enjoyed more than last year’s Damnatio Memoriae album from the same band. I shall be taking some time to check out their older output.