For a generation of fans, My Dying Bride are the kings of all things miserable. Founded and still led by vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe and guitarist Andrew Craighan, the British band are widely hailed as a progenitor of the death-doom and gothic metal subgenres (alongside siblings Paradise Lost, Type O Negative, Winter, and Anathema). Having started in 1990, they've since released roughly a dozen studio LPs that masterfully interweave chaotic and cathartic arrangements alongside poetically scribed angst. Rarely have examinations of mortality and heartache felt so simultaneously brutal and beautiful.
This Friday (March 6) sees My Dying Bride releasing their newest triumph of doom, The Ghost Of Iron, their first full-length album since 2015's Feel The Misery. Written in the wake of several hardships – including Stainthorpe's very young daughter being diagnosed with cancer (a battle she eventually won) and the departures of guitarist Calvin Robertshaw and drummer Shaun Taylor-Steels – the record is as captivating, honest, and purifying as anything else the band have done.
In honor of both the band's latest sonic accomplishment and their long legacy of overwhelming darkness, we asked Arron to pick the songs from throughout My Dying Bride's career that he finds most emotionally devastating. Encompassing their earliest gems, their latest opus, and plenty in between, here are his 10 standout choices...