My Dying Bride delivered the best performance I have seen with them, and one of my top concerts this year to boot, earlier this summer at Copenhell. The only negative thing that happened at that show was that I was forced to leave early. This wasn’t going to be necessary here at Metaldays, and I only prayed that they would deliver in the same manner as they had done before.

“Please, sing along with me to the wonderful, happy song that is Catherine Blake.”
- Aaron Stainthorpe (vocals)

There was a significant difference between this show and the Copenhell one – at Copenhell My Dying Bride had played the smallest stage, and here they were playing the main stage. They were also playing a bit earlier, but as they were set to go on at five minutes to nine in the evening, at least it wasn’t a full on midday sunbath, or early afternoon grey skies as it had been at their last visit here, back in 2009. The sun was down, but it was just so and it took a while for it to actually get dark.
Another difference was an apparent shorter time to play in, resulting in My Dying Bride opening with Like Gods Of The Sun this time around – the fact that it was a shorter set wasn’t fun, but I had a hard time worrying about it as I swung my hair to the heavy song that resounded throughout the Alps around me. Yes, the sound was loud, deafening really, but at least they had a very good mix even as I stood in the front row.
The performance hadn’t changed much, thank god. Aaron Stainthorpe was still falling to his knees often to accentuate the feeling of the story he was telling, and there was a great presence in the here and now. The rest of the band headbanged appropriately, and Rob Philpotts proved once more that he belonged on the stage just as much as everyone else did, leading the audience into rhythmic applause or chants where appropriate.

The crowd was large, but mostly calm. When Philpotts demanded it, there was some well played out interaction, but most of the time the Slovenian fans mostly stood in silent reverence as they watched the show unfold before them.
This being a larger stage and all, I missed the intimacy that had been present at Copenhell, but the band showed that they certainly could pull off one of these large stage shows as well if need be, and the intensity grew throughout the show, resulting in a great experience.
If anyone had gotten the feeling that the band was a bit distant, what with Stainthorpe almost only uttering the odd “cheers” between songs, this was quickly remedied as the concert drew to an end and he promised that they would be back soon, after which Philpotts and he went straight down into the security pit to personally say hi to their fans and have their pictures taken.

Not so surprisingly maybe, My Dying Bride didn’t manage to live up to the greatness of their last show, but that doesn’t take anything away from the show they actually delivered. Once more I had been royally entertained, and once more I got the feeling of wanting to delve deeper and deeper into their musical universe.

Setlist:

Like Gods Of The Sun
The Thrash Of Naked Limbs
From Darkest Skies
Catherine Blake
She Is The Dark
The Cry Of Mankind
Turn Loose The Swans