My Dying Bride & Flowing Tears

Unfortunately we arrive to witness only the last 90 seconds or so of The Prophecy. Not a great effort I know however what was heard suggested that leaving the last pint behind at the public house would be a wise move next time. I will check you guys out soon I promise.

The Prophecy were the only band I had seen advertised as support for tonight but the second drum kit on stage gives the game away that someone else lurked around the corner. Three gents arrive on the stage and I scratch my head for a while trying to recollect until a recognisable riff floats out and a charming German lady strolls up to the mic. Flowing Tears are back in London.

FT left a huge impression on me last year supporting Moonspell with their bouyant dreamy melodies, powerful riffs and the very distinctive voice of Stephanie; enough to make me purchase two of their CD’s (one at the venue), however I must admit to fearing the worst for them after the departure of Stephanie at the tail end of 2002. How wrong can you be?! New vocalist Helen Vogt not only looks similar and sounds almost identical to the departing fraulein but she is also rather pleasingly (ahem!) “blessed” in one or two other areas!

If this website were the Sun we'd no doubt be making rather crass comments about how Flowing Tears' singer Helen has two great hits, or how she has big things in front of her (Or something like that)!

Surprisingly the band opted not to perform any new songs and just stuck to the “Jade” and “Serpentine” albums and with no dingy support act PA problems that tend to plague this venue “Lovesong for a Dead Child”, “Starfish Ride” and the brilliant “Justine” all sounded excellent. Helen has a greater presence than Stephanie - especially for a first, what must have been nerve wracking performance in London - and guitarist Benjamin (a huge NMA fan – get in there my son!) dazzles with the fretwork. Unfortunately the reaction from the congregation was muted save for about ten people in front of me, but if you do not agree that these are stars in the making then you are just plain wrong. Goth metal without the worst excesses of the genre and slightly more kooky than Lacuna Coil; I was utterly enchanted for 35 minutes.

"Your own Personal Jesus, someone who cares" - Ooops! Wrong band!

But not even Helen’s chest can blow the Bride off the stage tonight. Thankfully in front of a sizable crowd and with an imposing backdrop and a new album waiting release everything about this gig screams that this is to be an important defining event. My Dying Bride seem to realise what a vital gig this is and pull out all the stops in the best performance I have seen from them.

The sound mix is again perfect as the eerie atmospheres of “The Dreadful Hours” creep out for the opener. Touching on the heinous subject of child abuse the musical light and shade perfectly complements the harrowing lyric making this possibly the most haunting song released since anything off Swans “Soundtracks for the Blind”. “The Raven And The Rose” follows with the up-tempo sections bordering on black metal and the band are now brewing up a dark storm with guitarists Andrew and Hamish (and in fact the whole front line) looking and sounding completely wired. Frontman Aaron Stainthorpe’s facial expressions range from manically depressive to (err!) suicidal and whilst his performance between songs remains understated I still relish the Yorkshire wit (“We don’t play much in England, what with us being Spanish, like!”). He also has a rather fetching white outfit which suggests he has a day job at sketchleys! Keyboardist Yasmin seems content to remain in the background and would not be noticed at all were it not for her swathes of sound that combine with the axmen to create an epic hour and a half set laid down by stickman’s Shaun’s metronome beat.

Tragically, the band opt to play nothing from their celebrated “Turn Loose The Swans” opus, but it is not as if the band make a habit of ignoring past glories as they have proved on previous showings. The original version of “Sear Me” gets a dusting down and must surely be the only song ever sung in this venue in Latin. “A Kiss to Remember” being slightly more up tempo and shorter is probably the highlight although the Bride showcase new material as well and “The Prize of Beauty” and the superbly titled “The Wreckage of My Flesh”– the latter of which sounds like the slowest song of their career – are not only up to standard but suggest the band have no intention of deserting their roots.

Lord knows what the population of London thought walking along Charing Cross Road and seeing the legend “My Dying Bride” lighting up the Astoria. But for the chosen few here, one of England’s unsung heroes hopefully have paved their way for a deserved breakthrough in 2004 and with a set that barely touches the surface of what they are about. The Bride wore black indeed.