Interview by Kris Peters
At thirty-three years young, doom/death metal outfit My Dying Bride still bite with the ferocity of a stallion, with a kick twice as ferocious.
While many would be slowing down entering this stage of their careers, My Dying Bride give the impression they are only just getting started.
Which is a frightfully sensational prospect.
With their 15th album A Mortal Binding set for release on April 19, My Dying Bride are promising fans something fresh and enticing, adding yet another chapter to the band's musical output that has seen them dominate the genre for so many years.
Featuring a revamped line-up of now-permanent guitarist Neil Blanchett and the return of drummer Dan Mullins, A Mortal Binding is signature My Dying Bride.
Only better.
Guitarist Andrew Craighan joined HEAVY to tell us more.
"To be fair, I'm quite relaxed," he measured. "I'm a little bit apprehensive because we… I don't do a lot of social media. I don't see a lot of the reactions that are happening to it, and we didn't send the album out to our friends and family and that sort of thing. So I don't really know. I'm relatively confident that we've created something that's okay, but there's a little bit of apprehension on that because I don't really know what people are gonna think. Also, I'm relieved… is probably the word, because to get an album right - I don't think you ever get an album right. You finish when you run out of money type thing and hope they're right enough, so it's been hard work. There's been a lot of hard work and a lot of blood, sweat and beards and all that kind of thing. It's kind of like… it's dead space, if you know what I mean, where you're sat with a pregnant pause; the bride is quite literally… (laughs). You've got this strange time where you can't say anything about it because you don't want to oversell it. You can't push it out and you can't send it out - you're certainly not allowed to do that - so you're just sat waiting and thinking what's next? Thankfully April 19 isn't so far away, so we'll soon see."
In the full interview, Andrew talks more about A Mortal Binding, if it's what fans would expect from the band, the singles released and how they sonically represent the album, what has changed with My Dying Bride since their last album The Ghost Of Orion, coming up with new material a