The song starts off morbidly slow as dwindling riffs and an uncomfortably chilling violin accompaniment take centrefold and the immediate lyrics that emerge couldn't be more gothic if they tried. (I doubt I shall ever come back/ Moving thin and wane, an old danger/ A thorn am I with sunken back/ I am an enemy of you, traitor.) As you'd imagine, things don't pick up from there.
However, things do pick up musically and the most exciting moments of the song are when this happens, such as the awesome moment at fifteen minutes in as a single piano led section being played erupts into a gloriously melancholic and dreamy guitar solo. The moment is simply awe-inspiring. However, it is at the twenty two minute part that really sums up the track's epicness, erupting into a full scale death metal mind-blowing session as monolithic riffs pound listeners to the ground and drummer Dan Mullins decides it's finally time to lose all control. Even if dwindling doom metal is not your thing, the entire song is worth it just for this.
So, The Barghest O' Whitby is very much in the spirit of traditional My Dying Bride and as the longest and most progressive song they've ever created it clearly shows that this band aren't stepping down from the throne of bleakness any time soon. My Dying Bride have made a song that is very much epic.
My Dying Bride's The Barghest O' Whitby is out now via Peaceville.
