this album is absolutely great, and was my first proper doom record. upon the release of this album, my dying bride lost their overt death metal aproach in favor of a more varried mixture of styles. some parts sound like pure death metal and some like gothic, and in other spots like pure doom, but in general it is a good mixture. the album starts with the long cold 'sear me MCMXCIII,' a kind of intro track with great electric violin and spoken vocals over a minimal keyboard melody. from here the album decends into massive doom with 'your river,' an great song with a keyboard intro, a slow doomy section with clean vocals, and finally ending in a crunching death/doom manor with growled vocals. this kind of an approach is observed over most of the album, with 'the crown of sympathy' having no growls, and the title track being a mostly extreme affair with crushing riffs. the album ends in about the same way it begins, with another spoken/violin gothic song, this time with clean vocals. while a lot of bands have come after them, none have captured the romantic feeling in death doom nearly as well as my dying bride did, especially on this album. i cannot say enough about the electric violin, which while is not technically perfect (the production on it is not perfect for example) it gives a strong unorthodox feel. great album, one of the best of the ninties.

And an album that truly merits 5 stars! Martin Powell makes this album with his great keyboard and violin playing. "Black God" is one of the best songs ever written.

Someone compared My Dying Bride to Dead Can Dance?? Why?? Anyway, when this CD was released, I was really glad to hear that Martin (keyboards/violin) was made a actual member of the band. I like the violin and keyboard work above the other instruments, even though My Dying Bride is an overall very talented band. I was also quite upset when he left after Like Gods of the Sun and the band started to go downhill. This CD is very intense from start to finish, with the romantic first track, Sear Me MCMXCIII (roman numeral for 1993), to the Christ-questioning last track, Black God. The best songs on the album, in my opinion are: Sear Me MCMXCIII, Your River, The Snow in My Hand, and, of course, The Crown of Sympathy, Turn Loose the Swans, and Black God. Which covers the whole album except for one song which is also good but not as good as the others! It's a must for the MDB fan and if you are a fan and don't have it, there's something not right!

Hi, I'm Dan...and I'm addicted to My Dying Bride. It started about 3 months ago with my very first purchase, MDBs "Angle and the Dark River." With that incredible rush still coursing through me I bought "Turn Loose the Swans." This melancholy madness is triumphant and depressingly brutal. Some cannot handle this kind of musical intesity at such a slow, brooding, gloomy pace, but I often turn to MDB with a sad embrace, knowing that the emotion therein is honest and worthy.

Although this is my first taste of My Dying Bride, I have heard plenty of other doom, funeral doom, gothic bands and I must say that MDB does a great job on this cd. At first I was expecting something a bit more along the lines of Shape of Despair(my favorite funeral doom band), but after I got over that I was able to fully enjoy every song on here. I was able to get the latest version which includes several bonus tracks and those are pretty good as well but not as great as the original songs on the cd. Overall, this album is worth picking up if your a fan of gothic or doom music as you will surely not be disappointed.