Compared to the four albums that came before this album is stripped back. This is largely just guitars, drums and vocals. Some keyboards and effects used but Martin Powell (and his wonderful violin) are completely absent from the recording.
So what makes this so experimental? That's a hard question to answer but I will try. Largely it's because My Dying Bride have always been experimental. What makes this album such a large leap is the scope.
While the previous albums had a dark romantic and gothic vibe to them, that is almost completely gone on this album. In its place we have experimentation with extended ambient sections, hip hop influences (on Heroin Chick - which also features every curse word censored by the band), and almost a ship lost at sea feel.
Each song is quite different form the others, and while most still feel like my dying bride in the riffing and percussion, some just feel like they were just thrown in. It's a very eclectic collection of songs, and it took me some years to get used to.
While this certainly is not going to be for everyone, I still think its worth listening to at least a few times. Something was going on in the late 90's with extreme metal bands (Mayhem, Dodheimsgard etc.). It seems like many of them wanted to try branching out in unpredictable directions. 34.788% complete is My Dying Bride's one and only entry into that field of avant-garde experimentation.
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