Former members of My Dying Bride have announced a new project called Towards The Sinister

Several former members of the British doom metal band My Dying Bride have formed a new band called Towards The Sinister, as per theprp. In this new group, former vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe has rejoined with fellow veterans of My Dying Bride, including drummer Rick Miah, bassist Ade Jackson, and guitarist Calvin Robertshaw. Keyboardist Mark Deeks, violinist Emma Allington, and guitarist Chris Revett are also involved. The ensemble intends to perform songs from the first four My Dying Bride albums, including “As The Flower Withers,” “Turn Loose The Swans,” “The Angel And The Dark River,” and “Like Gods Of The Sun.” Additionally, they plan to write and record new music. Stainthorpe detailed the project.

I’ve not seen Calvin, Rick or Ade for a decade. They don’t live a million miles away. I ran into Calvin a couple of times at a festival in Scarborough up the northeast coast called Fortress Fest. I bumped into him a couple of times there, but that’s really about it. It was only when, I think, My Dying Bride Issued this statement ‘firing’ me that these guys came out of the shadows with loads of support, which was wonderful. It was great to hear from them. They suggested, ‘Let’s get together for a drink for old times’ sake.’

We met in a pub. Martin [Powell], our old violin player, tagged along. Dave Pybus, who used to be in Anathema and worked for Peaceville Records, tagged along. We all had a really good catch-up. It was great fun. This was in October of last year. We didn’t discuss anything about reforming. We took a photo of all of us. I popped it on the socials, and that got people talking. And that got us talking. 

Honestly, we were talking about the old times. The ridiculous times. We did this festival, we did that gig, we got drunk here, we fell over there. It was brilliant. Then we were complaining about arthritic knees and all that stuff. The Internet sort of decided, ‘I wonder if they’re getting together?’ I got messages from Rick and Calvin, saying, ‘Should we have another get-together and discuss what the Internet is discussing?’

I said, ‘All right. Why not?’ We got together, and after a few more drinks, we sort of thought about the idea. No single person instigated it. As I said, I think the Internet instigated it. We mulled it over. Could we pull it off? Do we want to, more importantly? Rick was so keen to get behind the drum kit. Chomping at the bit, really. It’s been a long time for him. Calvin has had his own project, Many Suffer, which is great. You’ve got to remember: We, back when we were kids, helped write those early My Dying Bride albums. We’re on them. We penned them. And we thought, ‘Yeah, let’s play them again.’

So, what will they perform?

[It will be material from] the first four albums. That’s the songs these guys wrote. They’re not interested in performing songs they didn’t help write. It’s the first four-album period, which we’ll concentrate on and which is the best period, according to the fans. I don’t see it myself; I’ve been writing My Dying Bride songs for years and years. 

The rest of the boys, they’re not interested in playing stuff they didn’t write. The focus is the first four. We’ll do all of the classics. Obviously, we can’t do them all at the same time, but we have a decent setlist. You know what it’s like: There will be people in the audience screaming for songs that aren’t in the setlist, but they will be the next time we come around. We plan to play as many of them as we can, even some that have never been played live. We’re going to look into all of them.

To get things started, the band has started planning some UK gigs; festival appearances are anticipated to follow.