The Angel and the Dark River is the third album by the British doom

Doom metal

Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...

/death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 band My Dying Bride

My Dying Bride

My Dying Bride are an English doom metal band formed in 1990. To date, My Dying Bride have released eleven full-length studio albums, three EPs, one demo, one box set, four compilation albums, one live album, and one live CD/DVD release. The band released their tenth studio album, For Lies I Sire,...

. The 1996 re-release contains one bonus track "The Sexuality of Bereavement" and a bonus CD titled Live at the Dynamo. The Live CD was recorded during their appearance at the Dynamo Festival in 1995.

It was arguably the release that saw the band travel furthest from their death metal

Death metal

Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....

 origins, and provided the fullest expression of the doom metal

Doom metal

Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...

 side of their music. Aaron Stainthorpe

Aaron Stainthorpe

Aaron Stainthorpe is the vocalist for doom metal band My Dying Bride. He was born in England but moved to Germany when he was six months old, because his British army officer father was stationed in the country...

 dispensed with his death metal vocals entirely, and Martin Powell

Martin Powell

Martin Powell is an English musician. In 1991, Powell auditioned for the position of bass-playing in the band My Dying Bride, but was turned down as the band had just filled the position...

's violin and keyboard playing now seemed to be the basis around which the rest of the arrangement was built. Apart from the final track of the original release ("Your Shameful Heaven"), the tempo was unremittingly slow, with only the odd fast drum fill from Rick Miah adding some variety.

Aaron Stainthorpe's lyrics continued in the vein of Turn Loose the Swans

Turn Loose the Swans

Turn Loose the Swans was the second album by the British doom metal band My Dying Bride.It marked a radical departure from the band's first full length, As the Flower Withers...

 - focusing on religious symbolism and relationship problems - whilst non-English phrases were omitted once more. Stainthorpe has said in many interviews that "Two Winters Only" is his favourite My Dying Bride song.

Five of the album's six tracks appear on the band's VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 For Darkest Eyes

For Darkest Eyes

For Darkest Eyes is the first video release by death/doom metal band My Dying Bride. Created first as a VHS in 1997, then later being reproduced as a DVD in 2002 however it was given 2 different version of the front cover...

.

Track listing

1. "The Cry of Mankind" – 12:13
2. "From Darkest Skies" – 7:48
3. "Black Voyage" – 9:46
4. "A Sea to Suffer In" – 6:31
5. "Two Winters Only" – 9:01
6. "Your Shameful Heaven" – 6:59
7. "The Sexuality of Bereavement" – 8:04 *

• *Bonus track (digipak
  Digipak
  Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...
  
   ed. CDXVILE 50 only, and re-issue 2CD)

Live at the Dynamo

1. Your River – 8:13
2. A Sea to Suffer In – 6:21
3. Your Shameful Heaven – 6:21
4. The Forever People – 4:52

Credits

• Aaron Stainthorpe
  Aaron Stainthorpe
  Aaron Stainthorpe is the vocalist for doom metal band My Dying Bride. He was born in England but moved to Germany when he was six months old, because his British army officer father was stationed in the country...
  
   - vocals, cover art, photos
• Andrew Craighan
  Andrew Craighan
  Andrew Craighan is one of My Dying Bride's guitarists. Along with Aaron Stainthorpe, he is the only original member of the band still in the lineup. He played the guitar from 1989 to 1990 in the band Abiosis....
  
   - guitar
• Calvin Robertshaw - guitar
• Adrian Jackson
  Adrian Jackson
  Adrian Jackson is My Dying Bride's former bassist. He was a member of the band from 1991 until January 2007 when he moved to the USA.-Equipment:* Warwick Thumb Bolt-On bass* Sansamp Processors...
  
   - bass
• Martin Powell
  Martin Powell
  Martin Powell is an English musician. In 1991, Powell auditioned for the position of bass-playing in the band My Dying Bride, but was turned down as the band had just filled the position...
  
   - violin, keyboard
• Rick Miah - drums