THE CRY OF MANKIND BY MY DYING BRIDE

FORMED IN BRADFORD, Yorkshire in 1990, doom metal crew My Dying Bride played slow and strange music that never stood the remotest chance of mainstream acceptance. Almost against the odds, their second album, 1993’s Turn Loose The Swans, had been widely hailed as an instant classic, propelling them to the forefront of the UK’s metal underground. No one was more delighted than the band themselves, as frontman Aaron Stainthorpe tells Hammer today.

“Apparently the second album is supposed to be the tricky one!” he laughs. “We just went into the studio and did what we do, and it went down an absolute storm. I believe it’s regarded as a classic and that’s wonderful. It was quite humbling really. But we needed to follow it up with . Of course, we were aware that if we wanted to get on, nine minutes long!”