Then came the one-song, twenty minute plus EP _The Barghest o' Whitby_. While in itself not necessarily MDB's finest hour, it was nonetheless the sort of strong, relatively adventurous work that seemed different not just for the sake of being different, while still remaining firmly rooted in what defines MDB. Suddenly I wanted to hear what they would come up with next.

So it was that I met this eleventh My Dying Bride full-length, _A Map of All Our Failures_, with considerably more interest than I had anticipated. As it turns out, the Yorkshire masters of doom have not disappointed in the least, producing some of their finest work since 2004's _Songs of Darkness, Words of Light_. The album opens with church bells and goes on to make measured use of violin and even church organ without sounding tacky, effectively dropping most of the overblown romantic silliness that had crept in even while keeping in a well done gothic tale on "A Tapestry Scorned". This is balanced by a willingness to go all the way to their really old, fast-paced death metal surges, which they use sparsely but effectively, while the morose title track ranks among the album's best for entirely different reasons. Some parts of "Hail Odysseus" and "Within the Presence of Absence" are the exceptions to this consistency -- which otherwise stretches as far as the length of each song bar one hovering around the eight minute mark.

_A Map of All Our Failures_ is unlikely to become an absolute classic over time, and it does not try to be heavier than thou, more progressive or regressive than whoever else. It consists of inspired work led by hugely gifted doom craftsmen, with a competent formation to support them. The result may not be breathtaking, but it is an entertaining and worthwhile album when it could easily have been a stale, by-the-numbers offer from a band that's been around for two decades.