[David Rocher: "Beholding My Dying Bride live, as I did in 1995, is an experience indeed -- Aaron's incredible vocals and charismatic presence mesh flawlessly with the touchingly forlorn melodies and the majestic, powerful rhythmic assaults which My Dying Bride have, in time, learned to play so impeccably. The most striking point about My Dying Bride's first live recording, well over a decade into their career, is the beautiful finesse with which it recaptures the textures, emotions and subdued intensity of their unique songwriting -- from the distorted death metal influences apparent at the time of the band's inception ("Your River", "Symphonaire Infernus et Spera Empyrium"), to the more resolutely avant-garde tones of _Turn Loose the Swans_ (the inevitable "Turn Loose the Swans", "The Snow in My Hand"), right over to the sheer beauty of their mid-nineties meisterwerks (the magnificent "The Cry of Mankind" and "A Kiss to Remember") and their harsher latest works ("She Is the Dark", "The Fever Sea", "A Cruel Taste of Winter"). Although former violinist Martin's presence is direly missed, Yasmin's ivory-tickling skills grace this fantastic recording with the beautiful, typical atmospheres these wretched Britons have always been renowned for; in fact, in my humble opinion, this impeccable live capture of the Bride's enchantment only falls short of perfection owing to two anthems whose presence is cruelly missed -- the monumental "A Sea to Suffer In" and the classic "The Forever People". Not only does _The Voice of the Wretched_ easily fill the previously vacant space left by a live recording to be in My Dying Bride's discography, it also reveals itself to be a totally indispensable item in any melancholic, atmospheric doom/death lovers CD collection."]