Photos by John Steel Donât look to doom metal to find My Dying Brideâs closest peers. Though the â90s metal press drafted the West Yorkshire band into the so-called âPeaceville Three,â alongside labelmates Paradise Lost and Anathema, their closer spiritual brethren are the Dark Romantic poets of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. That might seem absurd on its face, but as the bandâs sound has evolved over their three decades of existence, their songs have remained anchored in the kind of stately, candlelit bleakness that Byron, Shelley, and Poe first perfected. Founded in 1990 with the intention of making what they naïvely called âslower-than-usual death metal,â My Dying Bride burst onto the UK scene by laying the groundwork for what would eventually become death-doom. Those âslower-than-usualâ tempos were a key part of that formula, but even more striking were Martin Powellâs violins, which were presented just as centrally as Andrew Craighan and Calvin Robertshawâs guitars. And then there was Aaron Stainthorpe, their towering singer and lyricist, who remains a singular presence in the history of metal.