There can be few more synonymous with Doom than My Dying Bride, and along with Paradise Lost all but created the Gothic Doom movement. While Paradise Lost however took a leave of absence from their Doom roots and diversified into pastures new My Dying Bride ploughed a lone furrow caring not a jot for commercial acceptance, content that producing music bleaker than a Yorkshire winters day still held unchartered territory worth exploring.

Like all live albums 'Ode To Woe' is nothing more than a career encompassing retrospective snap shot of the bands back catalogue. The difference between the live albums that are nothing more than a footnote in a bands discography and the 'Unleashed in the East's' of this world is not just the quality of the material but the power and the bands ability that each and every time you listen to the album you get the feeling you are there. For anyone who has seen My Dying Bride in the live arena will know the visual has become almost as important as the music with Aaron Stainthorpe's onstage torment almost now legendary. It is therefore a minor masterstroke to include the DVD of the show to accompany the live CD, ensuring the viewer / listener is actually there front row centre.

Production is good and the song selection is what you would expect but despite the best of efforts the album does lack the impact of My Dying Bride on vinyl, OK CD if you're under 25 years old. All of the My Dying Bride classic tunes have one thing in common, and that is atmosphere, a mood that builds and builds to crescendo, and there are few better at it the My Dying Bride. However an 'Ode To Woe' sadly lacks that impact, not that it is a bad album far from it, the record just doesn't have the of order and grandeur we have come to expect from such classics as '34.788%...Complete' and 'As the Flower Withers'. But hey, My Dying Bride have enough classic material to ensure that even the most of hardened Doom monger's thirst is slatted and is sure to be a fan favourite regardless of such reviews.