In a recent interview with U.K.’s Devolution magazine, vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe of English doom metal pioneers MY DYING BRIDE was asked about the recent revelation that he and his bandmates were canceling all of their previously announced 2024 tour dates, including an appearance at this year’s Maryland Deathfest. He responded: “We’ve worked relentlessly in MY DYING BRIDE — without a manager. Me and (guitarist) Andrew (Craighan) managed the band as best we could over the years. We’ve had people interested in managing, but it’s never really panned out. And sometimes when you’re doing the admin, it really takes away from the artistic side of things. You’ve got tax men to deal with and politics and blah, blah, blah. And me and Andy, we’ve argued the toss like a married couple for years and years and years — artwork, lyrics. I normally pretty much get away with lyrics, but artwork particularly. And I think we’re both becoming grumpy old men. We’ve just got a bit loggerheaded like that. We said, ‘Let’s take a break before we have a massive bust-up.’ Even though it’s a rubbish time to take a break because the album is just coming out. But everyone just thought, ‘You two just take your breather. Take some time away. It happens to loads of bands. And then come back.'”

He continued: “It’s a bad time to take a break. We’d had gigs booked and everything. And I apologize profusely to people who bought tickets and were coming to see us. But we just needed a break before we blew our heads off. So we’re taking a breather.”

Aaron went on to deny that his involvement with his HIGH PARASITE side project had anything to do with MY DYING BRIDE‘s decision to take a break.

“I know some people are going to say, ‘Oh, is it because of HIGH PARASITE?’ Well, HIGH PARASITE has been going for three years. So how can it be HIGH PARASITE? It’s not HIGH PARASITE,” he said. “MY DYING BRIDE have huge gaps in the things that we do — three years between albums, 12 shows a year. I can fit three or four more bands in those spaces, no problem whatsoever. So HIGH PARASITE‘s got nothing to do with it whatsoever. We’re just taking a breather because if we don’t, MDB will be over. When we come back — we don’t know yet. We will be coming back. I just don’t know when. But weirdly, the timing is almost perfect for me because HIGH PARASITE, it’s like one door closes, another one opens. And it’s just, like, this is amazing. I’ve got more breathing room than I expected I would have.”

Aaron acknowledged that “it’s a shame” that MY DYING BRIDE was unable to tour in support of its latest album, “A Mortal Binding”. “As I say, we had live gigs booked for MY DYING BRIDE,” he said. “That’s not fair on the fans, but I’m afraid it was either save the band or lose the band. So we decided to save the band. So I’ve now got some breathing space, so I’m shoving HIGH PARASITE in and the poetry reading. And this could be an exclusive — myself and Mark Deeks, the songwriter from (U.K. doom band) ARР(pronounced ‘Arth’), myself and Mark are looking at forming a band between us. So I’m gonna be very busy in the next couple of years. And when MY DYING BRIDE comes back into it, MY DYING BRIDE will always get priority. You can’t dismiss 33 years of — they’re so well established, they’re so legendary, you can’t say, ‘Oh, this is more important than that.’ And so I suspect the next maybe 10 years are gonna be the busiest years of my entire career, which I think is really exciting — slightly nerve-racking, but super exciting. And it’s allowing me to do things… As I say, I didn’t realize I wanted to do them until someone’s given me the opportunity. ‘Why don’t you have a go at this?’ ‘Oh, I’m not really sure.’ And then friends and family have said, ‘Do it, because you’ll kick yourself if you don’t do this later on.’ So I’m now open to other ideas and I’m doing these things and thoroughly enjoying it.”