Much of this originally happened on the thread "Mires Of Sorrow: A Tribute To My Dying Bride" (http://www.doom-metal.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=10046), but as things approach some sort of resolution, people have sensibly suggested it should be a topic in its own right.

So, for anyone who can't be arsed to plough through the original thread, here is a faithful rendition of the story so far:

abigail posts a link to a digital MDB tribute (the aforementioned Mires of Sorrow)
baphomet *shrugs dismissively* : "Pure mimetism"
abigail *winds bapho up a bit*
(some discussion ensues about copycat versus non-faithful tributes)
abigail challenges bapho to come up with "a d-m sponsored MDB tribute album, compiled by TheUnhinged, and with liner notes by bapho. in order to avoid any accusations of "pure mimetism", it will feature exclusively ska, shoegaze, polka and freeform jazz bands."
(some scratching of heads takes place)
bapho takes up the gauntlet
(3.75 metric fucktonnes of discussion, argument, job delegation and further head-scratching take place behind the placid facade of d-m.com, punctuated by the issuance of a large number of emails)
---several months pass---
(Another burst of activity sees a number of steep learning curves being scaled with varying degrees of good and bad humour)
---several more months pass---
The d-m.com team reluctantly relinquish the idea of having 2016's Christmas no. 1 album. It'd probably only have topped the US & UK charts anyway, hardly worth hurrying for.
However...emboldened sufficiently by circumstances, a brief video clip does surface in time for everyone to watch it over the festive season.
The forum comes alive with anticipation, and at least 6 comments are posted within a fortnight of each other. Granted, they're almost all from staff or people involved with the project, but, hey.
---another week passes---
And here we are in real time. The Doom community waits with bated breath, wondering if it really will be a triple-vinyl luxury edition recorded by Jens Bogren, just how much of it will actually be free-form jazz, and whether d.mimøsa's neighbours ever did get to kiss his self-proclaimed hairy balls.
Shakespeare, pah - if you want drama this is the place to be. And on that subject:
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;"
If you're watching closely, there may be indeed be some new ratcheting-up of the tension tomorrow.

And here is the Christmas-period release, just in case anyone hasn't seen it enough times yet:



Thanks to Yegor Bewitched for the video work, and Greg Chandler for the sound mastering.

#hype

I stand as guarantor for the almost embarrassing accuracy of this resumé..



yes, that's how we work, whatever the obstacles, we're marching on!



yeah, hopefully this time we won't be the only ones to buy a copy of this stuff! Well, buy, I mean keeping a part of our property!

And...
Getting closer...



Thanks again to Narrow House's Yegor for the video work.

This new video is even more promising=))

I'm really excited and hoping the bands involved will experiment with the mdb songs as much as possible=)

And in this line - if you can say, what was the process - you tell a band - do whatever you like and if we like it we'll include it, or - we have this and this general idea, please stick to it at least to a certain extend?

I think I can safely reveal that some of our earliest discussions were over the concept of what we wanted to achieve. Everyone participating in this was then personally invited on that basis.

yes, this is roughly summed up what they've all been told: the song has to be regognizable, but by all means, do your own thing!
Now, We've been polite enough to take whatever the bands were sending us, although we didn't hesitate to ask for some extra tweaks we deemed useful to the song.
But as a matter of fact, We first chose the bands we were interested in. There're quite a bunch of them that either didn't bother to reply (few I must say), or weren't interested, or were sorry they couldn't take part to this project for whatever good reason.

This one cover is probably the most faithful of all (not that I don't like it).

One of my favourite tracks, actually. Can't stop myself from singing it now and then (mostly in the shower ).

the first post made me smile wide, but now that you're actually pressing CDs I'm a bit terrified... I like what I heard so far, though. I'm guessing that's Omit feeling the misery? and I think I spotted d.mimosa's goatee in that second teaser, with two other ppl? things get weirder still...

The first box of cds has arrived in England!

Can't wait to hear the full thing!

And when is it expected to reach the other mortals?=)))

*cue rather sooner than anticipated needs to sort out release information, packaging materials, disc numbering and a coordinated launch campaign*

Erm...I hope we could be in a position to start shipping in earnest in maybe a week?
Depends a bit on when the remaining crates get to me, though. This first instalment is mostly for distribution to all the participants; the rest will be our sales copies.

Don't we first launch an other full sampler with extracts of each track (at least that is what we talked about...) before starting to take the orders?

Yes, that's pretty much our entire 'coordinated launch campaign' at the moment...

Well, we took you seriously and decided to 'go large, or go home'. And I, for one, have been seriously been blown away by the results. It's been an...interesting*/challenging*/rollercoaster*...ride, but, genuinely, thanks for kicking it off.
Oh, and full marks for observation. Though I do feel 'goatee' doesn't really do his ZZTop-esque chin-decoration quite enough justice...

* delete as applicable, depending on how much delegation of sortingoutness came your way

the actual digi looks really great, nothing went wrong during the manufacturing, which was my big fear.
At the end, it looks like a real album, haha!

you're genuinely welcome, and I hope it pays off, in more ways than one... 2CD, and now digi? oh my.

on a sidenote, and I don't know what you're planning exactly, or how many copies you have pressed, but adding "my dying bride" + "tribute" + "doom metal" on the title of those youtube teasers (maybe when it goes on sale) could possibly help reach a wider audience...

500 copies have been pressed. Someone should take care of those YT teasers asap. Cheers.