sincere thanks for the generous offer... in a weird and miraculous way, a copy has found its way to me, it's right next to my desk as I'm typing this

I really really liked it, holding the digi in my hands and noticing the attention that went into it, the artwork, layout, booklet, etc. were very impressive. I'm honestly thinking of asking d-m.com to oversee our next album

I'll second most of the feedback on this thread, Omit's cover giving new life to a song I didn't care that much for, Forever Autumn's being really "out there", etc. I would have liked to see some "trad doom" bands try on some songs, but, knowing first hand the divided world of doom metal, I can't hold it against you in any way...

I'm holding my breath til you've sold all copies, as pressing HQ CDs was not in my initial "proposal", but I'm really happy (and partly flattered) that you made something so big out of it... I sincerely hope it pays off, and it marks the beginning of a new venture for the site...

we tried, with not much success...

I just realized that my comment could've been read in diff ways, so... yes, I know, that's what I meant... lots of "trad" bands perceive MDB as "the enemy" and some who don't, still wouldn't "cross the line" to the point of covering one of their songs / maybe one day.

Sadly, we had some Trad bands onboard during the early stages of the project (we really did want to include the whole Doom spectrum), and for various reasons - mostly bad luck - they all ended up having to pull out. With hindsight, we should've taken more time and attention in lining up replacements from the same genre...it wasn't a conscious omission, just the ways things ended up.


Anyways:

It's good to hear you've had a chance to see it in the flesh, and thanks for the feedback, that's greatly appreciated. I'm glad you prodded us into doing it, and, regardless of the commercial results, we were all agreed it wouldn't be right to take a cheaper route with the packaging. We've shifted just over half of them, one way or another, so I'm pretty pleased with the outcome so far!

I must have been asleep at that point...

It was probably the mention of 'trad' which did that But we had the likes of Mammoth Storm (their studio flooded) and Pale Divine (fuck knows what actually went wrong there) lined up. I'm pretty glad Hela stepped up to the plate, but I'd have certainly preferred more 'trad legitimacy' within the project. I do see it as a more 'live and learn' experience than anything else, tho' - even if the result reinforces any view that we, as a site, are more about extreme genres than anything else. I don't even think that's particularly true...and if it's a perceived thing, it certainly isn't an intentional one...

How did you manage to overcome the digital license issues in order to upload it and sell it through bandcamp?

Listening to the album today, I cannot help but wonder how well it turned out! You should really put your collective expertise to further use and continue with such endeavors=)))

And become homeless in the meantime...

haha! Yeah, I've been eating pasta for months now...

I asked Bandcamp what was necessary to meet with their requirements concerning covers, then paid through the nose for what I hope to hell is the correct combination of mechanical (for downloads) and digital (for streaming) PRS licenses!

Nice review (in Hungarian):

http://www.femforgacs.hu/kritika/3879/A_Lake_of_Ghosts_the_long_shadow_of_My_Dying_Bride_2016.

Summarised as CD1 9/10, CD2 7/10.

From what I've translated, this is a rather good review. He took the time to listen to the whole carefully. It's true that it's a weird beast that doesn't lend itself easily to this exercise.

Couple more reviews from actual print magazines - InRock (8/10) and Hammerworld (9/10). Of course you'll need to speak Russian and Hungarian respectively to get very much out of them, and being print copies the best I could do was scan and pdf...
Anyway, they can be found with all the links at http://www.doom-metal.com/news.php?entry=2102.

Excellent news! It's rather strange that it's getting some recognition in Eeastern Europe, but hardly any recognition elsewhere, particularly in the English-speaking world...

Having toured Europe a few times, I am not surprised - those are the countries where people turn up to (none Stoner/Sludge/Hipster as fuck) Doom shows as well.

Is this true or a joke? I guess it is true because I didn't recognize even one band in the list

It's a joke.

They're all genuine doom bands selected from genres outside MDB's Death/Gothic/Doom range in order to show how much of an influence MDB have had on the whole Doom scene.

If you want to listen to it, it's on Bandcamp:

Sounds awesome, thanks

Good to see people are still talking about (and hopefully listening to) it!

...and even buying it: I still get a couple of album orders a month through Bandcamp...