MY DYING BRIDE's AARON STAINTHORPE Steps Into 'Goth Rock For The Masses' With HIGH PARASITE

By David E. Gehlke

Mere weeks after the release of their new studio album, "A Mortal Binding", pioneering British Gothic doom outfit MY DYING BRIDE announced the cancellation of all of its 2024 live dates. The Brits have often kept live shows to a minimum and have yet to return to the United States on a full-scale tour since their opening slot with DIO in 1997, which resulted in the splintering of the band's classic six-piece formation. Public displays of strife from the band are rare and hint at a larger issue: MY DYING BRIDE has long existed without proper management. Those problems appear to have finally come to roost at a rather inopportune time.

In the meantime, frontman Aaron Stainthorpe surprisingly surfaced in HIGH PARASITE, a self-proclaimed "death-pop" outfit guided by PARADISE LOST guitar tech Tombs, who handles bass in addition to songwriting. The songs themselves lean more toward classic PARADISE LOST than MY DYING BRIDE, a fact highlighted by PARADISE LOST guitarist Greg Mackintosh serving as the producer for the band's "Forever We Burn" debut. With Stainthorpe's ever-suffocating growls and emotive clean vocals, "Forever We Burn" is a satisfying exercise in catchy, immediate songwriting that often quickly gets to the point. HIGH PARASITE has been in the works for several years, but when BLABBERMOUTH.NET caught up with Stainthorpe, the frontman had little trouble expressing his excitement and relief for a project that has salvaged the year for him.

Blabbermouth: You've been doing MY DYING BRIDE for over 30 years, so it was a little surprising to see you label HIGH PARASITE as a full-time gig right out of the gate. How did this all come about?

Aaron: "It's weird because it came out of the blue. A great friend of ours, Tombs, who crews for MY DYING BRIDE and is also Greg from PARADISE LOST's guitar tech, sent me an email, 'Aaron. I've composed a song on my laptop. I've done some clean vocals, but I can't do death metal vocals. If you've got time and fancy it, would you mind putting death metal vocals on this song?' I thought, 'No problem. I can do it.' I did the vocals and sent them back to him. And we both loved it. Then he sent me another two songs and I said, 'Yeah. This is great. I really like this style.' Again, I did the death metal vocals on another two songs. Then he sent me a fourth song, which had none of his vocals on at all and he just said, 'I can't think of what to do. Can you play with it and go for it?' I said, 'Yeah, all right.' I added some clean vocals, which were for him to do and I did some death metal vocals for me to do. He loved my clean vocals so much, he said, 'You sing on that one completely.' I was thinking, 'All right. Whatever!' It sort of grew. He decided, 'Aaron, I'm going to get a full band together.' The whole time, I'm touring with MY DYING BRIDE and thinking, 'Yeah, that's absolutely fine. Go for it. Form a band. Good luck with it, mate!' A few weeks later, 'Aaron, I've got a band together. We're going to record the demo in Manchester. Could you come along?' I said, 'I'd love to.' I'm thinking nothing more — it's a friend knocking up the demo. Good luck, mate. We did the demo. The search for a label began, which I tried not to get involved with because I was focusing on MY DYING BRIDE. Then, suddenly, we have a deal with Spinefarm. It was only when we went to the studio to record the actual album and of course, Greg was there; he did some guitar on it and produced the album and his wife, Heather, is doing female vocals. It was only then that Dante Bonutto from Spinefarm said, 'Aaron. What got you into HIGH PARASITE?' I looked around the room and everyone was looking at me. I said, 'I have no idea! I didn't realize I was in the band!' It sort of developed. At no point did Tombs say, 'Aaron, can you be in the band?' At no point did I ask, 'Can I be in the band?' It evolved and here I am, in HIGH PARASITE."

Blabbermouth: It sounds like this was a completely unintentional happening.

Aaron: "Or a total coincidence. MY DYING BRIDE decided to take a hiatus, which has nothing to do with HIGH PARASITE at all. We need to get that out of the way. It's the classic case of when one door closes, another opens. The transition was almost perfect. I couldn't have timed it better. Some people think HIGH PARASITE is a brand-new thing, but we've been working on it for three years. It's not really new to us, but it's new to the public. As MY DYING BRIDE takes a hiatus, I now find that I'm as busy as I ever was with a new band."

Blabbermouth: Musically, this is very goth metal, but it's more PARADISE LOST than MY DYING BRIDE. Being that you've had to respond to those comparisons for as long as anyone can remember, do you agree?

Aaron: "Absolutely. Greg's all over this. Of course, it's going to sound like PARADISE LOST. Tombs has been Greg's guitar tech for 20 years. It's obvious it's a bit of MY DYING BRIDE and PARADISE LOST and how they would mash themselves together. I think it works. We're not hiding that at all. We're not ashamed of it. In fact, we're quite proud of it. MY DYING BRIDE and PARADISE LOST are two pretty good bands."

Blabbermouth: Did you find it somewhat easier to write vocals for songs that are in the standard verse/pre-chorus/chorus format? Obviously, your main band goes in opposite directions.

Aaron: "It's so easy. When I'm working on a MY DYING BRIDE song, it's normally 11 minutes. It's quite complicated. Quite often, the riffs aren't repeated and it is really a task. But it's a challenge I look up to. With HIGH PARASITE, the songs are over before you know it. You have to get the vocals in really quickly and in short sentences and lines, which is something I'm not used to. It's a new thing to do. I've been writing lyrics to Andrew's [Craighan, MY DYING BRIDE, guitar] music for 34 years, but this is completely new and fresh, but it was easy to do. I didn't have to be overly complex with the lyrics. MY DYING BRIDE can get quite complex in places and of course, every album has to be better than the previous album. There's quite a high bar with MY DYING BRIDE. With HIGH PARASITE, I can start from scratch and write anything I want. Tombs also writes some of the lyrics. It was a clean slate and I adored it."

Blabbermouth: On the same level, you've frequently spoken about how you have to get into character to write lyrics and perform the songs live. Was there any of that here?

Aaron: "No, because I didn't think I was in the band when we were doing it. I thought I was helping out. [Laughs] I loved what was going on, and the production values were quite high; I still didn't honestly, hand on my heart, think it would go anywhere. When I was writing the lyrics, there was no long picture. There was no focus on the future. It was just writing for the sake of writing, in the moment and let's see what happens. It's completely different from MY DYING BRIDE. You know, for MY DYING BRIDE, thousands of people all over the world will not only read it but analyze it. You work really hard to make that happen and make it special. With HIGH PARASITE, I had no idea what was going to happen with it or whether it would go anywhere at all. I wrote what was on my mind, quick and easy. It was a nice little easy challenge, to be honest."

Blabbermouth: With so much history behind you, is that perhaps the most challenging thing here? Maybe some people won't understand the thought process behind you doing a new band so far into your career.

Aaron: "Of course, you'll get some MY DYING BRIDE fans who will love it. Weirdly, because MY DYING BRIDE is having a break, you're going to get some MY DYING BRIDE fans thinking, 'This is terrible! This is the reason MY DYING BRIDE is having a break.' There will be a bit of that. And you'll get some PARADISE LOST fans loving it and you'll get other PARADISE LOST fans thinking, 'What is this? This isn't PARADISE LOST!' Then you'll get new people coming into it, saying, 'These are great songs.' It's easy-listening Gothic rock for the masses. We're not reinventing the wheel here. We're writing good, short, catchy numbers that everyone can sing along to."

Blabbermouth: You and Greg come from the same scene, but this marks the first time you've worked together in a formal capacity. What was it like?

Aaron: "It was great. I've known Greg since before PARADISE LOST. He's just a master on the guitar. He's effortless when he's playing. It's amazing to watch. Yeah, he was really good with the production as well. He was strict. He made me sing things many times, which was good. He's trying to get the very best out of me, which is what you want. He programmed some of the bits and bobs you'll hear on the record as well. He was studious. He was there all the time. He didn't miss a single day. He was great to work with; really relaxed. It helps that I've known him forever. And, of course, me, Tombs and Greg, all three of us, we've been to the same Halloween parties. We've been to each other's weddings. It was really the new guys — Dan [Brown], the drummer, Jonny [Hunter], the lead guitar player, Sam [Hill], the rhythm guitar player, these guys I didn't know from Adam. I only met them when we did the demo. Doing the full studio thing with these guys, I'm like, 'Right. I barely know them!' But they're lovely people. I'm looking forward to going on the road with them."

Blabbermouth: Another element with MY DYING BRIDE is that you have expressed distaste for doing shows. You have some HIGH PARASITE gigs coming up with CRADLE OF FILTH. Do you know how you'll approach them?

Aaron: "I haven't got a clue. My only experience, of course, is with MY DYING BRIDE. I take on a certain persona onstage with MY DYING BRIDE. I wrote the songs. I live the characters. I become the character onstage. That's how I do it. It's not an act. It's something that happens naturally. Now, with HIGH PARASITE, because the songs don't have a deep emotional connection and also, of course, Danny [Tombs] wrote half the lyrics, I don't get into an emotional state like I do with MY DYING BRIDE. My mannerisms with HIGH PARASITE, I have no idea what I'm going to do. I've never had an experience like this before. Am I going to dance around like a nutter? I'm certainly not going to stand there and do nothing, but there will be movement. The songs are full of energy. I won't be hunched over the microphone moaning and crying. I will be more mobile. Our first show is on September 28 in Bradford. It's weird because I'm terrified of playing live with MY DYING BRIDE. After all, the songs are emotional and it becomes an emotional gig. I'm sort of not terrified with HIGH PARASITE because the songs aren't emotional, but I have this, 'What am I going to do when I'm not singing?' It's really going to be a baptism of fire that first gig. I just don't know where I'm going to face. I don't know where I'm going to stand onstage. It's all going to be brand-new. I'm probably going to do something foolish, which in years, I'll look back and say, 'What am I doing that for?' I'm going to go with the flow. The songs are funky and catchy. The adrenaline will be pumping. There will be lots of friends and family at the gig, so I think I will have a good time."

Blabbermouth: Let's be honest, it's been a tough run for MY DYING BRIDE in 2024. Has the HIGH PARASITE album been a sort of ray of light?

Aaron: "Oh yeah. It's brilliant. I have to let people know: This has nothing to do with MY DYING BRIDE's hiatus. HIGH PARASITE has been in the works for three years. If it were going to upset MY DYING BRIDE, it would have happened way before now. It's just an odd coincidence that MY DYING BRIDE is taking a break. It's allowed me to spend more time doing it. Plus, when you look at MY DYING BRIDE's career, there are quite often three or four years between albums. In a live capacity, we'd only do 10 or 15 shows a year. I can easily fit another band in there. No problem whatsoever without treading on MY DYING BRIDE's toes. Greg is in umpteenth bands; Nick [Holmes, PARADISE LOST, vocals] does the same. People can be in other bands without getting in the way of the main band. It's actually possible. People have to know that. MY DYING BRIDE isn't over. Of course, we're going to be back. We've got three decades of history. We're just having a little breather. That breather has come at the perfect time for me."

Blabbermouth: Has the dust settled on the issues within MY DYING BRIDE? Is the band in the clear and ready to move forward?

Aaron: "We're getting there. Time is a great healer. We'll get this out of the way and we'll look at what's happening for next year. When we recorded the album, 'A Mortal Binding', we recorded a couple of extra songs with the hope of doing an EP after the album. There's certainly another record to come. I don't know when that will be. That will be up to Nuclear Blast [MY DYING BRIDE's record company]. There's new music from MY DYING BRIDE, even if we're not live for a while. There should be more music. We need to get this year out of the way, which is perfect timing for HIGH PARASITE. We'll get back in the new year and have a chat about things, work out some issues and hopefully crack on again where we left off."