My Silent Wake are a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 gothic

Gothic metal

Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...

 death/doom

Death/doom

Death/doom, sometimes writes as death-doom or deathdoom, is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It combines the slow tempos and pessimistic or depressive mood of doom metal with the deep growling vocals and double kick drumming of death metal...

 metal band who were formed from the ashes of Ashen Mortality

Ashen Mortality

Ashen Mortality were a British doom metal band that was formed in early 1993 by Ian Arkley and Melanie Bolton. They and Paramaecium are the best known Christian Doom metal bands, though they were always wary of being typecast as such. They recorded two demos, and two albums, and played many gigs...

. Ashen Mortality were formed in the early 90s in Halesowen, West Midlands and were active for a further 11 years. When the band split in 2005, three of the members went on to form MSW. The band was formed in the spring of 2005 in Weston-Super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare

Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...

 in North Somerset

North Somerset

North Somerset is a unitary authority in England. Its area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in the town hall in Weston-super-Mare....

. Initially the band was created by Ashen Mortality co-founder Ian Arkley

Ian Arkley

Ian Arkley is a guitarist in the death/doom/gothic metal genre, his current band is the UK gothic doom metal outfit My Silent Wake.Arkley first gained attention as a member of seminal Christian thrash metal band Seventh Angel...

 with other ex Ashen Mortality members Jasen Whyte and Andi Lee. Alan Southorn and Kate Hamilton also joined within the first few months. My Silent Wake have many other elements to their music; as well as doom/death they have influences from folk, medieval music

Medieval music

Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century...

 and progressive/psychedelic rock. They have released three albums and a split album on Bombworks Records in America with a fourth album released in 2010 on Dutch label Dark Balance.

History

Formed in 2005, the band recorded and mixed a self-titled EP the same year and released in limited numbers. The EP gained them a contract with Bombworks Records in America. The debut album Shadow of Sorrow was recorded afterwards and released in 2006. In 2006, My Silent Wake recorded a double album entitled The Anatomy of Melancholy, which featured two discs, one of doom metal and one of mainly acoustic songs.

The band started playing live in 2007 and played in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, and the UK. Due to a wrist injury, Jasen was unable to drum live, so Steve Allan (who also co-produced and engineered all the recordings) stepped in on live drums, whilst Jasen provided additional vocals. Steve Allan became a full time member of the band and, along with Jasen, recorded some drums for the third album, which was recorded in March 2008. The third album, A Garland of Tears, was released in September 2008. Powerplay magazine gave the album eight out of 10 points, and Kerrang!

Kerrang!

Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...

gave it four out of five points.

In 2010, the band released a split album with The Drowning titled Black Lights and Silent Roads, their last release on Bombworks. My Silent Wake signed a record deal with Holland-based Dark Balance and released their fourth full length album entitled IV Et Lux Perpetua. MSW also supported Norway's In Vain on a nine-date European tour which coincided with their appearance at Holland's Dutch Doom Days and included other festival dates. Steve was replaced by Tank from Seventh Angel for the tour and Jasen left the band at the end of the year.

2011 sees the line-up of the band change again with the departure (possibly temporary) of Andi. The touring line-up for the year is Ian, Kate, Tank and Mike Hitchen (Also of The Drowning). Mike filled in for Andi in the past at some gigs. A compilation of rare material was released in June on Dark Meadow. This includes some early live songs and some unreleased songs. The limited edition CD sold out within a few days. The departed members of MSW all left on good terms and due to other commitments. Any may return at some point.

MSW are writing for a future project right now and recently played at this years Doom Over London II festival. Jasen joined the band on stage with additional vocals for this performance.

Ian has also been busy playing with Attrition

Attrition (band)

Attrition are an electronic music band, formed in Coventry, England in 1980 by Martin Bowes and Julia Niblock. The band emerged from the experimental post-punk scene of the early 1980s and, along with other groups such as Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Einstürzende Neubauten, and In the Nursery, greatly...

 recently.

Current

• Ian Arkley
  Ian Arkley
  Ian Arkley is a guitarist in the death/doom/gothic metal genre, his current band is the UK gothic doom metal outfit My Silent Wake.Arkley first gained attention as a member of seminal Christian thrash metal band Seventh Angel...
  
   (lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars, ebow and vocals) (Also a member of Seventh Angel, Century Sleeper and The Other Window, contributing guitar to Attrition, Ex Ashen Mortality, Paramaecium)
• Kate Hamilton (bass guitar, clarinet, keyboards, piano, recorder, cello, vocals and zither)
• Tank (drums) (Also a member of Seventh Angel)
• Mike Hitchen (guitar, vocals) (Also a member of The Drowning)

Former

• Alan Southorn (bass guitar) (Also a member of The Other Window)
• Jasen Whyte (drums, cymbals, percussion and vocals)
• Andi Lee (lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars, mandolin, bass and vocals)
• Steve Allan (drums, engineering and production)

Discography

• My Silent Wake (demo) (2005)
• Shadow of Sorrow
  Shadow of Sorrow
  Shadow of Sorrow is a debut full length album by the British doom/death metal band My Silent Wake, released in 2006.-Track listing:#"Wake" - 1:01#"Shadow of Sorrow" - 8:38#"Burning" - 6:10#"Hunting Season" - 15:23#"The Mist" - 3:00#"In Darkness" - 5:28...
  
  (2006)
• The Anatomy of Melancholy (2007)
• A Garland of Tears (2008)
• Black Lights and Silent Roads (2010)
• IV Et Lux Perpetua (2010)
• Rare and Live Recordings Vol 1 (2011)