These are heady days for those of us who wear our devotion
to metal like a badge of honour. The deafening beast of the dark depths
has lived to roar and rampage again and the scene has never been in
a happier or healthier state. But don't be deceived. Metal never really
went away. In fact, its current fortitude stems entirely from the bands
that never surrendered; those brave, liquor-soaked men whose total disregard
for the vagaries of fashion and finance kept them glued to the grindstone
through metal's mainstream wilderness years. Now, as seems wholly fitting,
the greatest of these are finally reaping their rewards and hitting
new creative peaks as they surge unstoppably onwards and upwards.
Just as the gravel-lined, turd-stained streets of urban England gave
heavy metal to the world back in the late '60s, so that small country
with the big voice continues to be the place where the world's finest
dark metal band rest their weary, alcohol-ravaged heads after another
sonic killing spree. Love them, hate them or both, Cradle Of Filth is
back again to fondle you while slitting your throat. 'Thornography'
has arrived.
Recorded at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, England, with renowned metallic
production genius Rob Caggiano (Anthrax, Bleeding Through) and mixed
by Andy Sneap (Killswitch Engage, Arch Enemy, Trivium) at Backstage
Studios, Derbyshire, 'Thornography' is the band's seventh full-length
studio album and their second for Roadrunner. The follow-up to 2004's
widely acclaimed and Grammy Nominated meisterwerk 'Nymphetamine' it's
a scintillating and terrifying collision between the familiar and the
unexpected. It's the dark, destructive and unsettling sound of a globe-conquering
heavy metal band at the height of their sick, twisted powers, and the
continuation of a proud, priapic and unhinged legacy that stretches
back nigh on 15 years.
When Cradle Of Filth released their now legendary debut album, 'The
Principle Of Evil Made Flesh' back in 1994, the notoriety surrounding
the Black Metal scene - and its spiritual epicentre in Oslo, Norway,
in particular - was reaching fever pitch throughout Europe. These legions
of the damned and disgusted took metal further into the abyss than it
had ever been before, stripping away its worldly concerns and reducing
it to a pure and chilling core of impenetrable black menace. Cradle
Of Filth were undoubtedly inspired by this sea-change in metal's ongoing
evolution, they had their own plans for disseminating their own distinct,
gothically-erotic propaganda and swiftly defined their own left hand
path. Their disdain for playing by the rules was startling in its intensity
from the very start.
Throughout the '90s, Cradle of Filth - led by vocalist, lyricist and
crypt-crawling master of ceremonies Dani Filth - beavered tirelessly
away, producing a series of peerless extreme metal classics that drew
from an endless, dizzying array of inspirations and influences while
always maintaining that instantly recognisable heart of filthy darkness.
The brutal and brief 'Vempire' mini-album and the lustrous, lascivious
'Dusk & Her Embrace' (both 1996) began to reveal the band's great
sonic range. Later taking into account the slithering concept piece
'Cruelty & The Beast' (1998) and the Clive Barker-inspired 'Midian'
(2000) - not to mention their excursions into the visual realm of film
and promo- the Cradle Of Filth sound showed itself to be a many-headed
creature. It was one that took delight in confounding both the purists
and the critics who continually assailed the band's motives and creativity
even as their fan base expanded and their status soared. With a line-up
that seemed to be constantly changing - thanks, perhaps, to the cobweb-encrusted
revolving door that rumours suggest marked the entrance to the band's
rehearsal space during this period - the music was never allowed to
stagnate; fresh blood and its revitalising effects remained a permanent
weapon in the boys' macabre arsenal.
As the 21st century dawned, Cradle Of Filth unleashed the epic, ambitious
'Damnation And A Day' - a sprawling, theatrical masterpiece that has
yet to be truly recognised for either its semantic depth or its thrilling
levels of metallic artistry. Quietly walking away from a fractious partnership
with their previous label, the band eventually found a logical home
with Roadrunner Records. It was a match made in hell that spawned what
was, until now, almost certainly the strongest collection of songs in
the Cradle canon, the mighty 'Nymphetamine'. Wildly varied and as heavy
as anything the band had ever recorded, it was widely hailed as a triumph
and led to yet more gruelling treks around the world, where their rabid
fan base lurks in every shadowy corner waiting for their latest fix
of barbaric drama and blood-soaked belligerence.
Now Cradle Of Filth find themselves in the enviable position of being
in a league and class of their own. Having long since outstripped the
achievements of their one-time contemporaries, the band is now firmly
entrenched in a rich vein of form. The current line-up of Dani Filth,
guitarists Paul Allender and Charles Hedger, bassist Dave Pybus and
drummer Adrian Erlandsson is the most solid and powerful in the band's
career and 'Thornography' is the resounding, conclusive proof. With
songs as brutish, bombastic and diverse as "Libertina Grimm,"
"Tonight In Flames," "Cemetery & Sundown," "I
Am The Thorn," "The Byronic Man" (featuring HIM's Ville
Valo on guest vocals) and a deranged cover of Heaven 17's '80s pop gem
"Temptation," the world's biggest and best extreme metal band
have never sounded so exhilarating, so vital, so venomous…
"There are a lot of characters on this album," says Dani Filth
of the new opus. "There's no central concept. It's more along the
lines of 'Nymphetamine' in respect of diversity of content, both lyrically
and musically. We spent the whole summer of 2005 working really hard
on writing the material and making sure it was the best of songs we've
ever written - which undoubtedly it is. It's obviously our best material
thus far. It's far more rhythmic and catchy and easily the heaviest
thing we've done, especially on the production side of things. And there's
a real retro feel to the record, in terms of style. It's slightly experimental
for us and a lot of people will be surprised I think at the level of
diversity we've managed to achieve with this, especially having worked
with other musicians and having our first band instrumental included
('Rise Of The Pentagram'). We started to write and got into a habit
of coming up with tons of stuff. Everyone would be working on ideas
and we'd pool it all together in the dank confines of our rehearsal
room. We kept stirring the cauldron and adding or subtracting accordingly.
Thus each song has its own sound and feel in relation to the concept
behind each track. And as per normal, it's all in good taste!
For example, 'Libertina Grimm', (which concerns itself with a haughty
little vivisectrix and her dissonant life of crime) meanders through
a succession of twists and turns as if to mimic her dark, labyrinthine
obsessions with the dead, before finding foothold with a real primal,
sex-laden hook. She might be mad, but before all else she's groovy!"
Louder, harder, faster, heavier, darker, catchier - the unstoppable
force that is Cradle Of Filth slithers menacingly forward, crushing
the opposition and striking warped, blackened glee into the hearts
of misanthropes and malevolents the world over. The nightmare continues…may
we never wake up!
'Thornography' is out now.
