way back when i wrote about
cradle of filth's 'darkly, darkly venus aversa' i promised more and here we are.
cradle of filth - the manticore and other horrors
i think this is cradle's 10th full length album and they still deliver! after their return to form with 2008th 'godspeed on the devil's thunder' all cof stuff doesn't disappoint. this time around the production is much better than on 'darkly'. clearer, the drum sound to the point and the vocals don't go down in the entirety. this one comes with pressure and it's a pleasure for the ear. for a cof album this is pretty crisp time wise. "only" about fifty minutes but no weakness at all. the only thing which is a bit of a pity are the lyrics. no real concept this time. which means that there is of course a common thread contentwise but no building up story line. after all i think i'll survive this :-) because musically this is really good material opposed to 'nymphetamine' where a lyrical concept story was missing too.
songs like 'manticore' (with a lovely ooohhhh-ooohhhh-sing-a-long) or 'frost on her pillow' are sending shivers down my spine every time i listen to them. and i don't really know what it is but there is always something special about holding a cradle record in hands. i think it has something to do with my perception of metal music. unlike hardcore, where i demand some standards towards lyrical content and attitude, metal is entertainment to me. and cradle of filth is pure entertainment. so there are some real crackers and every cof fan of the post 'cruelty of the beast' era should like this record.
according to the picture of the inner gatefold the band itself has stripped down to three core members. mascot of the band dani filth of course (who is the only one being a constant member right from the start), paul allender (who went into a four year hiatus from '96 to 2000) and the newest member, martin skaroupka on drums (who is part of the band since 'godspeed'). good line up!
the packaging is very nice. everything feels pretty solid. thick cardboard gatefold sleeve, 180gr vinyl, black dust sleeves (nice touch for the overall impression) and what is most noteworthy - a lp sized booklet. more releases should have one. the cover art compared to the booklet art is pretty lame, though. sadly no coloured vinyl but as said before, the overall impression makes it a quality release by
peaceville records. 2012.
cradle of filth - damnation & a day
this record is special to me. together with killswitch engage's 'alive or just breathing' it marks the end of my new metal days. goodbye to korn, coal chamber and all the others that began to bore me. i saw the music video for the song 'babalon a.d.' on a metal show at viva² on tv. watch it
here. i found it kind of creepy but there was a certain attraction. i went to the next shop for electronic hardware in my little town which had a small cd section. of course they didn't have the album in stock, i had to have it ordered and waited for it some days to arrive. as i picked it up and payed too much money for it i held a treasure in hands, i was sure about that. now that i have the vinyl re-issue i feel the same excitement. priceless.
as i'm seeing to fill my vinyl collection with releases that i already own on cd, cradle's 'damnation & a day' was high on the list. and of course on coloured vinyl. epic records, or better sony music released a clear red vinyl version of 2000 copies in 2003. this seems not to be a high constraint because it don't comes along ebay very often and if so it goes for a lot of money. at least more than i was willed to pay the two times i got outbid. so the vinyl re-issue god must have heard my prayers as i read that
music on vinyl would do the job.
and m.o.v. did an awesome job on this. they pretty much went with the original pressing on epic, excluding the vinyl colour. i'm glad that they didn't release it with a gatefold sleeve. gatefold sleeves are just nothing special anymore when it comes to metal nowadays. everything gets released with gatéfold covers, for good or for bad. this record comes with a thick sleeve so it can house two 180gr lp's with printed dust sleeves. read the pressing information on the sticker.
m.o.v. chose a good date to re-release this record of course. one month before 'manticore' came out. very industrious indeed ;-)
the music however, is in my eyes their best stuff they ever put out. i love the big orchestration (for which they signed to sony), the amount of musical master pieces (the promise of fever - my favourite cof song, better to reign in hell, doberman pharao, the smoke of her burning... i could go on) and the lyrical concept. although i understand quite nothing here. rudimentarily i know that it's about arkangel michael and his fall from grace and his struggeling until the end of the world. but that's it. everything in between is too much mysticism and theological knowledge. maybe someone can explain?
