after peaceville records did me the favour of re-releasing the band's third e.p. "bitter suites to succubi", although it is often referred to as an album because of its length, another former label of cradle of filth came up with the intend to cash in on the band's past. music for nations records released the "from the cradle to enslave" e.p. in 1999 on cd only and corrected the error of never pressing it to vinyl this year. at first information was a little scarce. quite a few german vinyl distros carried the title but gave no info on packaging or colouring.
i almost forgot about it but when i was about to pre-order the latest sick of it all release at emp, which will be discussed in the up-coming post, i remembered that there was something nice to add to the order. by then it was announced the record would come on red coloured vinyl and so i was all in for it. when i recieved the record and dropped the needle on it for the first time, i was amazed again by how good the title track of the e.p. is. in my humble opinion "from the cradle to enslave" is one of the best songs they have ever written, b-movie video inclusive. a goddamn scorcher. the rest of the a-side including the anathema cover "sleepless" is awesome as well.
in my eyes the b-side can't live up to its counterpart but anyway, musically this release rips. what definitely does not rip is the packaging by music for nations. back in the day i had the cd digipak version and for the vinyl release the label simply dropped 99% of the whole artwork. no insert, not even the centre labels of the vinyl show some art. the only thing which is left is the cover artwork and even here they changed the colours of the lettering. oh come on music for nations! this is most probably one of the lamest jobs ever done in re-press history. music for nations records. 1999/2016.
