The History of Rock Music. Cradle Of Filth: biography, discography, reviews, best albums, ratings (original) (raw)

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Formed in 1991 in England, Cradle Of Filth spent two years producing demos, such as Invoking the Unclean (1992),Orgiastic Pleasures (1992) andTotal Fucking Darkness (1993). By the time they released their debut album,The Principle of Evil Made Flesh (Cacophonous, 1994), the line-up had mutated into a sextet: Daniel Davey (vocals), Paul Ryan (guitar), Robin Eaglestone (bass), Paul Allender (guitar), Benjamin Ryan (keyboards) and Nicholas Barker (drums). The album immediately established them at the top of the black-metal pyramid.

With a new keyboardist and singer-guitarist Stuart Anstis, the band released the six-song mini-albumVampire or Dark Faerytales in Phallestein (Cacophonous, 1996), mainly for contractual obligations, and finally their masterpiece,Dusk and Her Embrace (Music For Nations, 1997). By fusing heavy metal and progressive-rock, Cradle Of Filth achieved a kind of epic gothic that recalls more King Crimson than Venom (the instrumental The Graveyard By Moonlight).

After more internal turmoil, the band releasedCruelty and the Beast (Myahem, 1998) and their first single ever, From the Cradle to Enslave (1999).

The band's skills at arrangement and pomp get out of control onMidian (Koch, 2000), that nonetheless represents a significant change of sounds, andBitter Suites to Succubi (Koch, 2001), that returns to their classic sound with little or no inspiration.

Lovecraft and Witch Hearts (Music for Nations, 2002) is a double-CD anthology.

Vocalist and guitarist Stuart Anstis started the ambient project Aphelion I-IV (Iris Light, 2001)

Cradle Of Filth's Damnation And A Day (Sony, 2003) marks a return to the heavy sound of their origins, although in a lighter, poppier version.

Nymphetamine (Roadrunner, 2004) and Thornography (2006) stuck to what they did best, forgetting the "pop" element and the pomp, but with as little imagination as possible.

If their ambition was rarely justified by the quality of the music, there is no doubt that they represented the "literate" side of black-metal (except that black-metal fans rarely acknowledged their membership in the genre). That ambition eventually led them toGodspeed On The Devil's Thunder (2008), a concept about a serial killer, and to the double-discDarkly Darkly Venus Aversa (Nuclear Blast, 2011), a black-metal opera that strikes mostly for the amount of music that simply recycles Cradle of Filth cliches and for the number of songs that could have been omitted.