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On disc: Cradle Of Filth



Nymphetamine - Jörg Petersen - 9 stars
Manticore And Other Horrors - Claudia Ehrhardt - 8 stars


www.cradleoffilth.com







Manticore And Other Horrors

Manticore And Other Horrors
(Peaceville - 2012)


Cradle Of Filth is around for about 2 decades and they frequently delivered album. These days the core of CoF is the trio of singer Dani Filth, guitarist Paul Allender and drummer / keyboarder Marthus. This time the British cut down the running time to about 50 minutes. Lyrically it talks about monsters, personal demons, vampires and a lot other beasts.

Slowly Dani Filth and his mates kick off the album with The Unveiling Of O, an atmospheric tune which would also work as a soundtrack. After the intro they head into The Abhorrent, a fast symphonic black metal tune. Very dramatic, but Dani Filth always knew how to tell stories in a dramatic way. With The Abhorrent they also get back to their roots - in a way. At For Your Vulgar Delectation they add some thrashy riffs and a punk feel, they spice up the tune with melodic but heavy guitar parts and growls. With Illicitus they present a CoF hymn, a song which is as catchy as brutal. At Manticore the symphonic black metal elements are more prominent than on some others, that will please long-time fans. Frost On Her Pillow most will know as it was the first video clip, and in my opinion a good choice to give an idea about Manticore And Other Horrors.




After Huge Onyx Wings Behind Despair they present Pallid Reflection, a song which shows the thrashy riffs bedded into the symphonic, frenzy mix spiced up with female spoken words. Succumb To This they surprise with a very melodic vocal part, but again they take the listener on a sonic journey. The closer is another symphonic tune, an instrumental which leads you out of the album - or builds the bridge to the opener, if you are on 'repeat all'.

It's no news that Cradle Of Filth are no longer just interesting for black metal fans, every open-minded metal head should check out their 10th studio album!


8 stars

Claudia Ehrhardt
 

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Nymphetamine

Nymphetamine
(Roadrunner Records - 2004)


The band is around for 10 years now and even if they changed with every album, they are still the masters of black metal. Their last album Damnation And A Day was released through a major and was recorded with an orchestra. Their time at a major is over and so another change. This time Cradle Of Filth is reflecting the variety of metal, but this time they don't mix the genre elements within the songs. This time the variety of songs is bigger, but they still sound like Cradle Of Filth and still Dani's voice is dominating. On Nymphetamine Overdose and Nymphetamine Fix Dani is singing with Liv Kristine Espenæs-Krull which add the songs a gothic metal outfit. On the current album the orchestral parts age gone and metal riffing - partly thrashy - are back. The album is produced by Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano which probably gave the album a different sound. Perhaps this isn’t their masterpiece - many say that Cruelty And The Beast is their masterpiece - , but on Nymphetamine is black metal with variety and good arrangements. More mature then Cruelty And The Beast.


9 stars

Jörg Petersen
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)
 

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