English metal heroes Cradle Of Filth have returned with a whopping album of gothic extreme metal. The first single Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned) is a good representation of the albums sound, but their so much more goodness to be had – this is a very disciplined collection of songs, a lot of work has been put into this and it’s paid off to become a beautifully intense release.
While sticking with their musical template, Cradle Of Filth have tightened their grip on their sound, pulling no punches with the epic thrash of The Nun With The Astral Heart and the demonic dirge Beyond Eleventh Hour. Main man Dani Filth clearly has his sound set in stone and none shall divert him from his path – for that he is to be applauded, the last thing we need is some dickbrain producer (as in giant killer Bob Rock) coming in and shitting all over the formula to crap out some stinky release appealing to the lowest common denominator and sell out in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.
So thankfully Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is much more consistent than previous efforts, which were often tagged overlong and self indulgent – good to see Cradle Of Filth took this on and have blown away any wanky instrumentals or overblown solos/choruses – instead delivering a ball breaking blast of ballistic metal that is very, very tasty indeed.
