Cradle of Filth

Drown in Sulphur – Dark Secrets of the Soul Review

By Dear Hollow on January 13, 2024 in Reviews, Deathcore, 37 comments

“I’m gonna be an insufferable hipster about this one: I’ve been listening to blackened deathcore before Lorna Shore made it cool. Hell, I was listening to the style before Will Ramos made Lorna Shore cool. Bands like The Breathing Process, early Make Them Suffer, and Dark Sermon were all rattling off their own takes on spooky corpse-painted Hot Topic-core in the early 2010s before some Hot Topic frequenter said “ooooh” and nabbed that Watain t-shirt they have on display while manically making pig noises to emulate “To the Hellfire.” Here we meet Drown in Sulphur, an Italian blackened deathcore act, who attempts their own spin on kvlt-y brutality.” Blackcore for the people.

Dun Ringill – 150 – Where the Old Gods Play – Act 1 Review

By Grymm on August 11, 2023 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Folk Metal, 35 comments

“I’ve always been supportive of bands branching out a little bit from their comfort zones to stretch their limbs, check out new haunts, or just freshen up their catalog a tad. Sometimes, some peanut butter needs to be added to your chocolate to make things lively and exciting. So when Swedish doom metal sextet Dun Ringill, a band I’ll admit to never having heard before, decided to add some progressive elements to their particular brand of folk doom, well… I was intrigued.” Dun and done.

Omega Infinity – The Anticurrent Review

By Dear Hollow on March 4, 2023 in Reviews, Ambient, Atmospheric Black Metal, Black Metal, 15 comments

“The infinite expanse. Oceans above. Stars whose light is a glimpse into the ancient past. Physics. Astrophysics. Space: the Final Frontier. Space odysseys are great unless you’re beaten to death with a bone by your ape bud or gaslit by your own computer – super awkward. Plenty of black metal has ventured beyond the firmament for some ethereal goodness, but do any of them chronicle creation?” Omega men.

Diabolical Raw – Elegy of Fire Dusk Review

By GardensTale on November 8, 2022 in Reviews, Black Metal, Death Metal, Symphonic Metal, 18 comments

“Remember when Dimmu Borgir was one of the biggest bands in metal? For a while in the mid-aughts they shared the ‘sort of black metal but palatable to a wider audience’ throne with Cradle of Filth, and no gig could be found that wasn’t saturated with Dimmu and Cradle shirts. Whereas Cradle filed down the black metal barbs with gothic theatricality, though, Dimmu blunted them with bludgeoning symphonics and death-adjacent melodicism. Plenty of Dimmu-like acts have sprung up over the years, following in its footsteps to greater or lesser extent, drawing inspiration from the titan even as its own status diminished. Diabolical Raw, hailing from Türkiye, is one of these adherents.” Dimmu, Dimme.

Blood of Indigo – Dawn of the Shaded World Review

By Grymm on August 24, 2022 in Reviews, Gothic Metal, 20 comments

“Here’s an interesting factoid for you: in my formative metal years, one of my all-time favorite “guilty pleasure” genres of metal was of the Gothic variety. Back in the 90s, groups like Moonspell, Tiamat, and Samael ruled my heart and eardrums with their combined ferocity, ingenuity, and dark energy to the point where I searched out many a band bedecked in frilly shirts and side-laced leather pants. So when Toronto upstarts Blood of Indigo look to welcome back a treasured sound which, combined with their love of gaming(!!!), I thought that this should be a no-brainer, win-win scenario, especially when you consider they spent five years working on their debut, Dawn of the Shaded World.” Goth is the new purple.

Imperial Circus Dead Decadence – 殯――死へ耽る想いは戮辱すら喰らい、彼方の生を愛する為に命を讃える――。 Review

By Eldritch Elitist on June 13, 2022 in Reviews, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, 131 comments

“I have irregularly listened to Imperial Circus Dead Decadence for a decade, and while I can instantly identify their sound, it’s not one I can concisely describe. Think of the blackened melodeath hybrid of Chthonic spliced with Fleshgod Apocalypse’s brutal symphonics and Cradle of Filth’s gothic drama, and you have a ballpark estimate. That is, at least, before tossing in a heaping helping of neoclassical power metal in the vein of Versailles.” The Circus is in town, and it is crazy!

Kreationist – Dans L’Interminable Review

By Carcharodon on November 29, 2021 in Reviews, Black Metal, Electronica, Post-Metal, 16 comments

“Mixing styles ranging from black metal and doom, through post-metal and into trip-hop and noise, one certainly can’t deny Kreationist’s experimental bent. As the record’s heavier sections move between something approaching pummelling second wave black metal and a more symphonic, Cradle of Filth-like sound.” Coma of sounds.

Bloodstock Open Air 2021 Review: Pandemic Festival Pandemonium

By Akerblogger on September 6, 2021 in Blog Posts, 26 comments

“In the words of Rob Halford during Judas Priest’s two-hour headline slot: “Britain’s premier heavy metal festival is back.” Yes, cranky Covid’s delta wave dangerously hovered over the pit like clouded sweat but after a few strong ciders and a crunching riff – experienced live for the first time in over 18 months – the external world became a distant memory.” Metal never dies.

Seance Of – The Colour of Magick Review

By Carcharodon on June 27, 2021 in Reviews, Black Metal, 26 comments

“On more than a couple of occasions, I’ve mused on decisions made by artists that one might label … pretentious. My musings have not, of course, led to anything useful but why should that stop me? Perth, Australia’s curiously-named, one-man project Seance Of is ready to unleash The Colour of Magick. The last – chronologically speaking – of three records written by mainman AR (also of Grave Worship), this is the project’s debut, with the other two to follow at some unspecified future time. Magnanimously, Seance Of has also decided not to name any of the tracks on this record, instead encouraging “listeners to create their own titles for each of these eight tracks: indeed, this unorthodox freedom is his intent.” Having initially written this off as a pretentious gimmick, it took the ever-wise GardensTale to point out that I was missing a trick here.” Boaty McBoatface metal.

Mister Misery – A Brighter Side of Death Review

By Dr. Wvrm on April 27, 2021 in Reviews, Melodic Metal, Thrash Metal, 52 comments

“‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ so the saying goes. But in our modern metal landscape, where a single look at an album cover or a song name can hook us or repel us forever, it’s damn hard to do otherwise. Mister Misery (strike one) are dying for your attention, as illustrated by that album cover (strike two). Their so-called brand of “horror metal” should be strike three, good morning, good afternoon, good night. And yet… maybe read the first page.” Twisted Mister.