Cradle Of Filth - Cryptoriana - The Seductiveness of Decay

Cradle Of Filth, on their fourteenth studio release, continue to do what they’ve been doing for the past quarter of a century… that is performing symphonic, polyphonic, lyrically challenging, awfully sung, extreme gothic/black metal in a way that they did more or less invent and popularized along with very few contemporaries, most of whom have fallen by the wayside, while none matched their popularity.
 
Quite consistent with their last few “Blast” albums, more melodic, but more extreme that their past few, the band hardly ever strays from the formula they introduced, but manages to come up with some interesting application on “Achingly Beautiful”, which goes from vapid to symphonic, the punishing and complex title track, then via the more old school flavored “Vengeful Spirit” (which somehow manages to incorporate Liv Christine towards the end), to the whirlwind melodies of “You Will Know the Lion by His Claw” and the more theatrical last two tracks, “Death and the Maiden” and “The Night at Catafalque Manor”. The cover of Annihilator’s “Alison Hell” is interesting and not as much as a hack-job as I expected based on past covers the band has attempted, while the various ideas they come up with to make it their own instrumentally are indeed quite interesting.
 
The progeny of Hell and Sabbat and the abortion of Hecate Enthroned, these Brits popularity can only be compared to the hardiness of cockroaches… they seem to survive every time, through thick and thin… at least Dani, does. Shit, they might even be around after the Brexit. Blimey… there’s no get ridding of them…