(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Formed in 1991 in England, Cradle Of Filth spent two years producing demos,
such as Invoking the Unclean (1992),
Orgiastic Pleasures (1992) and
Total 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-album
Vampire 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 released
Cruelty 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 on
Midian (Koch, 2000), that nonetheless represents a significant change
of sounds, and
Bitter 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 to
Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder (2008), a concept about a serial killer,
and to the double-disc
Darkly 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.
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