Cradle Of Filth - Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 2 / 12 / 2010

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I highly doubt many people reading this will be unfamiliar with Cradle Of Filth. Having been around terrorising the waking world since 1994, the British death/black/extreme metal gods have always pushed things to a total extreme and have, as a result, remained relevant not only in their own scene, but in the music world in general. Over the years the band have gained recognition for the other eight studio albums that came before ‘Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa’ have torn stages up the world over with their theatrical stage shows and who can forget their legendary merchandise including a masturbating nun T-shirt. For those yet to cotton on to ‘The Filth’ these antics should give a good indicator to what we’re dealing with here. ‘Darkly...’ certainly doesn’t see the band kicking back and doing an acoustic album to slow things up a bit. Why would it? Instead first track ‘The Cult of Venus Aversa’ bursts out with spoken word "warning from some sort of demon witch." I can’t be too sure as I was hiding behind the couch at the time, but from this fairytale beginning comes something far more disturbing in the form of breakneck guitars, strings and growls all lead by all the double kick drumming you could wish for. ‘One Foul Step from the Abyss' follows suitably with a far more straight up metal sound than I first anticipated, which I love. They have a fantastically refined guitar sound which while totally heavy also flows well. There’s a real groove and soul to their music, even if it one of pure evil. Dramatic moments like ‘The Persecution Song’ are chocked full of haunting pianos and earth shattering strings that give it a real cinematic quality, It is the essence of gothic horror which the band, led by Singer Danni Filth, have set out to achieve. "This album is our most sinister, a gothic horror themed slay-ride of fervour and perversion" as he has described it. And he sums this up well. There lies one of the beauties of Cradle of Filth. They know exactly who they are and are just so unbelievably focused on what they do you can’t help be in awe of it. ‘Lilith Immaculate’ and ‘Deceiving Eyes’ takes us back into the metal world again with yet more killer riffs from Paul Allender and James McIlroy. Deep and dirty is the best way I could describe the sort of noise these guys make and when fused with the organs you are instantly aware of who and what you’re listening to. ‘The Spawn of Love and War’ is yet another track of pure wickedness. There is little on here that gives mankind much hope, but that’s what is brilliant about it. A true experience of an album, Cradle of Filth yet again do what they do best with 'Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa' and that is take you on a thoroughly entertaining ride that is ferocious, scary and mind blowing all at once. They’re really not going away so you might as well join them.

Track Listing:-

1 The Cult Of Venus Aversa
2 One Foul Step From The Abyss
3 The Nun With The Astral Habit
4 Retreat Of The Sacred Heart
5 The Persecution Song
6 Deceiving Eyes
7 Lilith Immaculate
8 The Spawn Of Love And War
9 Harlot On A Pedestal
10 Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned)
11 Beyond Eleventh Hour

Have a Listen:-

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