Cradle of Filth Cruelty and the Beast Review (ulalume)
Pros
-I consider this album my favorite by Cradle of Filth. The scope of this album is just incredible. These musicians seemlessly transfer the concept of Countess Bathory to music. I am still fascinated by the perspective taken by writer Dani Filth. The way he examines Bathory as a human acting on innate animalistic tendencies, instead of just demeaning her to "monster" status as is shown so frequently by the media; is just an impressive feat of the human mind.-The lyrics on this album are just beautiful and at the highest quality. Cradle of Filth's vocabulary is very large, to say the least.
-The recording quality is pretty great, albeit a few flaws. Still, I feel the occasionally muddiness in the mix adds to the atmopshere.
-The arrangements are all beautiful.
-Dani Filth's vocals are unique to this genre of music, and make this album even more appealing than it already is.
Cons
-As mentioned earlier, this album is relatively muddy (especially the drum track).-The female vocals have been described as sounding like the vocalist who spoke them "had her head in the toilet." I find this unfortunate because Dani Filth's vocals are so clear, despite being screamed a majority of the time.
-"Beneath the Howling Stars", while not a filler or "bad" song by any means; is just kind of out of place in a way. Not to mention most songs about wolfs in metal are just getting annoying.
Full Review
Okay, I am a bit biased towards this album, as it is one of
my favorite concept albums of all time. The albums "concept" is
loosely based on the life of Elizabeth Bathory (The "Blood Countess"
of
Let me say that the album's title Cruelty and the Beast is just an
interesting play (potentially) on the film "Beauty and the Beast."
What is most interesting about this album lyrically and conceptually is that
the band does not set out with a "Bathory was a purely evil woman"
mindset that many media sources tend to go with. Instead, they view her as a
woman acting animalistically, yet also sometimes in a more feminine, "why
am I doing this" sort of way.
The production quality of this album is decent. It all sounds good, however it
has long been debated as to whether or not the drums sound "good" or
"muddy." To me, either way, they sound good for the atmosphere being
created. To add, the drumming is great (from Hellhammer of Mayhem/Dimmu Borgir
fame). The other instruments/vocals are also good. The guitar is probably the
weakest sounding in terms of tone, however it does still get the job done. The
synths are purely beautiful as usual, as are the moments of other
instrumentation such as violins and pianos. Dani Filths voice is at its peak on
this album, ushering in his trademark whispers, black metal esque rasps, and
deep growls.
Lyrically speaking, I can not stress enough the sheer brilliance of this band.
In a way, all of the lyrics should be read straight through while listening to
the album. I found it best that way.
As far as the compositions are concerned, they are also top quality. "Once
Upon Atrocity" opens the album with Cradle of Filth's traditional
instrumental, and leads directly into "Thirteen Autumns and a Widow"
which is a brilliant album opener really. Next, "Cruelty Brought Thee
Orchids" which has been a staple of the band's live set since they
released this album for good reason. The song is very melodic and the screaming
over quickening double bass drum blast beats brings the song to a beautiful,
yet somewhat harsh ending. If any attention should be brought to a specific song
or set of songs, that focus should be brought onto the final three. After
listening to this album on repeat for about a month, I came to the conclusion
that the final three songs could have been combined into one epic masterpiece.
"Bathory Aria" (clocking in at eleven minutes long!), "Portrait
of a Dead Countess" (a beautiful interlude), and "Lustmord and
Wargasm" (the amazing album ender filled with beautiful violins at a high
tempo playing with lighting fast guitars and blast beats) are these three
songs. They quite frankly blow most music out of the water. They are about as
perfect as perfect can be. The primary reason I feel these songs should be
condensed into one "super song" is because they seamlessly transfer from one to
the next.
In Closing
Cradle of Filth's old material was just perfect. I sometimes find it difficult to grasp the idea that they will likely never create another album to the standards of Cruelty and the Beast. I highly recommend this album, even to the most elite black metal music lover. This is one of the few albums where the symphonic elements do not feel forced, or clash with the high pace of the distortion guitar and blast beat infused metal. In fact, they completely add to the atmosphere. So many bands these days have synths in their mix exclusively for the purpose of having synths and being considered a "symphonic" band. Fortunately, on this album Cradle of Filth avoided this trap.If you are interested in buying this album, I highly suggest looking into buying the Cradle of Filth boxset through Amazon.com. When I bought this album, I was able to get it and three other Cradle of Filth albums for the price of one! It is a great deal for a music lover looking to expand their collection and musical tastes.
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Comments
chris....go to Google and search for "cradle of filth cruelty review"
......that's REAL good.....
...this article is the second result!
...type in "Cradle of Filth Cruelty and the Beast Review"
your article is the 6th result first page!
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