### Cradle Of Filth: Godspeed on the devil's thunder

#### 23/10/08 || Euthanatos

You can hate Cradle of Filth for all sorts of reasons, but if there’s one thing they are good at, it’s album titles. “Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder” might be the most pretentious and grandiose one yet. Oddly enough, just like the album. But that’s not all, there’s even a huge subtitle! “The Life and Crimes of Gilles de Rais”. And who might this Gilles de Rais character be? A French soldier who fought alongside Joan of Arc, but was mainly infamous for being a serial killer. Dani Filth, always with a hard-on for concept albums, decided to dedicated this one to that delightful creature.

First, let’s get this out of the way; I’ve never cared for Cradle of Filth. I’ve never hated them for being the antithesis of true cult black metal either and I think such a thing is ridiculous, but I never got into them. I found (and still do) Dani’s vocals obnoxious, and the music way too over the top and pretentious. But one can’t be close-minded, yes? After all, blame all the world’s ills on them, but Cradle of Filth are damn good at what they do, and they were certainly pioneers of a genre, influencing bucket loads of people world over. It was no accident that got them signed to a major label.

CoF also could be defined by two eras, the earlier, vampiric, and to their fans, classic phase, “Dusk and her Embrace”, “Cruelty and the Beast” and all that. And there’s the post-“Midian” phase, which even some older fans seem not to like, but didn’t harm the band’s popularity at all, particularly with the recent records like“Thornography”, which gathered quite a bit of praise. I confess I have only marginally followed their career. Does that make me a better or worse reviewer for “Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder”? Well, that’s your call, and I don’t care what you say, I’m still doing it.

To start things off… Holy, shit, I’m only starting this review now, after all that crap above… damn. Anyway, to start things off, the production, as usual, is fantastic. Andy Sneap is probably my favorite metal producer, so you can’t go wrong with him. Ever.

The tracks themselves are pretty much what you would expect from the Filth. Dani still sounds obnoxious, Sarah Jezebel Deva sounds amazing, even though she takes the usual back seat, not appearing much apart from “the Death of Love”, a slower track. The mood is epic and grandiose as ever, with symphonic keyboards blasting to high heaven and narrations every now and then. There really ought to be a movie made with each Cradle of Filth release, it would make things a lot more interesting, at least to me. Listen to tracks like “The 13th Caesar”, with its monumental beginning, or “Tragic Kingdom”, with its vicious, yet pompous vein. Everything is bombastic, filled with so many elements I can’t help but feeling this is the soundtrack of a great battle, or a monumental porn flick.

When it comes down to it, Cradle of Filth keep doing what they do majestically. But is that enough? Not for me. I find myself drifting from the songs frequently, even though there are hundreds of elements in each track, I can’t help but feeling this is extremely repetitive, not only within the album, but also with the band’s discography as a whole. Everything is well-crafted, perfectly played, multi-layered, divinely produced, but in the end, you’ll come out of it without anything to write home about. There are a few cool moments like in some of the songs I mentioned before and “Sweetest Maleficia” and the differentiated “Honey & Sulphur”, but those moments are really not enough to make me a fan. If you drool over anything Dani Filth does, this certainly will appeal to you. He is certainly pushing the envelope as much as he can. But for the rest of us? More of the same.

The cover: Pretty shitty CG for a Cradle of Filth record if you ask me. If you have the chance, get the one with the alternate version, it’s much better.

6 short, chubby, screech-voice vocalists out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Roadrunner
- Website: www.cradleoffilth.com
- Band
- Dani Filth: vocals
- Paul Allender: guitar
- Charles Hedger; guitar
- Dave Pybus: bass
- Martin Škaroupka: drums
- Mark Newby-Robson: keyboards
- Sarah Jezebel Deva: backing vocals
- Doug Bradley: narration

- Tracklist
- 01. In Grandeur and Frankincense Devilment Stirs
- 02. Shat Out of Hell
- 03. The Death of Love
- 04. The 13th Caesar
- 05. Tiffauges
- 06. Tragic Kingdom
- 07. Sweetest Maleficia
- 08. Honey and Sulphur
- 09. Midnight Shadows Crawl to Darken Counsel with Life
- 10. Darkness Incarnate
- 11. Ten Leagues Beneath Contempt
- 12. Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder
- 13. Corpseflower