The legendary Cradle Of Filth are back on top form with their brand new 14th album The Screaming Of The Valkyries and you can bet I got my goth on with this one! This band have been around for a few years now and they’ve had a lot of success and garnered a big cult following in that time. So how does this new album hold up compared to the rest of their catalogue? Well, if you ask me, this has got to be one of if not THE best album(s) they have ever released. It’s got a little bit of everything we’ve come to expect from this band, and more! I am very impressed, so let’s get into it!
The album starts with To Live Deliciously. The intro has some thunder and other atmosphere building sounds before some strings and choir chants come in. We get some creepy whispers from frontman Dani Filth, before the band come chugging in to build up the heaviness. The main riff comes in with some blastbeats and then ol’ Dani boy comes screeching in, making a grand entrance. There’s some nice melodic lead guitar in the chorus and then a more lively, thrashy second verse. We’re also treated to not 1 but 2 flashy guitar solos back to back. A great start, but this is just the beginning!
Demagoguery is up next and this one starts with some strings and a harpsichord. The real intro is when the band comes in and I love this part. There’s a nice flow to the verses between the band and vocals. They come in with some nice chuggy pre-choruses. I wasn’t really blown away by the choruses in this one but the rest of the song is really good. There’s a sombre instrumental part in the bridge with strings before Dani’s creepy vocals come back in. This bridge section has a bit of a Danny Elfman vibe to it. We get some duel guitars before another bridge section which leads into the final part of the song. With piano and strings closing things out after the final chorus.
The Trinity Of Shadows follows up and immediately kicks off with a chaotic heavy intro with some great guitar work. They slow things down a bit for the verses in this one but build up speed with the pre-chorus and chorus. There’s some good backing vocals in the chorus sections and I love the piano part in the pre-chorus. We get a little bass solo leading into the bridge section which leads to a guitar solo/duel where both lead guitars compliment each other extremely well. After the final chorus we get another guitar duel for the outro.
Track 4 is Non Omnis Moriar and begins with a slower more haunting sounding intro. We get some lead guitars and whispers joining in for the first verse. There’s more great lead playing in the pre-chorus and some fantastic female vocals coming in for the choruses. We are treated to another short but sweet guitar solo before the final pre-chorus comes in leading to the outro.
Track 4 is Non Omnis Moriar and begins with a slower more haunting sounding intro. We get some lead guitars and whispers joining in for the first verse. There’s more great lead playing in the pre-chorus and some fantastic female vocals coming in for the choruses. We are treated to another short but sweet guitar solo before the final pre-chorus comes in leading to the outro.
White Hellebore is really when this album gets exciting and the next few tracks are perhaps some of the best in Cradle’s entire collection! It’s kicks off with some crazy chaotic fun with epic lead guitar playing and blastbeats for the intro. There’s some great back and forth between Dani’s and keyboard player Zoe’s vocals for the chorus again, giving this song some heavy Nightwish vibes in some parts. The second verse keeps the heavy but feels a bit more bouncy compared to the first, just some great playing from the band overall. There’s a breakdown sounding part before the bridge comes in. The second half of this bridge is absolutely fantastic! This then leads to the final chorus before we get an outro with some spoken words from Dani to end this track.
This is followed by another great track, You Are My Nautilus. This one has a big intro but calms things down a touch with some clean guitars coming in for the verses. They get heavy again leading up to the chorus with some more tasty lead guitar playing. Then we get a little drum solo with choir vocals leading into the chorus. This structure is repeated a second time around but with the addition of some creepy laughing in the pre-chorus. There’s 3 bridge sections broken up with some more brilliant lead guitar riffs and solos, with the 3rd bridge leading into the final chorus. Then the band fades out for the outro, leaving just the sound of waves to end the track.
Coming to the final 3 tracks of the album, first Malignant Perfection. This one has a particularly ominous intro which leads into a proper symphonic metal sound. They dial things back for the verses, but everything else is chaotic and over the top. Great guitar playing, great drumming, just another all round great sounding track, with a surprisingly scary yet somehow happy sounding outro. I don’t know how they managed to do that, but they’ve done it well!
Next up is Ex Sanguine Draculae. This is another fun, heavy track which is easy to headbang to. The best way I can describe this track is it’s all over the place in the best possible way! And to end the album, they created a very fitting song, When Misery Was A Stranger, which sounds like the kind of music you’d hear during a final boss fight at the end of an epic game. Very heavy energetic intro, thrashy verses, a return of Zoe’s angelic vocals in the choruses and 2 guitar solos. Things slow down a bit for a short instrumental section before the guitars and drums come back strong for the bridge/verse section leading to the outro where things slow down again before the band fades out and the album ends.
This album really blew me away. I’ll admit, I naively considered maybe I’d be disappointed, but I am so glad I was wrong! Cradle have proven they’ve still got it! And this might just be my new favourite album of theirs! The band played exceptionally well! And although I am not a massive fan of Dani’s vocals, they just work here. Brilliant stuff, can’t fault them. Album sounds great, the band played great, and it was a lot of fun to listen to! 10/10
This album really blew me away. I’ll admit, I naively considered maybe I’d be disappointed, but I am so glad I was wrong! Cradle have proven they’ve still got it! And this might just be my new favourite album of theirs! The band played exceptionally well! And although I am not a massive fan of Dani’s vocals, they just work here. Brilliant stuff, can’t fault them. Album sounds great, the band played great, and it was a lot of fun to listen to! 10/10
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