Enshrined in Crematoria gets released on Monday, apparently. (It's already available to buy individually from Amazon.com MP3 and possibly iTunes.)

Another lyric video, I guess? Let's hope it's as good as the first two songs.

There's a good deal of Nymphetamine on the new one.

http://www.apochs.net/cradleoffilth-hammerofthewitches/

Good. That album kicks ass.

After reading that review I've decided to cancel my pre-order, sorry I'm out.

As much as I'd love to, I'm not hearing any 90s Filth flair from the new songs or previews. And I honestly don't understand the "Cradle's back" sentiment; people have been saying that since Godspeed came out. I haven't read the above review because I don't want to prejudge the album too heavily before I hear the whole thing, but from what little I have heard, the Nymphetamine comparison isn't far off.

Nymphetamine is bar far Cradle of Filth's most boring album, I won't listen to another Nymphetamine.

Nymphetamine might not be awesome all the way through; it's hard to make a 70 - 75 minute album that is.

But even the worst song on Nymphetamine is way better than The Byronic Man. Crap, I'm back to bashing Thornography again.

Taking into account the description of the songs we have listened to so far, I wouldnt spent more than 10 seconds reading this review. Just ignore it.

I will await to listen to the new song they are going to post today, If I am not wrong.

I've already heard it, really sucks.

Really? so you have a promo edition, lucky guy.

Its strange because they first songs they present are usually a good indication of how the album will be. I mean, when they premiered the singles of Nymphematime and Thornography we really knew how the album was going to sound. It surprises me in this case because both songs are quite good and very different from the mentioned albums.

Another new track!

That was the first track so far that had a more Nymphetamine sort of feel to it, but I still dug it since the riffs were a lot more interesting than what that album had to offer. One thing I've really been liking about all these new songs is the increased usage of guitar solos. Cradle of Filth have never really been a guitar solo band, only using them on an errant track here and there, so having all three new songs have solos gives me hope that every song (or at least most of the songs) on the album has one.

Really dug the tune, just like the other two. Still chomping at the bit to hear this whole thing.

I agree that has a little touch of that album plus something more from Godspeed. Anyway the track is heavier and the riffs are clearly better. Moreover it has some tempo changes and arrangements which are interesting too.

Same old riffs, boring.

Just got around to having a listen to the three pre-release songs. Right Wing and Deflowering the Maidenhead are genuinely great. Much more what I've wanted to hear from Cradle than anything they've released in a long time. I fell off the Cradle wagon just before they released Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder. Thornography is a bit of a guilty pleasure but I was sixteen and with a less developed music taste when it came out and certainly enjoyed it fully at the time. Songs like Tonight In Flames, Under Huntress Moon and the masterful Rise of the Pentagram still excel.

The savage delivery, strong vocals and general very mature composition of these new songs is definitely unexpected since I haven't got into anything I've heard from the last two albums. Enshrined In Crematoria doesn't stand out so much but it's certainly not bad. I think this will turn out to be the first Cradle of Filth album I'll have bought since 2006.

Alright buddy, we get it. You dont like it.




In any case, the new song is pretty great, havent cared about COF since GOTDT so I might check this one out.

I do not, sorry.

Wow, Enshrined is excellent, I can kind of see why people are comparing it to Nymphetamine but I think it's much closer to Midian stuff. The three tracks have been very satisfying, looking forward to its release because it's sounding like a safe buy.

Just finished listening to the whole album.

The departure of Paul Allender was the best thing that could happen to CoF. The banality and mediocrity of his riffs was the main reason why the band wasn't interesting to these ears after "Midian".

So, with Allender out of the picture and with fresh blood inside, the guitarwork is where this album shines. Be it dual melodies, solos or intricate thrash/death/black metal riffing - the band's music is reinvigorated and rich, dynamic with many tempo changes.

Although the first CoF albums will never be touched quality wise by the band again (it was a different era), because of the richness of the sound, this album is the closest we will ever get to old CoF.

Easily their best since "Midian".

This band really has been awful since Midian, although I have only browsed on songs on youtube.

I used to HATE Midian, coming off the heels of my favourite Cradle album, Cruelty & The Beast (and the album that introduced me to black metal back in 98), it sounded way too polished, lacking atmosphere, and in the case of The Ghost In the Fog, too damn poppy. I know people didnt like some of the production on Cruelty, but that album was soaked in atmosphere for me. Even the previous Cradle releases lacked a little atmosphere that Cruelty had imo.

However i just revisited Midian last night, and while it is definitely quite polished sounded, it has some pretty good songs on it, so maybe I was a quick to dismiss the newer cradle stuff (although I doubt it)

Any of it worth hearing at all?

Listen to the three pre-release songs. Right Wing of the Garden Triptych in particular is just this insane scorcher of a song. Many shades of Cruelty in that song, only with a much beefier, better production style.

Cheers, will do.

I'm about halfway through the album now. This album RULES. Everything I was expecting this album to be has come to pass. This is the album I wanted the band to make for years now, and I am not disappointed in the slightest in that regard.

I'm trying not to listen to a leak since I'll have the album in six days (not being holier than thou, by the way - I heard the new Nightwish ahead of release), so can anyone describe how prominently Lindsey's vocals are featured on the other songs besides Triptych, Deflowering, and Enshrined?

I've said before I wasn't really expecting a complete "return to the nineties," but one aspect of the old stuff I hoped they'd reproduce was the higher percentage of songs with female vox. They were severely underused on Manticore, from what I recall.

I listened to the entire album now, it honestly is pretty boring. Nothing is original on it, it sounds just like Godspeed.

You're right that it's not a 100% throwback to their 90s style, but there's a LOT of their 90s style in Hammer of the Witches. As for the female vox, there's definitely a lot more of those on here than on Manticore. There's a lot more of things they used to do that are present on this album as opposed to some of their other more recent albums. As said, it's the album I've wanted the band to make for a long time but never got.

Great.

And he isn't even correct in the latter part; very little of the album sounds anything like Godspeed. Maybe he just listened to the wrong album.

Didn't really know what to think from the few songs that were up as far as the whole album goes. Could go either way, good or bad, but I was leaning towards not so great. Deflowering the Maidenhead didn't sound so great to me when I heard it at first, just heard it for a second time on my way through the whole thing and definitely sounded better. The other two I thought were okay. The new lineup did give me a bit of hope though, I thought Paul Allender leaving would surely open some space soundwise if you know what I mean. As much as I love the guy for being in it at the beginning and having a hand in a lot of the good old material he's gotten pretty stale as a guitarist, and he has to be one of my bigger influences on guitar since they were pretty much my gateway into metal. The vocals are sounding better than they have recently, I think. Don't exactly know what to make of Lindsey Schoolcraft's vocals yet. There are good melodies but I'm just not sure if I like her voice. I don't remember if she was on Manticore or DDVA, I hardly listened to DDVA and I don't think I even heard all of the songs of Manticore. I'm about halfway through and it's much better than I expected so I hope after repeated listens it will grow to be one that actually gets spun every so often, but we'll see. So far really the only thing that kind of annoyed me was the first riff in Blackest Magick in Practice, to me it just sounded way too similar to the first riff of Funeral in Carpathia. Just not tremolo picked and altered a tiny bit. Meh. I haven't really listened to Cradle of Filth in a while, I'll have to revisit their discography so I can get the most out of this new one.

Lindsay joined right after Manticore. They used a session singer for DDVA and Manticore for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. They had a different session singer on Godspeed as well in addition to Sarah Jezebel Deva.

The singer on Darkly and Manticore is the wife of Scott Atkins, the producer of those records, so it made sense to go with her. I'm not head-over-heels for her voice, but I like it well enough. It's distinctive and fits the music.

Her best moment on either record was the solo verse in Lilith Immaculate from DDVA (not the chorus, although that was pretty cool too). I remember rewinding the song back to the start of that section over and over again when the album first came out. An early favorite from the band for me.

Don't take my word for it, because you might end up liking it.


The production values and drums sound the same, the symphonic elements do too. The only difference I noticed are with the choirs, listening to it again I can't even say it sounds like Godspeed. More like Nymphetamine but with more black metal elements and guitar solos, I honestly didn't give the album a listen through without stopping it for a while.

I liked that Enshrined at the Crematory ditty, it's a good tune. Dani's crazy witch vocals are nifty. I might just pick this up. I never really liked much besides Dusk, but that's because I never heard much.

Listening to some of the tracks again, I guess I should listen to it again. The title track is pretty good, Blackest Magic In Practice just absolutely sucks though-- it has the exact same riff from The Death of Love.

Well, that didn't take long. After telling myself "three songs is plenty, just wait until Friday to hear the rest" I broke down and listened to the title track.

Oh my god. That middle section from around 2:20 to 4:00 is going to be stuck in my head for YEARS.


If you like Dusk, my guess is you would like Cruelty as long as the bad drum sound doesn't ruin it for you.

Just listened to Enshrined in Crematoria, and I liked that one more than Maidenhead. I got quite scared when I saw people starting to talk about Nymphetamine in here all of a sudden, which is easily the most boring CoF album with shitty groovy riffs galore, fruity keys and just generally boring everything - be it the drums, vocal lines or whatever. But this track or any of the others I've heard so far? I can't hear any Nymphetamine in them.

Granted, I haven't listened to that album since about 2008ish, but I used to have it in heavy rotation in the mid-00s when I was like 15, so I remember it well enough. Enshrined had great leads, some nice and varied riffage (as with their previous new songs), a nice solo, and some cool drumming as expected of Martus. You could maybe say the keys sound a bit more 00s-CoF-like than on any of the previous songs that channeled the 90s stuff more, but apart from that and the few middle-paced parts, I don't think this sounds like any of the boring mid-00s CoF stuff. Even if the core ingredients can be same at places, the execution and writing is a lot better now; actually interesting guitar work, great drumming and the keys are quite cool too.

I'll listen to the full album when I get the physical copy, resisting the leak.

Admittedly I am enjoying this album more than I expected, the band sounds fresh and I definitely get a more than a hint of their earlier material throughout which is a great thing, this is coming from someone who gave up on the band many years ago.

I listened to the album again on the way to work this morning, and outside of nitpicky stuff, I can't find anything wrong with this album. What an amazing album. Easily the best record they've made since Midian.