Cradle of Filth Album: “Cruelty and the Beast”

This album was first introduced to me about 8 months ago by a friend, and since has changed my life. The first time I heard it, the vocals alone took my breath away. They sounded like they were not human, to shrill and high, and in my mind I pictured they were being screamed by some kind of goblin or ghoul. Dani Filth is the only vocalist I have ever heard who sounds truly frightening.

This album is not for the faint of heart. Some friends of mine who listened to the CD confessed to having nightmares about it.To back Dani up, Cradle of Filth offers some of the spooky synths, moody bass lines, vicious and unrelenting drums, and some of the best double guitar work in music today.

This is a great starter album for someone looking to get in to Black Metal, and if you like COF, some other bands you might like are COVENANT, EMPEROR, DIMMU BORGIR, and MAYHEM. It takes a very special kind of metal head to like Black Meatl. But if you like to be blown away and scared stiff at the same time by some of the most angry, moody, and poetic music in the world today, this is the album for you.

Also, be sure to buy the special edition 2 disc version of "Cruelty and the Beast", it is worth your money and you will not regret it.

My favorite type of music would be prog-rock,(ex. Pink Floyd, Genesis, E.L.P, Dream Theater)but my next favorite genre is black metal! I like a lot of the keyboard-oriented black metal, so Cradle of Filth is my favorite of the genre. The keyboardist, Lector, is awesome. The sweeping atmosphere of the keyboards just make everything darker. Of course there's always the crunchy guitar riffs, high pitched shrieks too low growls, and fast hitting double-bass drums, but they can immediatly loose all that and have very beautiful keys over Danni Filths vocals. This album is just amazing

People tend to slag off Cradle Of Filth, dismissing them as a joke band among the black metal genre. Pop-black metal; sell-out black metal; commercial black metal: all of these terms have been used to describe COF and their multiple albums. Aside from the fact that black metal cannot be commercial or sell-out because of its very nature, neither is it pop (contradiction in terms - how can black metal be pop?), people do forget that Cradle Of Filth do what they do better than most.

For starters, this album doesn't have a bad song on it. The riffs, melodies, keyboards and constant thumping drums are all in place, all well done, all effective in their own right. Secondly, mixing their black metal style with gothic music (considerably slower, gloomier and more atmospheric than black metal) gives COF a much more original sound that most other black metal bands. Thirdly, Dani Filth has a much better, scarier voice with a lot more range than most other black-metal vocalists (he can go from a growl to a shrill screech in an instant). People say he needs singing lessons. You're looking in the wrong genre if it's singing you want mate!!

This album is very highly recommended. People tend to slag this off as it is the trend not to look trendy as it were - they're just contradicting themselves, saying that COF are too universal and they don't want to appear trendy in front of all these other black-metallers. Who's conforming now, huh? It's not as if COF are being raved about by all these nu-metallers. So what if more people find their sound appealling? So what if the album isn't recorded in a basement with a dictaphone? Listen to this album and enjoy it for what it is instead making 'being a music fan' a chore. A brilliant album that will have you listening over and over again.

Oh, and don't listen to this album late at night because Venus In Fear WILL freak you out. The first three tracks are the best but all of them are good.

My god, this is the most nightmarish stuff I have ever heard! It is absolutely incredible. Let me start from the beginning: Most of the time I don't really dig the "Gothic" black metal, mainly because most nobody really knows who the Goths really were, and I try to steer towards the Mid evil (Ha Ha) stuff like Enthroned, Dark Throne, Satyricon, Etc., with occasional exceptions(like the Mighty, Mighty Emperor). This is one of those exceptions. Jesus, when I first heard this, I knew that it was truly unique: The highest pitched vocals that I have ever heard, which unlike another reviewer, I find indicative of talent and goodness(sic); insane synths in the likes of Mithotyn and Nothing (I mean Truly Insane); and overall an incredibly dark, grim, necrophilic good ol' time! Yee Haw!

I thought this album was awesome. I first heard it from a friend and listen to the copy he bought. When I heard it, I thought it was pretty damn good, except for the fact that it really needs less treble and more bass. Other than that, it's worth recommending to others to listen too.