Cradle of Filth

Cradle of Filth have gone heavy metal, and strangely enough, it works. There are clear glimpses of "the band that were” on Thornography but even clearer visions of where they’ve been over the last couple of years. Demonic whispers of black metal, goth and classical orchestration wage war with NWOBHM, classic thrash and the Ozzfest and metalcore sounds Cradle have been exposed to on this side of the Atlantic, and somehow it all comes to a truce on some devastatingly catchy ground. Thematically the band still deal in humour, horror and gothic fiction, but Dani Filth’s vocals have been altered — less eardrum-splitting shrieking and more mid-range snarling and singing. Thornography includes some crushing heaviness, but it’s the melodic songs that make the strongest impact — "The Byronic Man” with guest vocals by H.I.M.’s Ville Valo and "The Foetus of a New Day Kicking.” The record wraps up with a heavy metal-ised cover of Heaven 17’s "Temptation” (featuring guest vocals by a woman called Harry), and that final emphatic punctuation offers a vivid summary of what Thornography is about.