| Damnation and a Day is the one the fans have been waiting for, Cradle of Filth's major label debut, their first album with a budget to match their monolithic musical ambitions. And it's no disappointment as they use their new-found financial muscle to predictably excessive effect. Accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra and 32-voice choir from Budapest (a city tolerably close to Transylvania), they've raised their game, coming on like Venom conducted by Danny Elfman. Over 77 thrill-packed minutes, they combine their usual pulverising riffs, shrieking raps and monstrous chants with grandiose melodic harmonies and portentous talkovers, along with rolling pianos ("Babylon AD"), eastern dirges ("Dobermann Pharoah") and female sweetness ("Mannequin"), plus a wide array of creepy whispers, sighs and screams. Like Black Sabbath in their pomp, they regularly break their fierce assault with short instrumental interludes ("The Mordant Liquor of Tears"), then rev up again with ever more manic intensity. It seems their intention is to deliver a Black Metal alternative to Carmina Burana, and it's to their credit that they come damn close, producing a series of scorching epics that would perfectly soundtrack the extraordinary battle sequences in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Only Cradle of Filth could do this. --Dominic Wills |
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