Music : Damnation & A Day

Rating: - BETTER THAN THORNOGRAPHY, WITH FANTASTIC ORCHESTRAL PASSAGES!
Whatever your views on this band, I'd urge anyone who is into Symphonic Metal to not miss out on this!
I'm no expert on the band; the only other CD I have is Thornography. Of the 2 albums, I MUCH prefer this one (I found Thornography lacking apart from 2 or 3 songs).
What elevates this is the major use of the 80 strong Budapest Film Orchestra and Choir - this is the only COF album, that uses a REAL full orchestra, due to Sony Music coughing up the cash to fulfill the band's symphonic ambitions. It's awesome in arrangement, performance & production, REALLY complimenting the music. Seriously dark & demonic, totally at one with the album's 'Paradise Lost' Concept.
You tend to get approx. 2 minute, orchestral interludes between songs as well as heavy orchestration during the actual songs themselves.
Highlight classical pieces for me are Damned in Any Language - A Plague on Words (The choir, the brass section, SCARY!) & The Mordant Liquor of Tears, but every piece is equally good!
This also pushes the band hard - I enjoyed Dani Filth's Blackened Death Metal vocals (High shrieks, occasionally clean & lots of REALLY low, brutal phrasing) & genuineley clever lyrics. There's a lot of strong riffs and melodic leads, the bass is loud & clear and there's no shortage of double bass drum moments. Even without the orchestra & choir, this would be a far, far stronger album than Thornography is (too mainstream for me). Keyboards are present, but less obvious due to the prominence of the orchestra.
The production is flawless too, everything retains it's identity while still achieving a full on assault! As stated on the product description, the instrumental passages would really accompany the darker images of the LOTR movies - It's pure Cinema on a CD!!!!
Even if you have any prejudices over Cradle Of Filth, I'd strongly recommend this, especially if you liked Dimmu Borgir's Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia or Death Cult Armageddon. Or Therion's later (orchestral) releases, or even Metallica's S&M live album. This is top quality as far as this genre goes, and one of the most successful, Symphony Orchestra/Extreme Metal collaborations.

I'd really appreciate any comments regarding any more COF albums that are closer to this sound than Thornography. Cheers!

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Rating: - Worst Cradle of Filth Album
Well this album has got to be the worst CoF album- mainly because it has not worked out, the songs have not come together. They have used the orchestra wrong, it is worsening the music by making it sound blocked- metal part, orchestra part ect. Not mixing and making it sound beautiful but harsh! Also the singing is worse than all other albums- as he has lost his black metal singing and it now sounds purely 'fake'.
The other parts- guitar and drums are good, The only thing is this album is really letting it down is the orchestra as it has been used badely!

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Rating: - BETTER TO RIEGN IN HELL
Briliant cd some of cradles best songs and i can tell you as i have all there cds they have not sold out!there are great chugging guitar riffs and screaming vocals as we have come to expect.Personal i think this and Midian are cradles best cds midian for sheer force and this there must creative attempt and you can hear how it lead on to nyphetamine (my 4th favourite, cruelty and the beast 3rd).The songs havegreat lyrics and the music dosn't sound egyption as someone said, it is a great solid metal cd ( i dont see cof as a black metal band as there realy melodic espicial on this)This cd is great to get people into them though as it is very addictive its always on mp3.To some up great probably better than nyphetamine (which is a bit to light and you can only listen to it so many times still fantastic though)Highlight songs are a promise of fever,better to reign in hell,the smell of her burning, thank god for the suffering and hurt and virtue

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Rating: - FILTH indeed...
I am a huge Cradle fan but this album dissapointed me. They've tried to do something a lttle bit different here, however some of the tracks simply don't live up to other great album such as the Nymphetamine album.

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Rating: - They Haven't Sold Out
I keep hearing from certain reviews that cradle have sold out on this album. Yes, its different from Midian and Cruelty but in no shape or form have they sold out on this album. Theres stil the satanic and evil lyrics, heavy riffs and amazing drums. Dani's voice is still the same and as long as it stays like that Cradle will never be classed as sell outs. This is the longest album they have made clocking at 75 minutes. There are 5 instrumentals and 12 songs.

Song by Song -

Promise of fever - excellent start to the album, the first few notes are amazing as are the lyrics - 10/10

Hurt & Virtue - another brilliant heavy track. 9/10

Enemy led the tempest - one of the best on the album. more heavy drums and bass. 10/10

Better to reign in hell - fantastic, another excellent track. Dani's vocal is out of this world. - 10/10

Serpent tongue - not a great track. Quite tedious 8/10

Carrion - another great track. 10/10

mordant liquer of tears - ok, but nothing great - 8/10

presents from the poisened hearted - second best track on the album. love dani's vocal on this - 10/10

Babylon AD - great track, one of the singles. 9/10

Manequin - the first track i ever heard by Cradle. Didnt like them to start of but eventually got into it. excellent track. - 10/10

Thank god for the suffering - excellent ballad type song. 9/10

the smoke of her burning - without doubt the best track on the album - 10/10

there are five instrumentals, each one is very dark and atmospheric. brilliant 5/5 for all.