Hello, my friends, it is time to sink into the fatal embrace offered by our blackest of metallers, Cradle Of Filth, they really are an entertaining bunch and like most artists, have used our incarceration as an opportunity to sharpen their toolbox and present this, album number thirteen, ‘Existence Is Futile’. Now it may sound very doomsday cultish and I can’t blame them, such has been the utter disintegration of everything we know.
A cinematic prelude begins this journey into the world of COF, their vast knowledge, and abrasive, incisive use of languages underpins their entire back catalogue, and we applaud their efforts and appreciate the familiarity. First track underway and there it is, that most filthy banshee screech in at 5.17, amidst the ‘Existential Terror’ you’re right at home now. The single ‘Necromantic Fantasies’ is imposing and hypnotic with the haunted Victorian England flavour, an unlikely hero, enchants our lady in distress, who in turn succumbs to her desires, blissfully and unreservedly.
There are two more instrumental interludes on this record ‘Here Comes A Candle’ and ‘Ashen Mortality’ that connect all the songs together and provide a brief respite from the intense and enigmatic beauty. The stories of the ancients, gods, goddesses, rituals and rites, all help to shape the work, not only is the music fantastic, but the educational value is immeasurable, it has always been the essence of this band.
The lyrics are a raging fire ready to engulf everything in sight and then they have you simmering just under the surface, nuanced and diaphanous, for example in ‘Sisters Of The Mist’ the delicate yearning of ‘I recall our lips trembled a whisper apart’ a love unrequited or passions repressed, it is truly exemplary song-writing. There is intrigue, rebellion and philosophical analysis and discussion all under one roof, the superlative ‘Discourse Between Man And His Soul’ introspective and inspiring, a collection of thoughts and utterances, the tug of war between you and your inner voice, whatever form that may take. From mercurial highs to desperate lows, the songs here are inclusive yet unforgiving, maybe forgiveness is something we need to seek out for ourselves, meanwhile let the cumulative strands of COF find you, entwine you, bind you.
Signal the apocalypse people, let this record stand as judge, jury and executioner, the knell that knows no bounds, lest we welcome the futility that awaits us.
Azra Pathan
Cradle Of Filth – Existence Is Futile out now via Nuclear Blast.