Upon a few listens to I'd have to say that the music far outweighs the mixing and is far better if some instruments didn't outweigh the guitar melodies. An epic and well written album, but the mixing as I said kind of killed it. The guitar was not well heard and I know that Cradle Of Filth (COF from now on) is extreme gothic metal, however, they still should take pride in recording an album that surpasses it's predecessors. On 'Cruelty and the Beast', the vocals and lyrical content were superb, just the guitar work needed not to be drowned out by the vocals, synthesizers and drums. They just made a mistake in that respect otherwise my rating would be far much higher than It is.

There are tempo changes galore and the music fit well with aura of the essence, but most of the changes had to do with synthesizer overtures, not so much in the guitar melody orchestrations. A lot of songs were epic in the fact that they seemed to be more focused on the aura of the album, a desolate, ambient, and captivating essence of a gem. The lengthy songs were devoted to an atmospheric kind of feel and it suited I guess what their focus was which seemed to amylate an evil vibe that took place on the bulk of the album. This is totally extreme gothic metal here and the guitar work wasn't as emphasized here than other past releases.

I had to accept the fact that this is not COF's really noteworthy guitar work like on 'Dusk... And Her Embrace' (1996), but merely an evil and transient orchestration of blackness, darkness, inexplicable revelation that meshed well with their gothic focus. Dani Filth's voice contained a majority of high-end screaming mixed with burley low-end growls that seemed to pop up on occasion during the songs. The synthesizers pathed the way towards the recording, again, not the guitars. Female vocals were present too, so relevant to expand on the gothic "feel" to this eclipse. I'd have to say that they did a lot of experimentation that I think got blinded if you looked for more of a guitar based aura.

My opinion of the album improved on repeated listens to because I was behind on the philosophical metaphysics of artwork and transient binding of other uses of the guitar, relying more on the synthesizers and achieved a monumental overture of utter gothic annihilation. To conceive of this album as being poor in songwriting style, that would be an injustice to the band when it seemed like they wanted a more epic sounding feel or vibe instead of one focused on the guitars to revolutionize it's essence, when in reality it didn't seem like they really attempt to achieve and ambient sense of purpose.

I'll make the statement that yes, the drums pounding away especially the snare was a tad bit annoying, but it didn't dominate the recording, it simply meshed into the release quite well upon my contingency. Totally evil and despondent release here, which deviated from the norm and seemed to represent the gargoyles of doom. To tell you what to expect musically is a constant sauna of transient, epic, estranged epiphony of sounds like never heard before. It remains in my estimation to get an average rating though because I believe that gothic metal should emphasize more on the guitar overtures, not a weighty amount of synthesizers leading the way for a metal band.

Dani's voice seemed to have a high utmost apocalypse that was tainted with an echo filled sound to it only to drive it away with low end burly bits and as mentioned some guest female voice that dominates the aura that the album keyed off. This is extreme gothic metal revisited like a combination or what the first few albums depicted, but mixing it with all different kinds of sounds coming in from everywhere. A spellbinding apocalypse, blissfully filled with an evil sense of the end of the world in mind upon the main focus that the band achieved on here. I'd have to say a great effort, just not a favorable overall rating, but just average. I expected more guitar oriented bits and got jaded by it's nonexistance.

Rating: 7½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
10/08/2013 18:46