Cradle Of Filth - Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa review
| Band: | Cradle Of Filth |
| Album: | Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa |
| Style: | Extreme gothic metal, Symphonic metal |
| Release date: | November 01, 2010 |
| Guest review by: | Windrider |
"Fan Edition" Version
Disc I
01. The Cult Of Venus Aversa
02. One Foul Step From The Abyss
03. The Nun With The Astral Habit
04. Retreat Of The Sacred Heart
05. The Persecution Song
06. Deceiving Eyes
07. Lilith Immaculate
08. The Spawn Of Love And War
09. Harlot On A Pedestal
10. Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned)
11. Beyond Eleventh Hour
Disc II [bonus]
01. Beast Of Extermination
02. Truth And Agony
03. Adest Rosa Secreta Eros
04. Mistress From The Sucking Pit
05. Behind The Jagged Mountains
06. The Cult Of Venus Aversa [demo]
07. The Nun With The Astral Habit [demo]
08. Deceiving Eyes [demo]
Disc III [dvd]
01. Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned) Promo Video
02. Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned) Video Making Of
Cradle Of Filth are a band that have performed a slow but legendary downfall. And they managed to rise like a phoenix from its ash, but faster than any phoenix could. Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is now the second count in their rise and still has something to add in terms of speed, darkness and pure blasting metal. This record is once more a concept album and deals with the demoness Lilith, which happened to be the first wife of Adam in the book of Genesis. But we are here to talk about music, so let's get into it!
As said above, this is an extreme heavy album unlike Cradle Of Filth have done yet. Remarkable and supporting this is the fact that we have no instrumental tracks here, only straight forward metal in every song. At some parts this whole in-your-face attitude sounds familiar with Slayer stuff, but of course this is no thrash metal we're dealing with here. But imagine a band like Slayer with an orchestra and a drunk cat on vocals and you can get pretty much the idea of what a weird melting cauldron Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is. This shall be no offense to anyone because all parts do their deeds gratefully.
Nevertheless, this album is awesome. It's mostly ever changing from dark and grim metal parts to the gloriously sung slow parts with all their harmonies. Dani Filth might have lost some power in his voice but he still is unattainable in his skills that reach through several octaves. His whispers still send chills through my back. Also we have again more screams in here. Actually a whole lot more than on the previous albums. And Dani still has the guts in his profession, one time he'll be called the Dio of extreme metal. But enough of the vocals, the plucked instruments are perfect as always (thanks to some of the most talented musicians), but who really deserves credit is Martin "Marthus" ?karoupka, the best drummer CoF ever had. He can raise hell out of his kit!
The songwriting does not diversify much from song to song; they all have their fast and slow parts, whereas last mentioned are wrapped within the fast parts. The only song which is the other way round in this is "The Persecution Song," but its fast part is one of the true highlights of this album. There are many highlights on the whole record but also some cheesy parts resembling Nymphornography, which were not necessary to include in my opinion. But in the whole context they are neither remarkable nor disturbing.
Overall a brutal second album on the new high rail of Cradle Of Filth that goes slightly beyond the previous album but fills the gap of medieval atmosphere with "extreme symphonic gothic metal" in its most literally meaning and an erotic story built around a demoness that maybe would be a member of this band if she was alive.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Windrider | 12.07.2011
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
7.3
7.3
|
Rating: 7.3 |
There are musical formulas that never become exhausted. Bands that choose such formulas as basis for their works enjoy long-lasting, successful careers. No fan requires any change in their musical direction, everyone is universally happy if such a band releases another album that fits into the band's template. Among classic bands that fit this description are AC/DC, Motörhead, Slayer, to name just a few that immediately spring to mind. Read more ›› |
Comments
Comments: 12
Visited by: 109 users
| Vonpire Posts: 471  |
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| Cynic Metalhead Ambrish Saxena Posts: 7562  |
Nice review but full back awesome album.  
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| amo_del_merol Posts: 41 |
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| Assassiyoun Posts: 45 |
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| Windrider Raureif Posts: 684  |
Written by Assassiyoun on 13.07.2011 at 02:29 I did not forget Barker, but I really think Marthus is, if even only slightly, better.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101  |
As a massive fan of CoF, I'm still not happy about this album. When I reviewed it in November, I listened to it 10+ times. After the review was done, I don't don't remember coming back to listen to it again. Having seen this review made me listen to the album yesterday - twice actually. I'd rate it even lower now... What I said in my review still stands true in my eyes - songs made to fit into the same template. Completely unmemorable, uninspired. Fucking boring. The musicianship is of course top notch, especially the drumming. I also think that Martin Skaroupka is THE best CoF drummer. But hey, it's good to see that various CoF albums have their fans. It can only mean that the music is very decent overall 
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466  |
I'm with Daniell on this one (mostly). The songs are virtually indistinguishable from one another, and it is possible to count the number of cool and memorable moments in the whole album by using your hand fingers. When I compare it to early albums, where each song had a handful of riffs/moments that still make me say: "Wooah, Cradle are the best", Darkly, Darkly sounds as if someone tried to copy Cradle's sound and partially failed. It's completely predictable and safe. If Dani wasn't behind the microphone (albeit he is loosing his voice more and more after each album), this could easily pass up as a Dimmu Borgir release (a band I despise). But, yeah, ?karoupka is a lunatic. Fantastic drummer. Maybe I'm being too harsh here, the album is not actually that bad, per se. It just came as a massive disappointment after the totally awesome Godspeed. I like the review though, pretty well written.
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| Windrider Raureif Posts: 684 |
Written by Slayer666 on 13.07.2011 at 17:54 Glad to hear different opinions, and thanks for your last sentence hehe. Only thing I want to correct is that this would sound like Dimmu without Dani. Actually correct, but I'd say DB are the ones who are always trying to copy CoF (or in their recent album, Nightwish). Their Stormblast was pretty awesome, but after that began their downfall as copycats.
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| Windrider Raureif Posts: 684 |
Written by [user id=35732] on 13.07.2011 at 19:38 Written by Windrider on 13.07.2011 at 19:26 Some similiarities to Dusk when you look for some orchestra passages. They used to develop it more and better in their later albums.
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| Andreas666 Posts: 39  |
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| morkilla Posts: 1 |
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| ricco96 Posts: 4 |
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