Band:	Cradle Of Filth
Album:	Hammer Of The Witches
Style:	Extreme gothic metal, Symphonic metal
Release date:	July 10, 2015
Guest review by:	X-FrEaK

01. Walpurgis Eve
02. Yours Immortally...
03. Enshrined In Crematoria
04. Deflowering The Maidenhead, Displeasuring The Goddess
05. Blackest Magick In Practice
06. The Monstrous Sabbat (Summoning The Coven)
07. Hammer Of The Witches
08. Right Wing Of The Garden Triptych
09. The Vampyre At My Side
10. Onward Christian Soldiers
11. Blooding The Hounds Of Hell
12. King Of The Woods [bonus]
13. Misericord [bonus]

There are two ways that metal bands tend to choose to (not) stay relevant throughout their careers: The Opethian Way or the Amon Amarthian Way. The former consists of changing your musical direction aggressively, which is a lot riskier and can sometimes alienate a lot of old school fans (ex: Opeth or In Flames), but on the other hand it can provide a much-needed second wind (ex: Paradise Lost or Machine Head). The latter consists of staying true to your winning formula and changing nothing or very little from album to album, which may or may not keep your old school fans interested. For me, Amon Amarth are the band that best represents this formula, and I have lost interest in their most recent albums, as it's just more of the same.

Cradle Of Filth belong somewhere in the middle, since no one can say that the last four albums before Hammer Of The Witches are at all similar, but at the same time they are not as different as, say, Opeth's Heritage. Nevertheless, they are not masterpieces, not by a longshot, and some Cradle fans, myself included, have lost some hope of seeing Dani Filth returning his band to the spotlight once again. After Thornography, there was a sort of comeback with Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder, but it still wasn't the old Cradle. The two albums that followed, although not terrible, were completely forgettable.

So it is with great pleasure that I witness one of the best comebacks in metal's recent history (akin to Machine Head's The Blackening). Although it gave every impression of failure since Paul Allender was leaving, it seems that his creative input was one of the main things holding this band back. The two replacement guitarists, Marek ?merda and Richard Shaw, pulled out something that Paul Allender lost a long time ago: memorable riffs and catchy songs! Remember how Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa seemed like a really long song instead of an actual album with structured and diverse songs? Hammer of the Witches is the opposite (maybe not reaching the heights of Midian, but very close) providing a lot of memorable songs, from which I would have to highlight "Deflowering The Maidenhead, Displeasuring The Goddess"; it is a really great song with a lot of varied sections, and there has not been a song like this in a Cradle record for a very, very long time.

One of the things that impressed me the most was Dani Filth's voices. At some point in time it seemed his voice was almost gone and he was unable to pull out his signature shrieks, but he sounds impressive here. Kudos to you, Mr. Filth!

Martin continues his great work behind the drum kit (he has been the member in the highest form in their latest releases) and Lindsay Schoolcraft gives a solid backing vocal performance; thankfully it appears more often here, althought it still doesn't reach the quality of Sarah Jezebel Deva.

In the end Hammer of the Witches is a comeback in every sense of the word and stands as one of the best albums in Cradle Of Filth's history. Let's hope they can keep raising or maintaining the bar next time!