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 |
| A review by: | Daniell |
"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
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.
The same can be said about Cradle Of Filth, who never really deviated from the path set on Vempire. Even if they slightly changed their sound (first time on Midian, then again on Thornography), the change was quite subtle, far away from radical. Maybe the songs were more user-friendly, but it was more due to much clearer production than to songwriting. Be that as it may, Thornography was the low point of Cradle Of Filth's career. Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder saw a return to a harsher, faster side of the band, and Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is Godspeed's uglier twin.
The most notable things on the album are: almost complete lack of symphonic intros and interludes, almost complete lack of slow songs and, most importantly, almost complete lack of brilliant, memorable songs. It's your regular Cradle Of Filth with all its trademark characteristics, only faster than usual (kudos to Martin Skaroupka, who is a great drummer). The hurricane starts with "The Cult of Venus Aversa", and ends with "Beyond the Eleventh Hour". It slows down only in "The Persecution Song" and "Forgive Me Father (I Have Sinned)". Too bad that nine lightning-fast songs basically blur into one. And none of them stands on its own as something exceptional. In vain was my search for a song as good as, say, "Queen of Winter, Throned", "Beneath the Howling Stars" or "Tearing the Veil from Grace". Gone are majestic slow passages, surprising interludes and mood changes. Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is a monolith with very few chinks in it. It's hard to bite it and it's hard to remember its shape. When "Beyond the Eleventh Hour" ends and silence ensues, I find it hard to remember a really good track off the album. They're all not bad, they're solid, crunching and tasty, they boast devastatingly juicy production, but they fail to amaze me. Releasing fifteen tracks every second year takes its toll. The act of creating music has turned into an assembly line production. The resulting merchandise for the masses is meticulously prepared: the artwork, pictures, lyrics, packaging, production - everything is top notch as usual. Too bad that the crux of it all, the music, is the least attractive element.
Here we come to the point where the introduction to this review starts making sense. The formula that Cradle Of Filth follows isn't as evergreen and universal as Slayer's or AC/DC's. It needs to be refreshed, watered with new ideas and shifts to make it blossom and branch in new directions. Or, ultimately, it must be changed radically, almost completely reworked and redone to retain at least some portion of its original appeal or to create new means of appeal. How many times can we enjoy a short keyboard intro followed by a blasting entry of guitars and drums and the inevitable "aaaargh"? I think we've enjoyed these things enough times. It's time for something new, Dani.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 9 |
 | Written on 03.11.2010 by Writes overly honest and totally subjective reviews when fancy strikes him. Which is not often. Which is probably good, all things considered. |
Rating:
8.7
8.7
|
Rating: 8.7 |
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! Read more ›› |
Comments page 3 / 3
Comments: 78
Visited by: 521 users
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101  |
Written by Vonpire on 25.11.2010 at 16:15 You say it's a masterpiece without a word of explanation. Should I take your words completely at face value? I don't think so...
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| AngelofDeth Cyborg Raptor Posts: 1183  |
Yea i agree this album wasnt too memorable, when compared to other CoF works. it isnt exactly a bad album but nothing special imo. And I actually do like Thornography as well. Its not my favorite and but i thought it stood on its own and liked the uniqueness and catchiness of it. it was good change of pace, and is better than putting out a cookiecutter album. But then again it usually takes me a few listenthroughs to warm-up to a new CoF album(happened with GotDT, and Thorn), so maybe ill end up realy liking this one in a month or two. hopefully. EDIT: Eh, still don't like it. Pretty much everything you state in your review about the album is how I feel. Except I would've been a bit harsher on the ratings, probly like a 6.5 in my book.
---- pewpew.. gotcha
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| Vonpire Posts: 471  |
Written by Daniell on 03.12.2010 at 10:35 I wrote it in my comments before. It's my opinion, and obviously you don't agree with it, no problem at all. I don't agree with yours also, so what's your point here? I am not a reviewer, so i rate albuns solely by what i listen, and by what I have listened so far, yes, this is a brilliant album, that IMO deserves much more than 7,3. Also I'm not the only one who thinks it, cause even with all the haters and stupid ratings it still has 8,2 in average, and It has much more 10 / 9 / 8 than 7 or below. I don't need to "dissecate" a album to rate it. I only have to listen to it, ENOUGH, times to make my rating. I never rate a album, without a least 5 listens, even if it appear weak at first.
---- Beware the Shadows of Dusk
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374  |
Written by Vonpire on 03.12.2010 at 19:09 You didn't answer his question, don't get to sensible about it. He has at least some reasons to back his rating. He was just curious about which are your reasons to back up your rating. AND FFS... Since when it's 7,3 bad?! It means that it is good... 7 is good... so this album is actually MORE than just good. I can't understand this, there will always be people that get to whiny just because the album isn't above 7. MEH...
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| Vonpire Posts: 471 |
Written by X-Ray Rod on 03.12.2010 at 21:15 Read all my posts on this album and you'll see the response. i'm not going to write it all again. Besides that, this album is 8.2 not 7.3. I just said i didn't agree with the rating. Is there any problem with that? Or I have to agree with every rating that reviewers do? I've seen here reviewers rating same album with completely different rates, so I could do a review also and rate it 9, and then there would be people discording with It. So I don't get what's all this about. Unless I am not allowed to discord the rates of some reviewers, which is a complete nonsense. Read my comments outside this review. I stated there many things that would help you guys have your response.
---- Beware the Shadows of Dusk
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| X-Ray Rod Skandino Staff Posts: 18374 |
Written by Vonpire on 03.12.2010 at 22:01 I don't think you understood my point. But ever since I got in this website I've seen that there are TONS of people who completely overreact and go all "holy shit dude you are so extreme with the rating, the album is not bad at all it's brilliant !!!111oneone" when the reviewer but a 7,0 which is just plain stupid since 7 still means that the album is GOOD. Then again, you don't seem to be that sort of a whiny guy, don't be one. There's nothing worse than a fanboy who thinks that 7.0 is a total disaster of a rating.
---- Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29 Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
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| athena Posts: 101  |
7.3 is too high, I think. It was not good at all. A blur of insane drumming and Dani's weakened, tenuous voice. I feel dumber after listening to it.
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| Vonpire Posts: 471 |
Written by athena on 05.12.2010 at 19:31 My first thought upon 1st listen of the album was similar to yours, but i gave it a try (as i always do) and it turned out to be the best thing i've done, cause now I think this album is brilliant! Here, my first post "For what i heard so far i am not that impressed. I'm gonna give it a few more spins and then I'll say what i think of It. As with any album, one opinion can't be based in solely 2 listens... "
---- Beware the Shadows of Dusk
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| MétalNoir Fils du Lys Posts: 847  |
People really tend to get sensible whenever COF is concerned... Personnally I though this album was pretty blah for the four or five first times I listened to it. But isn't that very good news? This band has been criticized for a couple years precisely because their music had slowed down and had become to accessible. Well, good BM is supposed to take like 10 listens before you can actually dissecate and appreciate it. COF hadn't sounded so black metally since Cruelty and the Beast and Aversa is definitely a very strong, tight, extreme and catchy meloblack metal album, with gothic-infused breaks like The Persecution Song and Forgive Me Father I Have Sinned thrown in for good measure. Now you can scream COF IS NOT BLACK METAL YOU STUPID CUNT!!!
---- Notre destinée n'est pas encore tracée....
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| sbgmetal Posts: 867  |
Not a bad album at all if it was up to me it would have jus been guitar bass drums and vocals none of the silly back keyboards n odd sounds... basically the drumming is fucking awesome
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101 |
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| metal_communard Posts: 15 |
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466  |
Written by metal_communard on 10.01.2012 at 11:49 Funny, because this album represents exactly what you wrote here, down to the last second.
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101 |
Written by Slayer666 on 10.01.2012 at 12:19 Funny, because that album is nothing like Dimmu Borgir's latest and has surprisingly few orchestrations in it. Maybe you're mistaking "Darkly..." for some other album?
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| Slayer666 Posts: 2466 |
Written by Daniell on 10.01.2012 at 15:18 I... what? No, I just think the album is drowned in pretty cheesy keyboards, I can barely even make out the riffs. It sounds like the guitars are just there to pummel some distortion and give that "heaviness". Before this album, the songwriting principle was that Cradle lay down some awesome riffs that are backed by keyboards, but on Darkly, it sounds the other way around. Which I think doesn't work too well.
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| Kuroboshi Posts: 1201  |
Love the speed, hate the indisguishability between songs. I totally agree with Daniell. The usually so catchy riffs are non-existent, and we're left with Dani's classic intro-screams (something new please). And it's too long. I must agree with some of the commenters though, "Lilith Immaculate" is a effin' awesome song.
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| Ziom Posts: 640 |
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