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Cradle Of Filth: The manticore and other horrors
03/01/13 || Cobal
As many of you, I’m somewhat familiar with COF’s work, and the same as many of you, I haven’t always appreciated their approach to whatever kind of metal they play. While I’ve heard too many times statements such as “I listen only to pre- Dusk… and Her Embrace stuff”, I’d rather listen to their middle albums. Yes, that’s politically incorrect to say here, but you should be used to that by now.
Dani and company have always delivered music that fulfils certain quality standards. I’m talking about technique, style, production and final result, and always according to their time. Whatever these guys do seems to be perfectly planned, and I seriously doubt they allow fate to have anything to do with their records. Perhaps, that’s the reason why many of their original fans stopped giving a shit for what the band does.
In a way, CoF have reinvented themselves (that’s Dani and the current guys) one more time. Not that they sound different from something they have done before, but to my knowledge, there have never been two releases in a row that don’t break up with their previous ones, even if cyclically. “The manticore and other horrors” is an album that displays some of their most characteristic staples.
What I noticed first when listening to this was that the riffs generally tend to sound a bit heavier that other works. It’s as though Allender tried to conjugate some of that almost black metal sound, and at the same time play a hyper melodic bunch of lines and motifs. Let’s put it plainly: like it or not, COF’s sound is unique in part because of that precisely.
As for the drums, I felt a much stronger emphasis in blast beating whenever possible rather than actually accompanying other instruments, that except when working along with orchestrations alone. An interesting feature if you ask me. That made me pay more attention to drums than the usual one.
Dani’s vocals are the same as always, so I’m not even trying to describe them to you. Also, the orchestrations sound as good as you can get, as usual too.
After all, COF are not going to change their sound radically at this point of their career, right? If something is not broken, bla bla bla, you know. Unfortunately for the ones that are waiting for an impressive release, this is not the one. Even so, I can take one song from here and write it down in my COF’s fave tracks list: “Huge onyx wings behind despair”. That’s a great fucking title, by the by.
Haters, back off. Fans and new comers, why not?
- Information
- Released: 2012
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Website: www.theorderofthedragon.com
- Band
- Dani Filth: vocals
- Paul Allender: guitars
- Marthus: drums and keyboards
- Guest/session musicians
- Daniel James Firth: bass
- Lucy Atkins: vocals
- Choir: Jill Fallow, Scarlet Summer, Lucy Atkins, India Price, Janet Granger, Petra Stiles-Swinton, Anita Kilpatrick, Robert L. Friars, Daniel Oxblood, Joseph Kelly, Jasper Conway. Conducted & arranged by Will Graney
- Tracklist
- 01. The Unveiling of O
- 02. The Abhorrent
- 03. For Your Vulgar Delectation
- 04. Illicitus
- 05. Manticore
- 06. Frost on Her Pillow
- 07. Huge Onyx Wings Behind Despair
- 08. Pallid Reflection
- 09. Siding with the Titans
- 10. Succumb to This
- 11. Sinfonia
