CRADLE OF FILTH – Thornography

Coca Cola is no longer unhealthy, and Cradle Of Filth is no longer a Black Metal band. “Sugar” is the key to both accusations – Coca Cola has removed the sugar from several of their products, while Cradle Of Filth only gets more sugary with each album. Both statements are not entirely correct, but you get the idea, and Thorngraphy does indeed show a band with basically no brutality left in their sound at all –- except maybe for Dani Filth’s vocals, which indeed are as screechy as ever.

Luckily, the further softening of sound does not necessarily equal reduced quality in the compositions, and Thornography has quite a lot to offer the dark-minded out there. Besides a ridiculously witty title, there are some very good songs here (although some is a key word). In general, the more epic numbers work the best — “Lovesick For Mina” is one example, “I Am The Thorn” and “Under Huntress Moon” are others. The good thing about these are that the increased length allows for less stress on the hooks, which often come out more cheesy than anything else on this album (not talking “length” as in the 70s Prog Rock definition of the word, with “I Am …” being the longest at 7:06). “The Foetus Of A New Day Kicking” is one example of this “cheesiness” -– this track smells far more of Lordi than of Emperor -– and this is also evident in parts of tracks like “The Byronic Man” and “Rise Of The Pentagram.” Speaking of “The Byronic Man,” if the band wants to avoid being identified with the ever growing pre-teen Goth movement, hiring HIM front man Ville Valo to lay down some completely worthless clean vocals would not be the most clever thing to do. Still, without this same crowd of corpse-painted 14-year olds, there probably wouldn’t be such a thing as the “Cradle Of Filth Halloween Party,” which, of course, would be a disaster.

Other cool tracks are “Dirge Inferno” and especially “Tonight In Flames” with its very cool drum groove. Kudos to drummer Adrian Erlandsson for squeezing in some proper musicianship into the crimson syrup that is Cradle Of Filth in the year 2006. He’s far from as good as his little brother (Daniel in Arch Enemy), but then again who is? Guitarists Paul Allender and Charles Hedger pull off their stuff in a decent way, tight and precise and all that, but without the slightest sign of personality. Then again, this isn’t Cradle Of Allender or Cradle Of Hedger (Cradle Of Hedgehogs anyone?), and the boys lay down a good foundation for Dani Filth’s screams.

Thornography is a good album, diehard fans would probably even say that it’s very good, and in any case an album well worth buying for everyone who’d also consider buying tickets for, namely, the “Cradle Of Filth Halloween Party.”