CRADLE OF FILTH - Dusk And Her Embrace (1996)

And a poet takes the stage.. Dani Filth and his friends, who were a little too influenced by the great English poet Lord Byron, the pioneer of romanticism

I was going to start by talking about the bad things about the prejudices against the band, in my opinion, reflecting on Cradle of Filth’s early greatness, and preventing people who could potentially like these albums from doing so, but I changed my mind. (How did I change my mind!?) Anyway, my personal opinion is that this album is one of Cradle of Filth’s two best albums, one of the most original works of extreme metal, and one of the albums that has a special place in metal music in general. In fact, the arguments of those who listen to this album and don’t like it can usually be gathered under one or two headings. The most important thing is that there is such an antipathy towards the band and especially vocalist Dani Filth that it’s obvious that even if the guy makes the craziest music in the world, that is, even if he catches bat with his mouth (a vampire metal analogy), he won’t be able to please them. The second common reason for dislike is that those who like guitar-focused music find the guitars in the band, which don’t promise much and are crushed under the keyboard from time to time, inadequate.

In my opinion, when considered as a package, “Dusk…And Her Embrace” is not as perfect as “Cruelty And The Beast”, but it is an album as magnificent as it. It is not perfect because there are some problems in the sound. This does not hurt the ears of taste, but when you say things like “I should follow the drums, I should listen to the guitars”, some irregularities can harass the ear in a negative sense.

Although the drums are uniquely magnificent in of composition and playing (I will not repeat the praises I gave to drummer Nicholas Barker in my “Cruelty And The Beast” review), there are some problems in the tone and recording. Especially in the twin walks, in some places the cross volume is so insufficient that the volume of these hits almost goes head to head with the sound produced when the bass guitar strings are hit. But as I said at the beginning, the incredibly good drum compositions and performance are enough to reduce these flaws to the level of a woman.

I partially agree with the criticisms made about the guitars, especially some guitars played in the tremolo style on the high s may not be very satisfying in of tone and control over the guitar, and may even contain a touch of awkwardness. However, since the guitars are never very dominant in Cradle of Filth's music, the atmospheric keyboards, impressive drum & bass harmony, dynamic and energetic vocals are enough elements for me to like Cradle of Filth's music, especially in the early period.

The bass is definitely one of the elements that makes the album the most listenable. However, if you have “bass boost” in your equalizer settings, the sound on this album may sound distorted to your ears. Because the recording was already done to create an extremely bass sound. When you boost the bass, the sounds can get really bad. When the slightly ethereal, ineffective character of the drums comes into play, you may say “what the hell is this sound” and angrily send the album to the trash. In that case, immediately say “bring it back” and normalize the bass settings, I order you. If you are one of the minority who bought the original album and REALLY threw the CD in the trash, do not bother to take it back and clean it. I know a good psychiatrist. (I went there myself :P)

In of vocals, I believe that Dani Filth’s most voluminous and ionate vocals (along with the V-empire EP) are in this album. It is surprising that even the brutal ones in the low s can come from a scream performer who can reach such highs. I think it is also an important success to be able to do such a difficult vocal style for almost 20 years and not completely lose your talent. What can we say, the benefits of technical work. Otherwise, if she were to constantly scream with the pure ion and hatred inside her, she would have long ago been making traumatic calls to her little girl with a Darth Vader-like robotic voice accompanied by whispers and growls with vocal cord prosthetics, “My baby, I am actually a very loving father.”

Since the “unspeakable, lived” side of the album contains the ultimate in subjectivity, I think it would be pointless to say much about it. But at least do this. Play the songs A Gothic Romance and Malice Through The Looking Glass, and try to get into the works without prejudice. I don’t know about the rest. I perceive an incredible magnificence, a soul; an auditory wonder that triggers the imagination as if certain images come before your eyes. I don’t know, maybe this is just me.

Oh, and to be “Damnn”, play the song Haunted Shores and its lyrics. Follow along and experience the unbearable lightness of witnessing how crazy Dani Filth is. Let’s forget the difficulty of doing the vocals, I think it also requires the ability to say a lot of tongue twisters to be able to sing such a part. (Especially if we consider that Cradle of Filth plays their songs much faster live, you can figure out the rest) If you want, we can bet that someone who doesn't know this song at all, even if they have the best English in the world, will never understand the lyrics by listening to it. Whoever can understand, come and find me, I'm calling out to 70 million, in fact, 7 billion people, let them hear me. Come on, challenge!

The reason why I find early music superior to many extreme, black-style music is that I like music that triggers visuals more, that includes a lot of transitions, modal and tonal changes, modulations when necessary (even polymeter-polyrhythm things are delicious when necessary), and I get more excited when listening to them. If I have to give an example from computer games, I can compare Diablo 2 to Cannibal Corpse in of full adrenaline, the same tempo and gas, while when we think of Batman - Arkham Asylum, there are action-packed fights, escaping, chasing; even if we go further down, there are duels in fights, fighting with multiple enemies, etc. Then there are also two-dimensional special sections (those perverted sections with narcotics), you solve puzzles, do detective work, etc. In short, there are a thousand things.

The first example, or many “cold” extreme (especially black) metals leaning on a cold atmospherics, Cradle can entertain and excite you as if you went to a circus. (What, you really liked the circus analogy, didn’t you? In fact, deep down inside, you made a comparison that suited the circus-escaping dwarf clown Dani Filth, you turned into an ass with your own mouth, while trying to praise him, you made a fitting comparison with your own disgraced band, dear writer, didn’t you have fun? It’s good to have fun, let there be more…)

I also give the album a high score. I think it is a unique album first of all. If I included subjectivity, I could even give it a higher score. When I say unique, I actually mean there is another British band called HECATE ENTHRONED that makes music similar to this style, but their left the early Cradle and formed the band.

Have you ever noticed how irrelevant the title of your review is? Maybe that's a clue too, who knows ! ? :P

#DuskAndHerEmbrace