CRADLE OF FILTH unleashed "CRYPTORIANA-THE SEDUCTIVENESS OF DECAY", 9/22/2017 via NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS.
CRADLE OF FILTH are currently on a FALL 2017 UK HALLOWEEN tour.
FROM DANI FILTH (CRADLE OF FILTH):
Dani Filth's 13 Essential Albums For Halloween
First off I’d like to bid you all welcome to my 13 essential albums for Hallowe’en.
Secondly I’d like to say that this is my list. Just my humble opinion and not yours.
So please no after-the-fact comments about ‘why is this song not on it?’ and ‘why is that song not on there?’.
I don’t honestly care.
It’s my f**king list!
So with that said fervent pop-pickers, let’s pull back the blood-red curtain and unveil the stage…
Samhain -November Coming Fire
Every year without fail, like the leaves falling from the trees, and whether out on tour or nesting in my cobwebbed Victorian dwelling, this album get’s total religious airing.
Why?
The title pretty much says it all.
It embodies everything there is about the great crepuscular Season of the Dead and showcases it midway through the record in ‘Let The Day Begin’ which takes a serious dark turn into ‘Hallowe’en II’ (a dirtier dirgier version of the Misfits’ classic), which then culminates in the anthemic title track.
Glen Danzig is a bit of a hero for me in music and Samhain are the Misfit’s on a dissonant, creepier goth-tinged juncture to Danzig the band.
As the headline title states, this is essential Hallowe’en listening.
Mercyful Fate -Don’t Break The Oath
King Diamond is another iconic frontman that I favour and in some bizarre twist of fate, this was one of the first Metal albums I ever owned.
In fact I was so taken with this album I actually believed that there were real ghosts singing on it.
And stormy, windswept nights in rural England would find my fiends and I listening to this album with the light’s out and smoking cigarettes from my bedroom window.
Everybody bangs on about the previous album Melissa -especially Metallica- but i think this record is superior in every way, from it’s insanely creepy production, to the intricacy and haunting melody of the songs, to King’s soaring falsetto that brings to mind Witches up to absolutely no good on the Brocken.
And as i’ve always said, if it’s not Brocken, don’t try and fix it!
Emperor -In The Nightside Eclipse
Only the bloody best Black metal album in existence!
Absolutely gargantuan and dripping in atmosphere (the soaring choirs and keyboards behind the maelstrom are unearthly), Emperor on this album are like a ravaging vampiric shit-storm unleashed from the churning bowels of Hell.
Ignore the sometimes burial swathe of the production, it only lends itself to the beautiful turmoil of the music; an organic, moonlit phantasmagoria underlit in darksome Disney colours.
Like Chernabog roaring atop Bare Mountain.
Type O Negative -Bloody Kisses
I first discovered this onyx gem when our record company guy possessed a four track advance CD way back in ’93 and like every other fish who fell under their spell, I was hooked.
Like Herman Munster crooning over an erotically gothic musical landscape that is as once designated by sound effects as it is notes, the first single ‘Black no 1’ became an instant Goth anthem.
Even the Seals and Croft classic ‘Summer Breeze’ gets the Munster’s treatment, turning it from a Summery feel-good hit into an epic love song for monsters.
And as much as I love the noisy post-industrial intermissions and the hardcore sarcasm, this is a Hallowe’en top 13, so best opt for the re-release with these bits removed in favour of ’Suspended In Dusk’, a nine minute morose vampire ballad.
And I will never forget the tour COF undertook with the band back in 2003. An absolute riot start to finish!
RIP Peter Steele.
The Nightmare Before Christmas -Soundtrack (Danny Elfman)
It’s just not Hallowe’en without something a bit fun and ghoulish for the kids, and i’m not talking razorblades and candy cane.
This has got to be every Goth’s favourite animation.
‘This is Hallowe’en, Hallowe’en, Hallowe’en!’
Paradise Lost -Gothic
The Autumnal season always conjures some beautiful memories for me.
Like kicking my way through piles of golden leaves under leaden skies in rural, rustic England.
Village shop windows crammed with creepy Halloween masks, pumpkins and multi-coloured fireworks for Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night.
Jack Frost nipping at your extremities.
Conkers.
Paradise Lost on the CD player, crushingly heavy, tearfully mournful and overall just doing brilliantly what is written on the tin.
The Definitive Horror Music Collection - The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
Horror movie soundtracks should dominate a great Hallowe’en, if not the whole calendar.
They are the musical spine that discolours the day, in a really good way.
But for the sake of over-running my Top 13 (there are literally fifty great soundtracks that spring to mind), i thought it best to include a lengthy collection, one that features the creme da la face.
It could be any orchestra playing these timeless film-score classics, but my drummer and guitarist are Czech, and the London Philharmonic are too posh for horror movies, so I guess that validates a strong allegiance right here for the City of Prague.
Squirm favourites…
Hellraiser, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Omen, Sleepy Hollow, Rosemary’s Baby.
The Misfits -Collections 1 and 2.
Okay, okay, so we’ve already encountered Glenn Danzig in this list, but who the hell cares?
I’ve opted for the 2 Collections as they pretty much cover most of the original incarnation of The Misfits’s repertoire and this, I would guess, would be considered their grand Hallowe’en fiend party mix.
Incessantly catchy horror punk from the original B-movie legends, this is sing-along, monster-mash mosh-music.
GGFH -Disease
What’s a get-together without a little psychotic serial killer music to liven up the evening?
Absolutely nothing, that’s what.
An industrial, techno, demented monstrosity punctuated by the clinical rants of a killer venting spleen on midnight airwaves, this is some pretty disturbing but groovy tuneage indeed.
And I think that once upon a time I wrote a word-byte heavy review that made it into a sticker on the front of the band’s ‘best-of’.
So that definitely proves I dig it.
Like I do graves.
Favourite ditties.. ‘Room 213’ (about the cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer), ‘DMDR’ (Dead Men Don’t Rape) and ‘Dark Powers’.
Diamanda Galas -The Divine Punishment/Saint Of The Pit
More a Satanic ritual than the traditional fare of jaunty musical tunes, both albums here on one convenient disc play out like twisted seances with the dead, with Diamanda (who has lent her vocal talents to a score of horror movie soundtracks) engaging in all manner of screams, screeches and ghostly caterwauls set to a deranged biblical diorama.
Best described as an orgiastic coven of witches summoning some hideous neolithic demon to nail Armageddon to the face of the world, this is some really creepy shit.
Which, in my books, is a good thing.
Slayer -Reign In Blood
Even if it wasn’t All Saints’ Eve, you really should be playing this album at a relentlessly loud volume irregardless.
Such a precise, decisive, incisive, the devil advises, album of the highest calibre.
28 minutes of absolute satanic terror and brutality, that kickstarts your heart attack with the lethal injection that is ‘Angel Of Death’ and doesn’t let up until the dying strains of the apocalypse that is the title track.
Strangely enough, my Mother bought me this on pre-order from the U.S for Christmas ’86 and then proceeded to shout at me to turn it down whenever I was playing it (which was a lot), which again smacks of irony seeing as she now loves the band!
Ghost -Opus Eponymous
True story.
I preordered this album on a recommendation by Amazon (bolstered by the fact that I liked the Mercyful Fate comparisons and the Amicus horror cover art) and subsequently then went on tour.
Christmas came swiftly on the tour’s heels and when I eventually got round to sifting through my accrued mail, i found this album at the bottom of the pile.
I was so blown away that I literally rang everyone to tell them how great this new band i’d ‘discovered’ were.
Ceaseless to say, everyone answered me with something along the lines of…
‘Yes we know twat-features, they’re on the front cover of Metal Hammer this month!”
Whether my discovery led the band to superstardom or not, their debut album is a Seventies-inspired occult nightmare that for once isn’t Sabbath worship.
It’s far more Mercyful Fate fingering the Blue Oyster Cult.
Bathory -Under The Sign Of The Black Mark
Dead of Midnight, Hallowe’en.
Douse all save thirteen candles.
Cut the bleating ram’s throat.
Summon your demons.
Listen to this album by the light of the killing moon (the original vinyl version, the remastered CD version is a shit sandwich, all top and cymbal fizz…).
Thank Dani Filth for the soundtrack to your Hallowe’en, preferably with cold hard cash, or at least with a bit of the ram.
And don’t forget to play ‘Thriller!’.
Cradle of Filth play Dublin Academy, Ireland on Hallowe’en, Tuesday 31st October.
Come and join the Ghoul Guides...
Tickets: www.cradleoffilth.com/tour
Ten Commandments In Film Soundtrack For Hallowe’en 2017e.h
Before I continue I must forewarn you that most of these soundtracks I have chosen for Hallowe’en are very similar in 'feel' to the average connoisseur, but this is mainly due to the fact that I love soundtracks of a certain gothic persuasion, and that 'persuasion' being the slightly macabre, the fantastical, the erotically dark. In fact, the band's love of all things morbidly soundtrack led to the idea of recording Cradle’s own ’Midnight in The labyrinth', amid all the other orchestral interludes that pepper our musical excretions.
These are in no discernible order either, and I have only included soundtracks I like that are consistently great throughout, there are undeniably plenty of individual tracks that are better (Candyman, Hallowe'en, The Ninth Gate,The Fountain, The Exorcist, 1492, From Hell, Pan's Labyrinth etc, etc),although two of the chosen do include end titles songs that serve to completely obliterate the built up atmosphere (in the ungainly shape of Annie Lennox and G'N'R), so do as I do and learn to ignore these small intrusions on otherwise perfect recordings.
First off is undoubtedly my first and favourite soundtrack (okay, so I do have a favourite!), which is Bram Stoker's Dracula by Wojciech killer, an amazingly atmospheric album full of gargantuan nocturnal war anthems and heart rending melodrama. Often copied but never touched (let alone surpassed), this was the clawed hand that led me down the dank dark road of orchestral music in the first place. Absolutely essential! I highly recommend 'Dracula-the Beginning', The Storm' and 'The Brides'. Hell, the whole soundtrack (bar Annie Lennox, who could’ve been replaced by at least three pieces of music that didn’t make the cut from the film) is frightfully amazing.
Secondly I conjure forth the original Hellraiser by Christopher Young ('Drag Me To Hell' is another amazing score by this composer), a soundtrack full of the dark faerytale nature of the film, swinging from psychotically chilling ambience into full Disney-esque orchestra from one infernal moment to the next. Check out, or carve out, the 'Hellbound Heart' as a perfect example of this monumental slay-ride.
Next we have a trio of classic adaptations sweeping in gracefully, in the macabre poise of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Sleepy Hollow and Interview With A Vampire -all three capturing perfectly the essence of the films they embellish….
'Frankenstein' with it's very baroque antiquarian gothic vibe, 'Sleepy Hollow' (by Danny Elfman nonetheless, who is also responsible for the marvellous The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands and The Wolfman, to name but a smattering…) with it's ghostly funereal garb hung about it like a swathe of mist and 'Interview', an awe-inspiring album full of tarantellas and mournful balladic pieces that serve to conjure up the nocturnal kingdoms of the Bayou and deepest, darkest Europe. Just remember to give G'N'R a wide berth at the end!
Another very much in this vein is the music accompanying the recent Van Helsing, which -much like the film- borrows caricature themes from a succession of other famous creations and brilliantly whips them up to hideous crescendo, my favourites being 'Transylvania' and' All Hallow's Eve Ball' which thunder through a succession of universal horror influences.
Undoubtedly a soundtrack top-ten wouldn't be complete without the inclusion of maestro John Williams, whose soundtrack for The Empire Strikes Back has become a classic, partly due to the album's flagship anthem, the gravely universal 'Imperial March', (a track that I insist played at my funeral as my coffin is loaded onto my personal Star Destroyer -The Shitfire- by a crack squad of elite Stormtroopers who then bomb this squalid rock of a planet from orbit, naturally). Best off buying the 2-disc anniversary edition before they start dropping.
Perfume is a beautifully viscous tale of murder and ambition and the accompanying score is equally lavish, poignant and darkly erotic, with a definite European period whiff about it. Hauntingly brilliant. Scout out 'Laura's Murder' as a candidate for most heartrending track.
Here I couldn't decide between the three, so I just went for the lot. The Omen (1,2 and 3) are the movie equivalent of 'Carmina Burana', but a damn, damn sight scarier. Angelic choirs meet Devilish ensembles in this Jerry Goldsmith cathedral-vast opus that at times feels like the battle for heaven is really waging all about you. Highly recommended are the 'Main Title' of Damien Omen 2 and 'All The Power' of The Final Conflict, with it's glorious sweep from the dizzying heights of heavenly triumph to the slowly creeping and terrifying return of the Antichrist.
Next up are two soundtracks sporting a rather Egyptian theme. Jerry Goldsmith’s The Mummy from 1999 is full of magnificent pomp and ceremony, bandaged in huge orchestral swathes of horror and adventure (it may be essentially a family film but the thought of suffering the Hom Dai -being buried alive with flesh-eating scarab beetles- is pretty vicious in itself), obviously utilising a lot of massive timpani, horns, gongs, sistrums and lyres to bring Thebes 1290bc and Cairo 1926 to vivid life.
Stargate (1994) is conjoined here as choice of soundtrack number eight for pretty much the same Egyptological reason, and although the film is more science fiction than horror per se, it doesn’t sway the soundtrack from sounding massively epic, maybe even more so than The Mummy before it, as it does possess the added benefit of unexplored planetary realms and aliens (albeit Egyptian aliens).
As with most films of this ilk, there are a variety of emotions prevalent, from budding romance through to full-blown apocalyptic maelstrom, and both soundtracks pinnacle the very tip of the pyramid on all accounts.
Number nine is from a very little known movie La Sombra Prohibida (The Forbidden Shadow), a Lovecraftian jaunt that, in all fairness, is okay but not the best, although it does feature an unleashed CGI Cthulhu toward its climax. But don’t let the movie detract you from the awe-inspiring creepy soundtrack of which ‘Santiago’s Madness’, ‘Lazaro’ and of course the massive ‘Cthulhu’ all best summarise this dish best served chilled (and without tentacles).
That’s the good thing about a really great soundtrack, they can be discovered attached to the most disparaging of films, be it a massive family blockbuster, an underground horror sensation or indeed, a little known foreign movie about seashells and squirrels. The best thing is to enjoy them without the accompanying visuals to garner the most from the pictures they intend to paint.
And lastly I decided to opt for The Third Mother, firstly for the fact that it is an incredible psychotic soundtrack courtesy of Claudio Simonetti (of 'Goblin'-the band- fame and close compatriot of horror aficionado Dario Argento), and secondly because I contributed vocals to the end credits. And for that reason alone I ask you to check out 'Mater Lacrimarum' which admittedly does differ greatly to the rest of the very creepy witchcraft coven operatic vibe, as it is a band track, but it does incorporates the main theme with huge Omen-esque choirs backing my instantly recognisable dulcet tones.
Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-
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