Review Summary: The Dani Filth band releases an album plagued by mediocrity.
Cradle of Filth is a band that are masters of first impressions; whatever you think of them first is likely to stick, though only to a certain extent. This Suffolk, England band has made quite a name for itself, producing several extremely enjoyable albums to date, as well as several immensely trite and bland albums. This album, however, is a good basis for which to measure all the work they have done and all the work they will ever do. They play a strange genre; first it was heavily gothic influenced black metal, and then mediocrity filled black/heavy metal. Their present-day sound is a strange conglomerate of noise, for sure; have you ever seen a small child and gone, “Damn, what two people mixed to make something like that?”. Well,
Cradle of Filth have also created a strange, unfortunate child, in a way. Sort of like if
Iron Maiden and
Dimmu Borgir had sex, and nothing that was good about either band stuck. However, it does not matter exactly what they play; their work on
Midian is nothing short of amazing… for the first 6 tracks or so.
In 2000, Cradle of Filth were:
Dani Filth: Vocals
Gian Pyres: Guitar
Paul Allender: Guitar
Robin Eaglestone: Bass
Adrian Erlandsson: Drums
Martin Powell: Keyboards
There is this strange opinion of intros for metal albums (or albums in general). Many people seem to find them unnecessary, obnoxious, and a waste of time. In a sense, they see them not as an extension of a band’s sound or compositional ability, but more as a useless element thrown into the mix, perhaps as a cheap stab at atmosphere. I have certainly seen many people chastise the use of intros for nothing more than their existence. More often than not, this is unfortunately true, and it has led to many people skipping intro tracks. This would be a tragic consequence for a listener of
Midian, as the intro feeds into and helps make the album whole. The intro,
At The Gates Of Midian, is as dark and creepy as the rest of the album. With a smooth keyboard laden transition, some flashy organs, and some obnoxious yet necessary swirly wind noises, this is everything an intro track should be. It’s truly a shame that they were not able to keep up this quality of musicianship for the rest of the album.
Cradle of Filth seem to have this obnoxious habit of letting Dani do all the work. Yeah, Dani is one hell of a [laughable] man, but he sure writes some catchy lines, and his voice has fantastic range. That is no more apparent than ever on this album. With blood curdling high pitched shrieks and throaty growls, Dani shows that he is definitely one of the most talented in the business. That is, until the listener hears him for more than three or four tracks at a time, at which point they start to realize “Wait, this guy’s voice is really quite obnoxious”. His higher range is atrociously squeaky; imagine if you stepped on Jerry the mouse’s (from Tom and Jerry? High five anyone?) poor little foot, and he let out a shriek. Like that, except, for 50 minutes. At first, the listener thinks “This guy can REALLY hit a high note! That’s awesome!”, but in time, that high note becomes too high and too much to put up with. Personally, I can stand a baby crying. However, stick me in a room with a baby crying for near upon an hour, and I am likely to punch something (chances are it’s going to be the baby). On top of that, his lower growls are more akin to a really low shriek than an actual growl. Now, do not let me fool you. What he does, he does fantastically. It’s just that, returning to my original point, Dani seems to be the entire showcase of the band. He’s out in front the entire time, and after awhile, it is exhausting. It’s wonderful and enjoyable for a couple of tracks, but extended listening grates upon one’s nerves. Dani seems to be unable to cope with the fact that behind him is a band, and they too are musicians who like to express themselves.
As far as atmosphere goes, the album excels there more than anywhere else. Perhaps it’s the strange lyrics; perhaps it’s the creepy synthesizers, keyboards ands organs, or perhaps it’s Dani’s mouse-squeal; this album is definitively creepy. The band itself tries to maintain an unsettling (or hilarious) image, with their pitiable mock corpsepaint and their ridiculous satanic lyrics and merchandise. Indeed, the band seems intent on trying to make the listener wonder whether the creepiness given off by the album is legitimate, or a by-product of their absurd antics and image. A fault in many bands regarding atmosphere is a troubled use of keyboards. Many bands abuse keyboards and synthesizers, drowning out the rest of the band’s sound and causing an overwhelming sense of monotony and annoyance to the listener.
Cradle of Filth does not suffer from this impairment. The band has done a wonderful job of not only working in the keyboards, but utilizing them for increased effect and atmosphere. Not only is their adeptness for inserting them seamlessly apparent, but the tone they use is absolutely perfect. This album is loaded to the brim with sub-par instrumental musicianship, albeit the keyboards are phenomenal in their quality. The tone being set is despairingly creepy; an eerie ambience overlays the entire album, and is one of the most refreshing aspects of the album.
Cradle of Filth had only experimented with atmosphere up until this point, and on
Midian, it is pushed to the limit. This is clearly apparent throughout the album, with unsettling synthesizers and disturbing spoken word sections overlaid with ambience; however, it becomes detrimental in one case I will touch on later. Without these electronic elements, the album would be significantly less bearable.
Midian’s instrumentation is nothing to scoff at, nor is it of the caliber for which it would be admired. As with your average metal band, the bassist’s talents are wasted, as the bass is completely inaudible during (almost) the entirety of its duration.
Cradle of Filth has guitarists who have a unique ability to write undeniably catchy riffs that are fantastically boring to listen to. Many riffs sound hollow and uninspired, and many echo the sound of lines heard earlier on the album. However, when their hooks do get into the listener, be prepared for some heavy headbanging action. The band can certainly write an effective riff, but they seem to re-write and re-use that riff over and over throughout their albums.
Midian is no exception, and after hearing the same riff for 50 plus minutes, one is bound to get tired. However, their riffs, when listened to in small doses, are mindblowingly awesome. A good example of this is on the second (and easily the best) track,
Cthulhu Dawn. Following an excellent segue from the intro track, the song pummels the listener with unrelenting dark fury. Cradle shows focus and direction on this album; they are determined to melt your face into the pavement until not even your mother could love it anymore. After this first track, however,
Midian begins to lose steam.
Midian is excellent because it mixes the Cradle of old with what would eventually, in the years to come, turn into their now style. For this exact same reason, however, it falls flat on its face. As quality as some of their older material was, their new horrific offspring of metal screams average, and it shows painfully here. The album is overflowing with filler, especially the atrocious
Satanic Mantra, which apparently serves no purpose other than to either make the band look like a group of pretentious cultist wannabes, or to break the flow of the album even more. It’s completely astounding that an album with metal songs as quality as “Cthulhu Dawn” can have so much deadweight material. By the closing track, on an end-to-end listen, the listener has become fatigued with mousy creams, boring guitar work, and endless filler.
I recommend listening to this album in its entirety at least once. Give it a shot. Despite its flaws, what
Cradle of Filth have to offer here is nothing short of unique, if only bland at times. However, repeated listens will not yield the bounty that the virgin listen did;
Midian has low replay value.
