Review Summary: A black metal perspective flip? Sounds cool to me!
I think just about every hardcore Cradle of Filth fan is aware of the circumstances that led to the creation of 1996's Dusk... and Her Embrace, but for the unfamiliar, a short primer: The band were on Cacophonous Records, the label that put out their 1994 debut The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, and absolutely hated being on their roster. Attempting to get out of the record deal, the band sued, and, believing that the suit would be an unending nightmare that'd kill the band, half the lineup quit and immediately went on to form the short-lived Anathema clone The Blood Divine. Cradle of Filth ended up recording the Vempire EP as a means of fulfilling the label contract and ending the dispute, taking songs that would have appeared on Dusk, plus a rerecording from the debut album and a couple original pieces, and, despite the band admittedly rushing production simply to get the whole ***show over and done with, it ended up being an absolutely banger of an EP, and remains one of the most loved albums in the band's discography. Cradle ended up finally releasing Dusk and Her Embrace on Music for Nations later in the year with the same lineup that recorded Vempire, and it became an instant hit and one of the seminal and most influential symphonic black metal records in history. However, a version of the album was recorded prior to the lawsuit with the lineup from Principle in 1995 and lay dormant for over two decades, literally collecting dust on a shelf as Dani Filth himself said upon the announcement of its discovery. It was finally released in 2016, marked with the subtitle "The Original Sin", after years of anticipation and speculation on its contents from hardcore Cradle fans, myself included, and it's just about as enthralling and interesting a release as those wishing for it were hoping it would be.
The key understanding one must have about Dusk and Her Embrace - The Original Sin is that even with all the differences between songs in terms of performance and individual musical choices and mixing and anything else you can think of is that this collection of songs is still, at its core, Dusk and Her Embrace, so the songs are all still coming from a state of utter perfection right out of the gate. It's still manic death/thrash-influenced symphonic black metal loaded with insane riffwork, guitar harmonies lifted right out of the Iron Maiden playbook, and dripping in gothic atmosphere. Pretty much all the primary elements that ended up on the official album are on this early version, so it's not necessarily a case of this being some sort of conceptual demo take on what would become the Dusk album, although it's very obvious that the songs had just a little bit more of a way to go before they reached their ultimate destination. For one, the drum tracks recorded for this version were reused for the 1996 version of the album, so the actual structuring and arrangement of the songs is virtually identical between these earlier sessions and what we got later. Almost all the same songs appear on TOS, but in a different order and with the addition of "Nocturnal Supremacy", which was merely a bonus track on the Music for Nations version, taking the place of "Malice through the Looking Glass", which didn't even exist as a song until the rerecordings took place a year later. The instrumentals/interludes are also different, with "Macabre, This Banquet" and "Carmilla's Masque" taking the place of "Humana Inspired to Nightmare" and the released album's version of "The Graveyard by Moonlight" (a completely different keyboard interlude piece exists on The Original Sin under that title). The major difference between the two versions of Dusk and Her Embrace is that the feel of the songs is considerably different between them. The released version has this incredibly murky, foggy atmosphere, drenched in reverb and seeming as though you've been tempted by a vampiress in an old English graveyard. The Original Sin, on the other hand, is a much more stripped down, savage take on the same collection of songs, a feel that pokes through the released version in spurts, but completely overtakes the proceedings on TOS. It's much more in line with "raging war" feel of how the songs on Vempire were presented, and in some ways that's a good thing and some ways a not as good thing. It might just be because the songs on Dusk and Her Embrace are so fantastically great sounding already, but it feels like a little of their impact was lost on this early version, simply because of the much more bare bones nature in which they are presented. Not enough to spoil the experience, but enough to be noticeable.
That's more a result of the mix of The Original Sin than anything really involving the performances themselves, though, as in some ways the instruments are even more active and involved here than on the released version. The band said upon release that TOS was sourced from the original DAT tapes, but the individual elements were unable to be mixed further beyond what was already there, so they just mastered the mixdown that was on those tapes and put it out. That's also why Queen of Winter, Throned, the fan favorite titan of a song from Vempire that was originally recorded for the early version of Dusk, is unfortunately not present here, as it was not on the tapes for whatever reason. TOS is a much clearer sounding album than the released version, which is beneficial for minutiae nerds like myself who really want to hear stuff like the bass drum and cymbal hits more clearly than what is presented on the released version. Stripping down the mix on TOS also results in the guitars taking more of a center stage role here than on the released version, which already were pretty prominent anyway on the album we got in 1996, but are now the driving force of the music on TOS. The riffwork present on the released version always felt a little buried beneath the heavy gothic atmosphere, only peeking out at certain moments before retreating to the mire and mostly existing to complement the keyboards, but with this alternate take on the songs you can now fully appreciate just how excellent the guitars are on Dusk and Her Embrace. It helps in that regard that there are guitar moments here on TOS that were later removed for the release version, such as the dueling solos in "A Gothic Romance" and that little ascending bridge part in "Beauty Slept in Sodom" that was played by keyboards on the released version now being played by guitar, which is a MASSIVE improvement over the released version as doing that section with guitar gives it considerably more impact and is closer to classic black metal than what ended up happening.
The other major differences between the two versions of Dusk and Her Embrace exist in the presentation and performance of the keyboards and vocals, as well as major lyrical changes throughout the whole album. As previously mentioned, the mix of TOS allows the guitars to become the focal point of the album in a way that they weren't on the released version, but that doesn't mean that the keyboards aren't still a major driving force of the music as well. In some ways, the keyboards may actually be more active here than on the released version. There are all sorts of subtle keyboard touches throughout TOS which are totally in line with how Ben Ryan constructed the keyboard parts on Principle and later in The Blood Divine, from the added church organ in the title track, to root note string pad at the start of "A Gothic Romance", to the texturing violin throughout the midsection of "The Haunted Shores of Avalon", to church bell accenting the beats of the intro to the same song, to the choir pad beneath the thrashy sections of "Funeral in Carpathia". The actual instrument choices for many of the keyboard parts are completely different as well, such as a music box sound replacing harpsichord in the intro to "Beauty Slept in Sodom" and much different string and choir pad sounds in the intros to "A Gothic Romance" and "The Haunted Shores of Avalon". All this lends The Original Sin to have a much more medieval, somewhat less explicitly gothic feel than the released version, which is a bit more in line with the presentation of keyboards on The Principle of Evil Made Flesh. It fits in with this specific interpretation of the Dusk and Her Embrace tracklist, but it still removes the songs of a hair of their ultimate lasting impact that they would have on the released version.
As it pertains to the vocals, this is the area that is most obviously, noticeably different from the released version, both in terms of the actual performance itself and the lyrical differences between the released version and TOS. Dani's voice on TOS is kind of at a halfway point between how it sounded on Principle and how it sounded on Vempire, resting a bit lower and raspier in register, not as shrieking and indecipherable as the released version. Honestly, this performance is just about as perfect as it could've been for this take on Dusk and Her Embrace, although I'm not sure that this exact performance would be as fitting if it were lifted 100% from here to the released version. The really interesting thing about the vocal performance on TOS is that it answers a longstanding question I personally had in regards to the vocals on the released version of Dusk: Why do so many vocal lines on the released version sound completely different from most of the rest of the performance on that album? Well, the answer is simple: Several lines and full sections of vocals from what would become The Original Sin were lifted from the original sessions and implanted into the released version. It makes listening to the 1996 version of the album an interesting Easter egg hunt after the fact, because you now can clearly pick out what sections of vocals were taken from the 1995 sessions and put on the released version. From individual screams and shrieks, to entire verses in the title track, "Beauty Slept in Sodom", and "The Haunted Shores of Avalon", it's really fun to give the released version another listen and figure out what was recycled and what wasn't. Lyrically, TOS is almost completely different from the released version, which is no surprise to fans familiar with the various live bootlegs of Dusk songs from after Principle came out (Cradle had a penchant in their early days for completely changing song lyrics after playing them live, as is evident throughout just about every live performance of theirs documented from 1993 to 1995). It provides yet another interesting, alternate take on a familiar set of songs, and, as mentioned for several other elements of this recording, it works for TOS, but might not have if it ended up being the finished product as intended. Also, the spoken word section of the title track here ended up becoming the narration on the outro of "Malice through the Looking Glass" on the released version, so that's a cool little touch on the part of the band, if you ask me.
The most accurate term that can be used to describe Dusk and Her Embrace - The Original Sin is that it's just about the closest thing you can get to a musical perspective flip. That is, to say, it's a classic, legendary collection of beloved songs now showcased in a much different light, loaded with alternate musical and production elements while still remaining familiar. It's just about what I personally was expecting scouring the old Cradle of Filth message boards for any information I could find about it in the years back when it was presumed to be lost, and that's a halfway point in the band's sound between what they used to be and what they would become. It's not so much Dusk and Her Embrace as viewed through the lens of The Principle of Evil Made Flesh as I was anticipating it would be, but more Dusk sounding like what would end up becoming Vempire, what with the more guitar-focused production style and less emphasis on overwhelming gothic atmosphere. It's ultimately an extremely interesting early take on one of the greatest black metal records of all time, and while not totally in line with what would end up changing the black metal world down the line, it's about 15/16ths of the way there already, and it still has its place and a fitting spot in the greater spectrum of Cradle of Filth releases. I revisit it every so often when I get on an old Cradle kick, and even though it doesn't totally replace the 1996 release in the "desert island albums" list I formulate every so often to determine my personal favorite albums ever, it's still a fantastic release, and I'm so happy and thankful that it finally made its way into the world after being hidden away for so long.
Now someone make a time machine and stop Goetia from getting wiped, please.
