By Vinnie Apicella

As odd as this might sound, from the first moment while the title track was making its monumental entrance, a black lullaby of sorts, my first thought was, if Megadeth was the one time state-of-the-art speed metal band-now this is forgetting much of the 90's right-then Cradle of Filth has to have without question, applied the same standard to black metal! Known for their intricately structured twisted themes, sickened tales of terror and torment that possess an addictive and sadistic quality that's hard to ignore, Cradle of Filth has always been a transgression in the traditional ranks of black metal. This quick follow up to last year's "PanDaemonAeon" video, features stunning studio effects that that broaden the sound only enough to pronounce the decrepit nature of an inescapably charmless phenomena that'll haunt you in your sleep for hours on end! In the beginning, "From the Cradle to Enslave" and "Of Dark Blood and F**king" stamp their sign firmly on your forehead and possess a typically intense and winding pattern drawn toward six minute necrophobic rushes into and beyond the black… Lyrically graphic, if the titles could serve to indicate, and "Sister Midnight comes Blaspheming…" wait there's more! If we might delve into the chorus, momentarily, it reads, "Christlike, whipped and weak, Painted nails driven through the meek, Yet in obituary, My dreams still weep, Of dark blood and fucking thee…" A more captivating tale of nocturnal emission there never was! Covers of The Misfits' "Death Comes Ripping" and Anathema's "Sleepless" stretch the pale skin of Dani and co. in other directions to take their creative genius one step further while not straying very far away from that cradle of security that's maintained their dreadful existence… "From the Cradle to Enslave" is masterful in capturing the full range of filth… and ferocity, that this superior black metal creation has continually reinvented and serves to bridge the gap until their next heralded full length expected later this year!

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