Cradle Of Filth - Hammer Of The Witches

Malevolent kings of British metal… Masters of the darkest arts and crafts... Cradle Of Filth have been firmly ensconced at the forefront of the extreme music scene for the last two decades. Ever since they emerged from the lengthening Suffolk shadows in 1991, Dani Filth and his fiendish cohorts have blazed a grotesque trail across the globe, spreading their fetid gospel of obscene theatricality, earning themselves a formidable reputation as one of the most important metal bands ever. After unleashing three nefarious demo recordings, Cradle Of Filth began their campaign of dastardly destruction in earnest with the release of 1994’s ferocious debut album The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh, laying down a blackprint for everything that would follow, as Mr. Filth’s unhinged vocal versatility and gloriously twisted literary skills collided with a grandiose barrage of scything riffs, macabre atmospherics and bone-wrenching brutality. By the time 1998’s grand concept piece Cruelty And The Beast was unveiled, Cradle had already started to prod the mainstream’s vulnerable ribcage, making a notorious appearance on BBC2 documentary Living With The Enemy that enabled them to scare the merry Hell out of startled viewers across the length and breadth of Britain. Further releases such as the Grammy-nominated Nymphetamine and Thornography all cast their sickly shadow on an otherwise impoverished music world and countless world tours and festival triumphs duly followed. It has now been three years since the release of a new album - the longest in the band’s history- but their 11th commandment in metal has once again been forged in Grindstone Studios with revered engineer Scott Atkins. Entitled Hammer Of The Witches, the album’s artwork was created by Latvian Artist Arthur Berzinsh and is a lavish lyrical walkthrough, drawing on rich Renaissance themes and displaying them in beautiful yet unsettling scenarios.