Damnation and a Day

It’s hard to accurately define precisely what it is that makes ‘Damnation and a Day’ a pile of musical bollocks. It has most of the superficial elements that worked in the past for Cradle of Filth: Dani Filth’s varied vocals (mostly), melodic guitar work (mostly), evocative keys (mostly) and instrumental interludes (plenty). The gratuitous use of the word "mostly" seems to be pointing to the root of the problem: none of the individual elements here are working properly or are pulling their own weight. With too many important ingredients being on the nose, the whole mixture stinks.

Let’s start with the Sony thing. No, I’m not about to lambast a band for making it big and signing to a corporate giant. More power to them and I offer them congratulations on their success. I gave perfect scores to ‘Dusk and Her Embrace’ and ‘Cruelty and the Beast’, and ‘Midian' wasn’t too far off the mark either - their quality is assured and if anyone in the metal world was going to make it to Sony in the early 21st century, then it was Cradle. But I’m wondering if the burden of stepping into the mainstream had a negative effect on the composition, scope and execution of ‘Damnation and a Day’. It’s a bloated 77 minutes long, it has no fewer than five orchestral instrumentals (including the outro ‘End of Daze’), it features the Budapest Film Orchestra and the Budapest Film Choir and the concept is about Lucifer’s fall from heaven and all the biblical accoutrements that go along with it. I believe the idiom I'm looking for has something to do with a kitchen and a sink. It’s like they’re trying too hard to create the greatest and most monumental album ever, but like the Tower of Babel they tried to build too high.

Consider the production. While the music maintains the veneer of the extreme gothic metal of their past, with fairly melodic guitar riffs and atmospheric keyboards, and fast-paced and varied drums, the whole thing is cloaked in a strange sonic blanket, with the musical components sounding flat and lifeless. This is especially noticeable on Adrian Erlandsson’s drums which sound absolutely terrible. The kicks make soft padding sounds, the snare is as smack-tight as a marching band’s, and the cymbals are somewhat washed out and imprecise. As for the orchestra (and a lot was made about it in interviews etc at the time) it might as well not be there, and indeed it feels absent from the metal tracks. It really only appears present on the interludes, and even then it's not exciting or special in any way. Compare the orchestra sounds on Dimmu Borgir’s ‘Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia’ that was released two years prior to ‘Damnation and a Day’. The strings in particular on the Dimmu album are lush, clear and precise, yet haunting and atmospheric. I think the production and the mix has killed this album before it even got out of the starting gates and if any album needs to be remixed and remastered it's this one. Perhaps they should have done that rather than sullying the noble and coldhearted essence of 'Cruelty and the Beast'.

Next are the songs themselves. I think the word 'bland' is the most accurate one to use here, even though there are fleeting moments of quality. The metal material (and remember, there’s a hell of a lot of material here) just lacks emotion and elegance. Paul Allender’s chunky riff style is rearing its un-thrilling head on this album, and many of the Maidenesque twin guitar harmonies that traditionally added emotion and colour to the songs are largely missing. Allender has a completely different playing style to Stuart Anstis and Gian Pyres, with a blunt, dry tone and single guitar chord-based riffs. The songs here are shorter and more compact - there is no room for the music to breathe or stretch out as the riffs are too tight and dry. There is nothing epic here at all. A strange phenomenon here is that I’ve listened to this album many times since it was released, but apart from specific moments (like those dreadful computerised sound effects on the vocals in ‘Mannequin’), all of the metal songs just blend into each other and become indistinct. It's also a very progressive album, with riffs coming and going lickety-split, and none of them resonate at all. There is really only one track that offers a bit of enjoyment and that’s ‘Better to Reign in Hell’, which has a fairly catchy riff at a quick marching pace, although it too suffers from all of the above issues. It's also ironically a great example of the blocky chord-based riffs that Allender relies on. Faint praise is all I can muster up for it as a track.

The orchestral instrumentals are also so flat and unexciting that it’s actually quite perplexing how this could even happen. They seem generally tuneless and lost. 'A Scarlet Witch Lit the Season' is a cogent example. It's orchestral noise, but it's not music. There's no rhyme or reason to it; no discernable melody or feeling. It's the sound of a string orchestra and a choir just wandering around without direction or purpose. Look at the amazing instrumentals on previous albums: ‘Creatures that Kissed in Cold Mirrors’, ‘The Graveyard by Moonlight’, ‘One Final Graven Kiss’. Listen to ‘She Mourns a Lengthening Shadow’ for crying out loud. All are far superior to anything that appears on ‘Damnation and a Day’ because they have a theme to them that builds and immerses the listener into their worlds. The instrumentals on this album just happen to be there and like the metal tracks, leave no lasting impression or melody.

Dani Filth’s vocals are also flattened out a great deal here and embedded deep into the murky production. Yes, there are high pitched shrieks, but there's a much greater reliance on his mid-range, and once he locks into that mid-range he tends to carry it on for the whole verse, or even a couple of verses, rather than throwing in diverse highlights like in the past. There are virtually no deeper vocals here, or at least they don't stand out like they have done in the past. This merely adds to the blandness of the whole thing.

The album artwork continues the dodgy comic book style that suddenly appeared to everyone's horror on ‘Bitter Suites to Succubi’ and the ‘spooky’ eyes in the sky please me not. The booklet is visually very busy, but the images that more or less follow the lyrical plot are quite interesting to look at, and overall it's not a terrible package.

While 'Damnation and a Day' clatters along and offers minor aspects that are tolerable (I wouldn't walk out of the room if it came on at a party, for instance, providing I had a few drinks in me), overall the project is a failure. How a band can go from the highs of ‘Midian’ to this in the space of one album remains mysterious and perplexing. The truth is there are just too many elements that went wrong and the change in songwriting approach, from the epic to the - whatever this is - harmed the band significantly. In fact, while they would have better albums than this one coming up, they really wouldn't properly emerge from this morass until 'Hammer of the Witches' over a decade later. God dammit.

Cradle of Filth had always been a bit controversial band oscilating between underground metal and pomp metal that could eventually attract listeners who are not usually into black metal. At least, when it comes to the present. When Damnation And A Day was being released, it was 2003 and many had cursed the band because of their "betrayal" that they had moved under a mainstream label Sony. The truth is that this "betrayal" only helped them to create a really magnificient and unbeaten piece of art that many bands could learn from. No, Sony did not mean a betrayal but a chance to do what they had always dreamt of - to compose an Hollywood-sounding quality soundtrack embracing Hell, Satan and an anti-christian prophecy.

It is said that Damnation And A Day is a conceptial album partly based on an epic poem called Paradise Lost written by John Milton in 1667. Indeed, this album, as well as the poem itself, deals with Satan and his companions trying to corrupt the man the God have created, however I would say "partly" is a weak word. I would rather say that Damnation And A Day mixes some parts from Paradise Lost, some parts from the Bible and some parts totally unrelated to any of those two. The reason I am saying this is that, for example, Paradise Lost ends with Adam and Eva being banned from the Paradise because they have eaten "the" apple, though the song (Serpent Tongue) about this scene is somewhere in the middle of the album. The album itself ends with a story about Methuselah of the Tribulation (The Smoke of Her Burning) who enters Heaven and kills all the sin in there, though this event is not described in Paradise Lost. Also, Paradise Lost has no mention of Satan/Lucifer being thrown from Heaven to Hell as in the poem Satan is already in Hell, though there is a song dealing with this event (Better to Reign in Hell). There are many changes. But I really ador the idea that this is not just a musical version of Paradise Lost, but it adds its own ideas and plot twists making an entirely new context. Very smart from Cradle of Filth as a result of what every song can surprise listeners with a completely new experience.

Lyrics-wise it´s one of the best efforts Dani Filth has ever written. Beautifully lyrical poems full of eerie and obscure moments will get you excited. His ability to describe his vision of something he read or saw before and re-tell it is phenomenal. It has always been like this, but when Cradle of Filth deals with biblical matters, it is always their best. My personal highlight is Babalon A.D. with a breathtaking description of Satan corrupting the people through the ages and planting his seed into the mankind´s hearts.

Damnation And A Day sets new standards for symphonic black metal. From the first seconds you can feel its monumental atmosphere enriched with the Budapest Film Orchestra and the forty-piece Budapest Film Choir. Such a magnificient orchestral work cannot be done by synthetizers, you need real musicians and a professional place to record. The beautifully dark and almost an apocalyptic feeling having the intro A Bruise Upon the Silent Moon sets the mood with sounds of a tempest which soon are accompanied with the strings and the choir slowly forming the main theme resulting in the first song The Promise of Fever having the same melody. What a powerful beginning which deals with the creation of the world, Hell and Heaven.

The grandiose orchestrations can be heard in every other song, whether it is a normal song or an instrumental song. The instrumental songs perfectly fits with the normal songs having Dani´s lyrics with their lyrical expression that literally says its own story. It is just something as if from another world. Not only that every song has a perfect orchestration, almost every song is pumped with an absolute energy meaning that even some longer songs really feel much shorter. There are slower songs like Thank God for Suffering or Serpent Tongue, but they do not interrupt the overall flow of the album.Damnation And A Day itself is a symphonic black metal album, but as usual there are influences from other "metals" as well. Better to Reign in Hell begins with a drum solo leading to fast-paced melodic death metal with appropriate deeply growling. Carrion is basically a blackened thrash metal song, Babalon A.D. is avant-garde blackened death metal and the catchy Mannequin is a gothic metal song with Dani´s typical black metal shrieking.

In my opinion, there are three highlights. The first one is The Promise of Fever, spectacular black metal, the second one is really weird (in good sense) Babalon A.D. and the third is the last song The Smoke of Her Burning, which is the most brutal and fastest song on the album. The Smoke of Her Burning is a black metal tempest with "thrash metal" guitars during its chorus leading to an absolute end of this mental catharsis with a clear anti-christian message. A special place in my heart also belongs to An Enemy Led the Tempest.

Damnation And A Day is a melodic album but on the other hand - ironically - it is difficult to get into it in just one/first hearing. It is basically impossible, as there is so many information that just cannot be processed at once. And this is just good as every other listening will uncover something new you did not catch the last time. When an album can provide you with such an experience, it means, that that album just does something damn right.

Cradle of Filth would not create a better / more majestic / more extreme / more satanic album after Damnation And A Day, this triumph of symphonic black metal. Though there is a little hope that they could do something similar in the future as John Milton wrote a sequel named Paradise Regained dealing with Christ´s temptation in the desert. This could lead to something very interesting.

10/10

Cradle of Filth were doing so-well with their last release, at least decently-well. Then, of course..."Cradle of Fear" was being filmed around this time. So, this album was belated and suffered greatly because of it. Not to mention...overly crowded and considerably boring. I almost hate this album, but I can't because it has some fairly decent features that do make up for this album's general suffering. This could have been above average for a release...but we all know this is Cradle's most-forgettable album...ever. And easily their least talked-about about, too. Basically to put it flat, it's Cradle of Filth's most-underrated record...and chances are, it will always be their least-appreciated release. And it's easy to see why...it basically doesn't deliver...hardly...you might feel a buzz, but only on-and-off...

Let's keep this short but straightforward... This record doesn't honestly deserve much attention because of it's lacking style... The production is pretty good for once. It's almost crisp, clean and smooth. But still retro-like and just a tad obscure...but it is an improvement, and this album does bring that to the table...and yes, I appreciate the audio quality, considerably. I do like a few tracks on this record and listen to a bit at times..but generally... I don't choose more than like...three tracks to listen to...at the time of this review at least. The guitars are angry-sounding. Practically thrash-y and tough. Almost like a storm sweeping the masses and murdering those who're in the way. I like the powerful nature of the guitar-structure, but I feel like the atmosphere has left the band's image and construction during this release. With improvements upon a lot of things...the atmosphere has left the building, entirely. I feel underwhelmed by this album's lack of "presence". It's like the character of the band's past-releases...have metaphysically died...

The bass, still...as usual, never seems fucking present during the releases. It's like bass is forbidden or something. I just never really feel it...let-alone hear it...seriously. I think this is an underwhelming factor, to even this day, isn't an improvement. The keyboard feel so poorly executed as well...seems almost boring...not enough keyboards...it's lacking so-hard... I feel like the orchestration is overly weak and feeble...honestly, where is the twinkle in the band's eye? It's gone. Sure, the concept is cool and the lyrics are alright, but the additional...musical theme is just so-empty, it doesn't provide enough "enjoyment" for a listener, it's honestly sad... Dani's vocals are mainly lows...and sometimes in the medium-range...and he's been taking it easy with his "highs", but still powerful...but cleaner in pitch. I think this is the album, where his voice has become more "apparent" in terms of distortion-loss, even though we heard this change in "Midian" (2000), it wasn't quite on this level. I'm not picking on the little man, but I'm just stating a possible fact. And I'm sure a lot of us could generally agree that Dani went through a slight vocal change between 2000 'n 2003, fair enough? Good. The narration was spooky on this album, phrases from the good book, the Holy Bible, everyone knows about that, right? Anyways...this album was a step backwards...though, it shared some good forms of personality, it felt...fake to me. I'm sorry... It's actually a little painful to listen to and it's heavily crowded... Dani even suggested this is a problem, too. Anyways... Not really a good album, but I can accept since it's Cradle and it's got "some" delight to it, even if it's a light taste. Think of it as a diet...because that's what it is! Cut-down on the Cradle! Your ears are getting too fat!

The mark of the 'extreme' metal genre was imprinted on the Britons during their 'Damnation and a Day'-'Nymphetamine' era and it is a damn shame because at least one of these albums (this one) had some potential. The problem is that the conceptual music of Cradle of Filth used to be somewhat dangerous for those who were unfamiliar with band and then, just like that it became poppy. I don't know if it's all about the marketing aspect of the whole thing but the terror is gone. The sheer horror of 'Dusk and Her Embrace' and 'Cruelty and the Beast' is gone.

Dani has stated that one of the albums that influenced Cradle of Filth's music is Iron Maiden's 'Powerslave' and it is easy to see where he's coming from. The melodious sides of Cradle of Filth resemble what Maiden did back in the 80's albeit not in such a glorious manner and this might as well be one of the reasons that I started listening to Cradle of Filth in my early-mid teens. However, if you are to be influenced by Dickinson, Harris and co. just finish the fucking thing! I miss the double leads and the crescendos. All I get is the storytelling structure of each track and the galloping guitar sound. Each track has its own leitmotif and that's probably it. Okay I'm being a dick... There are good elements here and there and obviously some songs are really good. But is 'Babalon A.D. (So Glad for the Madness)' and 'Mannequin' enough? Well they are in some way. Be it a riff off of a random track in the middle of the record or those songs which are my eternal favorites, I find much enjoyment in this album's content. The reason I seem to be hating it is that it didn't live up to my expectations in contrast to their four first full-length albums.

This album is said to be the last of the greats and I completely agree. The instrumentation works, Dani is still in form and the atmosphere is overwhelming. People also say that they found their good shape again in their latest album. I don't know about that but I hope it's true. Anyway, Cradle of Filth released their sixth full-length in 2004 and that's where the real downfall began. That's where the barbaric blasts and rampant guitar riffs ceased to exist and a new pseudo-goth aesthetic was introduced. 'Damnation and a Day' is the end of an era and should be regarded as such. I respect it a lot even if I do not like it as much as the previous records. But between the thick lines of heavy riffage, robust rhythm sections, terrifying keyboard sounds and Dani's hissing voice one can still see Cradle of Filth as they were in their best days. A bunch of young men playing music because THEY and not their record company want to do so.

Favorite tracks: 'Carrion', 'Babalon A.D. (So Glad for the Madness)', 'Mannequin'.

72/100.

For the first time since I started reviewing on the Metal-Archives, I find myself wanting to say exactly the same thing as UltraBoris at the beginning of my review. I really don't like listening to this album and I wanted to pile faeces on top of its kind-of-cool kind-of-random cover, but I'm starting to see some serious quality in the general music of 'Damnation and a Day' that I thought had drained out of Cradle of Filth about three quarters of the way through 'Midian'. What I'm actually doing at the moment, in case you find yourself in the same position, is listening to the whole album backwards, minus the interludes and introductions, and finding that after removing all the fucking storytelling dross there are some good ideas. That is, good ideas and no fucking clue what to do with them. CoF have always been decent musicians with only a few brain cells to share amongst the band.

There's a general rule of thumb about CoF albums that goes something like this: if you notice hot nude women on the cover art or lyrics booklet before the first track has started, the attractiveness of the music is going to be inversely proportional to that of the woman. If the band spent so much time picking great models for the artwork, they probably haven't spent much time actually writing the songs, and that's apparent for 'Damnation and a Day', since the model they found for Eve could make me listen to Taylor Swift while I smelled her farts through my dad's dressing gown and I would still consider it time well spent. However, sexy flatulence through old men's clothing is not far away from my description of songs like 'Thank God for the Suffering' or 'Hurt and Virtue', which contain little in the way of musical content, merely an atmospheric stench and a lot of fluff that make me wish I could either catch a glimpse of the farter or persuade my dad to put his dressing gown back on and stop displaying his inner thigh. The patchiness and length of this album is a really massive problem, because you may notice that I have just extended a metaphor beyond its natural length instead of actually talking about the music, and that's because the music has so many things to criticize it's making me tired just thinking about it. Let's do this as a list to save everybody's time:

1. No focus or structuring whatsoever;
2. Those fucking interludes are incredibly shit this time around;
3. Martin Powell has ejaculated his keyboards all across the whole album;
4. Dani Filth has brought back the annoying high-pitched screaming vocals;
5. Dani Filth has thought of more annoying vocals styles;
6. Dani Filth won't shut up;
7. There's a lot of narration and the concept is a bit arduous;
8. Most of the songs are too long;
9. The album is too long;
10. I can't tell many of the songs apart.

That's probably enough for now on the negative side, so let's do the positives:

1. There are some good riffs here;
2. The melodic guitars are decent.

What I really detest about these positives is that it makes the album sort of worth listening to, if only to catch those good points, meaning that one ends up like UltraBoris, who sums up the problem with a song like 'The Promise of Fever' with words like these (it's not a quote, just a paraphrase): "There's a nice 30 seconds here...and I don't like the next part...oh, another riff that's cool...and skip that song." Every song on 'Damnation and a Day' could be summed up like that. There's just no consistency, except for those couple of songs that are consistently shit from start to finish. We also go through the whole range of metal subgenres, including a bit of death, black, thrash, doom, trad, goth, and symphonic, so that the songs are not only structurally messy, but also confusing in their style too. The only songs I can recognize with ease are those with some kind of hook in the vocals like 'Better to Reign in Hell' or 'Babylon A.D.', though they don't necessarily lay claim to being the best efforts here.

There is undoubtedly some worthwhile music to be found here, especially in the riffs of songs like 'The Smoke of Her Burning' 'Serpent Tongue', and 'An Enemy Led the Tempest', but it would take a very dedicated listener to pick their way through the filler rubbish that clogs up even the better songs or to invest in the drama of the storytelling and concept enough to appreciate the many changes in style, at the expense of musical satisfaction. A 40 minute edit would probably be really good - this is really not good.

Damnation and a Day marked a big change for Cradle, as they were signed by Sony for the release of this very album. A common feature for this band's music is that every single album they put out is different, and that is something I really love about this band. It also marked the departure of bassist, Robin Eaglestone, and guitarist Gian Pyres. And how exactly did Cradle of Filth manage to put up with the line-up changes?

Quite well. Many feared a mainstream change to the music, that the band would sell out, now that there would be a Sony label on the CD. But that did not happen. Instead we got one of Cradle's most adventurous releases to date with great creativity and inspiration. For this album, a big orchestra and a choir was dragged into the studio, but this does not mean a drastic shift towards a orchestra orientated album. On the contrary, those elements brings the album to life. It gives it more substance, merely supporting the band, and it worked out perfectly. On the opening track, "A Promise Fever", it is displayed quite nicely how the guitar can be in focus, complimented by the choir, and the other way around plus some well conducted orchestra interlude passages. Of course, this is not how every track on the album are composed, but just an example of the new element to the music. The very core of this album is still Cradle of Filth. No doubt about it.

The guitars sounds great on this record, as they have a really powerful sound. This crunch and power is a good combination with the riffs themselves as they come out just as the sound: Crunchy and powerful. This is Dave Pybus' first appearance on a Cradle record, and his bass lays well in the mix giving the music a solid foundation and base. Adrian Erlandsson also performs great on this album and the drums sounds exquisite. Martin Powell have not been left out of the mix, as he is a big part of keeping the album true to the core of Cradle with his keyboard. He was a major figure in this band I must say that I miss him dearly. He was a main songwriter for this album, and wrote the score which the orchestra plays on Damnation and a Day. Dani Filth's vocals are just immaculate. Ever since Cruelty and the Beast he got a better grip of his vocals and more control. The blend between his deep growls and high screeches are simply marvelous. The production and mix fits this album well. It sounds big and that is a wise choice from the knob-turners. I do not think that it is overproduced, however it has the clear, yet strong and powerful sound it should have with all the elements that's been weaved into the songs.

The lyrical theme on this record is different from the previous ones. Just as the music has another inspiration, so does the lyrics. The vampire and goth lyrics are gone. Now we're treated with somewhat of a concept album based on John Milton's poem "Paradise Lost", seeing the fall of Man through the eyes of Lucifer. The album is divided into four parts which all are introduced with choir and orchestra, perfectly blended into the song that comes afterwards. And it also features some great narration from David McEwen. I would definitely recommend that you just listen to the entire from start until finish. With its 76 minutes it could definitely be prone to being too long, but it does not feel like it. This album holds a well crafted story with just as well crafted music. Just like any other album by Cradle I recommend that you sit down and immerse yourself into the music by reading the lyrics along to the music. Among my favourite excerpts from this album you will find: "A Promise of Fever", "An Enemy Led the Tempest", "Carrion", "Presents from the Poison-Hearted" and "Thank God for the Suffering". The two last songs in particular almost always manages to give me goosebumps. Even after more than ten years as a Cradle fan.

So who would I recommend this album to? Well, it is always hard to recommend Cradle of Filth albums as there is so many people out there who hates them. If you are into the early stuff this band put out, you should definitely check this album out. It is often overlooked, but in my opinion it stands tall and should not be dismissed. One of many great Cradle of Filth albums.

R.I.P. David McEwen.

Written for The Legacy Reviews

We've always known that CoF has been one of the most popular (but maybe not the most loved by die hard fans) black metal bands ever, and because of their new label we all knew it was going to be over produced, and while over-production may not suite some bands as Immortal and whatnot, CoF definately pulls it off.

CoF has always loved their gothic/vampyric lyrics, and Dani Filth is by far an above average writer when it comes to lyrics. But this album has some of their best lyrics, because in this album Dani couldn't make up his own stories he chose to expand on other people's story (namely Paradise Lost). The lyrics are apocalyptic, dark, epic, and above all...poetic, while still having his vampyric hints.

The track listing is almost perfect, with a mix between a romp through the Bible and Paradise Lost, the track listing is nearly perfect. The album starts, and ends, with the cryptic words "And Darkness Was Upon The Face Of The Deep".

The instruments are much more melodic, and focus more on power then sheer speed or technicality. Every song uses a live recorded orchestra and a live choir, and it really adds to the atmosphere that CoF has always been looking for. Dark, melodic, beautiful, and ugly all at the same time. The drums focus on sheer power, and it's needed with all the over dubbing the band does with it's instruments. The guitars are some of the most powerful instruments I've ever heard. They aren't heavy, they're just powerful. Paul Allender at his best, it's almost like he tried to be apart of the orchestra with his instrument.

This abum was Dani Filth at his best, between his low gutteral growl and his high shriek, he is a more extreme version of King Diamond. But sadly this was his last album with this much vocal talent, as his high shriek became less powerful, and his low growl had to try and take it's place.

If you're not all about speed and you like other types of softer music, as well as heavy metal, I suggest you give this one a listen at least once through.

Often the subject of debate, CoF's 2003 album had many fans, old-school or otherwise, crying foul while the ones who never liked the band in the first place held their opinions firm. Along with Dimmu Borgir's "Death Cult Armageddon," this was one of the most anticipated and critisized albums of 2003. The media placed unbelievable hype around it. So, does it live up to the hype, and furthermore, is it a good album?

Well, though the album is successful on many levels, it suffers from one thing: overambition. Everything is so blown out of proportion here that it's amost like arena rock in its scope. The production is absurdly clean, but considering that a large orchestra was used here, that was pretty much required. Guitars used a polished and ear-friendly tone while maintaining the low end needed for the band's palm-muted riffs, Adrian's drums are meticulously miked to make every stroke of every drum audible, and even the bass comes out front at a few points. This is a slightly refreshing change from the slightly muddled or ear-straining sound of albums like Midian, but also takes the balls right out of the music. Many of the best metal moments are washed out with dense choirs or full string sections, or are layered with endless sound effects. In the end, it comes off as a bit too digestible. The band spent too much time in the studio fucking around with what could be added to music, without realizing what was too much.

On the upside, this is one hell of a heavy metal album. A bit long-winded, yes; but the band offer up great performances on all fronts, and although Dani's lyrics take a near-biblical slant, lyrics from "Better to Reign in Hell" and "Babalon A.D." are some of the best he's written. Paul's guitar riffs have definitely taken a backset to the orchestra on this album, and aside from the occasional lead, most of the guitar work conists of powerful, driving tremolo picking or power chords; the band's long-time flirtations with keyboards come full swing here, and it's clear to see that tons of time was spent working out the orchestra parts in conjunction with the songs, and also the numerous interludes that divide the album into its respectable "chapters."

Here's the thing, though; while most metal bands that flirt with symphonic nature base the symphony around the metal, it seems to be the exact opposite in this scenario. It seems like the songs were written to revolve around the orchestra instead of vice versa. Only every now and then are the band allowed to come out in their full fury, such as the beginning of "An Enemy Led the Tempest." Otherwise, the band seem rather restrained here. Regardless of the restraint, "Hurt and Virtue" features incredible guitars and double bass work, and "End of Daze" proves to be one of the band's most ripping tracks they've composed.

Dani offers some slightly more ear-pleasing vocals here, and his performance is easily better than anything seen on "Midian." The lyrics prove to be one of the high points of the album. Rather than the usual dark romance/Goth/horror niche, Dani undertakes a huge role as narrator of the rise and fall of man in the garden of Eden. It's best described as Paradise Lost gone totally wrong, but it works well within the context of the music. "Mannequin" is the only clear exception to this, and seems to relate back to the famous "Her Ghost in the Fog."

The orchestra plays a major role in the album; so major, in fact, that this album would be a total flop without it. It does bring power out at most points, such as the opening track "The Promise of Fever" or the slightly tranquil "Serpent Tongue." But there are many instances where it all is simply too much; the metal isn't given enough room to breathe, and as a result, the album falls flat on its face at some points..

Despite the numerous problems, there still manage to be some stellar moments. "Hurt and Virtue," "An Enemy Led the Tempest," "Better to Reign in Hell," and "Mannequin," among a few other cuts, manage to be some of the best songs the band have composed. The band still pull through in their own special way, and prove that after all these years, Sony be damned, they can still bust out the goods.

I'll start with saying that Cradle of Filth went a little overboard with this album by putting in 17 tracks, 5 of which are interlude. You know if you have that many tracks it can't all be good, and it isn't.

I'll start off with the good aspects of this album. First one is the track "Hurt and Virtue". This one has some pretty decent riffs and some memorable melodies as well as some great riffs to start of Carrion. For a second you may even think that you are listening to real metal and not some silly ass band. "Presents of the Poison-Hearted" is another great track although we could have done without the "AHHH", "HHHAAAHH" etc. effects in the beginning. This one of the little problems with this album. It is a great example of overproduction. "Mannequin" is also a decent song with some memorable melodies although once again it reeks of overproduction. The rest of the tracks might have some decent riffs/melodies, but they just don't stand up. And the interludes just do nothing, they are boring. If they cut the interludes to one or two it would be fine but 5 is overdoing it.

Some more problems besides the overproduction and too many interludes is the damn drumming. It gets on your nerves in a matter of minutes. The constant same "tick...tick...tick" drumming style. It is bland and boring and has an annoying noise. You know, you could vary your drumming...

Another thing is that sometimes Dani's ear-piercing shrieks just go over the top. Makes me just want to cut my ears off. It is just horrid sometimes. And in the second track, "The Promise of Fever" they just go way over the top by giving us 20 seconds of just the same damn shrieking organs or whatever getting louder and louder. I felt like just crumbling my CD player to seconds...you should avoid piercing sounds like that like the plague. Its not that bad for the first 10 seconds but as it gets louder and louder it just kills you. God I've never heard a more horrid sound in my life before. I'd rather listen to someone scratching their nails on a blackboard than that. God.

It kind of hurts me to give such a low grade when there are actually some decent pieces on this album, but I can't knowing also how much crapola is in here. If you cut it down to 10 tracks and kept the good stuff you'd have a pretty decent album, but not with 17. This is definately one of Cradle's worst. Avoid it!

After healing for roughly two years after the Bitter Suites To Succibi incident, many fans cringed in horror to hear that a new "Cradle Of Filth" album was on it's way from a major record label, Sony Music. Many could not wait to get their hands on a new "Cradle" album since Live Bait For The Dead just simply wasn't enough. But what was to come from the band?

Well, there was talk of a possibly mainstream sounding black metal album. Could it be true? Could such an abomination exist? Damnation And A Day is, at the time of this review being concocted, the first and only black metal album to enter Billboard's Top 100 CD charts, and for good reason.

Damnation And A Day is seriously more diverse compared to their last album, Bitter Suites To Succubi. Essentially, that album was older, rare material redone, as well as covers thrown in the mix. However, Dani simply went overboard with the screeching. But, in this one, it comes in with perfect harmony.

Various tales are abound through the album as the chapters are seperated with haunting instrumentals that bring happiness one minute, and chaos the next. The album, thanks to Sony themselves, have spawned various singles, including 'Babylon A.D. (So Glad For The Madness)', 'Mannequin', and the one song many college stations played in their top 200 playlists, 'Thank God For The Suffering' (which, on a side note, reached #1 in the CMJ Top 200 Air Play charts).

The band did not sell out, however. In fact, this is considered to be on of their greatest albums yet. The banshee wails from Dani Filth are blended perfectly with deep growls and low screaches. Done with a much larger budget, they were able to use orchestras and other such elements to bring the album to life, which worked perfectly.

The guitars are fast one minute, and completely insane the next, blending an extreme dose of melody with the sound that at times can be so chaotic and hectic. The lyrics are deep and dark like usual, and such songs as 'Better To Reign In Hell' will have you reaching pinnacle tones in your voice on your long drive to work.

There aren't any flaws with the album that can be pointed out. It is simply a catchy, insane, and amazing display of black metal and gothic metal combined together to form a conceptual album revolving around small tales and songs of the dark and macabre. "Cradle Of Filth" fans, rejoice! For a major record label having one of the greatest metal acts of the nineties, this album is not mainstreamed and not aimed at people outside the style. This is simply a must have for anyone wishing to put the Bitter Suites To Succubi horror behind them...

(Attention: i'm making this review based upon what I’ve heard on the promo cd to which I had access in the last days before this review, but the content is exactly the same that’s present on the original release...)

So Dani and his hellish vampiric servants have once again risen from their graves to give us some more "100% make up" metal. A long time went from the release of Midian, their last originals record before this one, and the band went through a lot of changes that would eventually affect their sound in a (well, I can't say negative) different way. Robin, their long time bassist exited, being immediately replaced by ex- Anathema nocturnal pulse Dave, and the band was not a 6, but a 5 piece showcase that recorded their album with only a guitarist, the (almost gaining the "Dracula" rank in the band...) Paul Allender, that recorded all the parts, the most of them eventually composed by him.

And this is exact reason why I decided to call this record "We wanted to make another Midian, but even taking the crap out of ourselves, we didn't managed to do it.", instead of "Damnation and a Day". Gian Pyres was without doubt a very skilled riff maker, and it's very sad that we get to realise this after his departure of the band. Paul Allender's guitar rhythms are almost the same thing in all of the record, some thrashy speed, coupled with some death metal riffs over here and there, something really boring sometimes, very far from the massive rifforama of songs like "Chtulu Dawn". It's a similar guitar work to that present in "Midian" but with lower intensity and much less catchy...

Dave plays his role in a competent way, not proving yet why is he a worthy replacement over Robin, but he'll have lots of time to show what he can do (ah ah, just kidding...probably Dani already fired him).

Adrian is not often allowed to show his true potential as a drummer since the songs have some rhythm basis and changes that don't allow him to make some furious blast beats or really thunder-drumming, but I still think he made an hell of a job, and he's a very skilled drummer (what is he doing in C.O.F???).

Martin Foul’s keyboard playing gained a lot of respect from me on this one, not by the role he played on the metal songs, but for those little instrumental pieces. Really vampiric melody stuff capable of putting your hairs all up and make you imagine that you have Dracula himself just at your back. I knew he was good on My Dying Bride, but somehow he managed to transcend himself.

Well, all that it's left are the "glammy vampiric horrid screams" by Dani. Bah...same deal like the one he's been making since the "Cruelty and the Beast" album. Those really high pitch screams with that sinister dracula voice, and those furious beast growls. The saaame thing.

Well about the songs...There are 2 great songs, good songs, some average, and some not even worth mention. Hey, this one has it all!!! 17 songs. After hearing it I got the thought that they could mix pairs of 2 or 4 songs into one and make this a high quality 8 or 10 track record, but, you know that even vampires get their teeth really bend over when getting old, and my god these guys cant drain a drop of blood to save their lives now.

Very worth listening to "Presents to the Poison-Hearted" and the death metal amazing rifforama of "The Promise of Fever". "The Smoke of Her Burning", "Babalon A.D", "Better to Reign in Hell" and "Carrion" are also good but at the same time they get the rank of "not very interesting" along with the others.

Still, it's a good Cradle of Filth album to get. Their weakest until now, but still very "headbangable"...