Odes to Lesbian Vampires (Dusk And Her Embrace - Cradle Of Filth)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Dusk And Her Embrace - Cradle Of Filth
Date:	31/07/06 (222 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting and genre-defining gothic metal

Disadvantages: Erratic and drawn-out at times

Cradle of Filth’s second full-length album, ‘Dusk… And Her Embrace’ sees the English gothic metal band at its creative and technical best, and one of the classic albums of the genre. ‘Dusk’ is far more symphonic than their previous releases due to the introduction of Damien Gregori on keyboards (are you sure that’s your real name?) and the classic guitar duo of Stuart Antsis and Gian Pyres. The band’s following album, 1998’s ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ would draw heavily upon this release both musically and thematically, but lack the tight musicianship and nifty graveyard atmosphere.

Dani Filth pens the exquisite lyrics to this semi-concept album focused on erotic vampirism. Victorian horror writer Sheridan Le Feu is often credited as a primary influence, although his vampire novel ‘Carmilla’ is only indirectly referenced here, if indeed it is at all. The title song, and by association the album cover and artwork, would appear to deal with the true legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian ‘Blood Countess’ who bathed in and consumed the blood of virgins in an attempt to keep herself eternally young. This interest in Bathory would be further realised in ‘Cruelty and the Beast,’ a concept album based entirely on the Bathory legend, but this album gives more than a taster.

Cradle of Filth have been the focus of much criticism since their albums began selling well and proved popular with mainstream metal fans. This album finds the band well before its creativity began to slip, and before the arguable focus on image and theatrics over musical quality. At this point, ‘Cradle of Filth’ was still a struggling bunch of English and Scandinavian blokes with an interest in the gothic. Dani Filth’s trademark sarcastic humour is still present, but only to the extent of select puns; his poetic lyrics are impressive, if a little showy. It’s just a shame you can’t hear them through his crow-like, squawking vocals.

The CD booklet reflects this low budget, with an almost convincing centrefold of the gothed-up band devouring the bright red blood of a screaming, bound and resistant (but disappointingly clothed) female. The production quality is fairly good, a lot better than their self-produced efforts, but Nicholas Barker’s drums still come out sounding a little understated, like his drum kit’s covered in plastic bags or something. Nevertheless, this reduced focus on the drums suits the tone of the majority of the album, with its alternating guitar and keyboard leads and extensive use of both Dani’s and Sarah Jezebel Deva’s contrasting vocal ranges.


1. Humana Inspired to Nightmare
2. Heaven Torn Asunder
3. Funeral in Carpathia
4. A Gothic Romance (Red Roses for the Devil’s Whore)
5. Malice through the Looking Glass
6. Dusk and Her Embrace
7. The Graveyard by Moonlight
8. Beauty Slept in Sodom
9. Haunted Shores

Almost every song on here seems to take its cues from the keyboards, which tend to introduce each track, in an increasingly elaborate manner, before the other instruments kick in. ‘Humana Inspired to Nightmare’ is a brief and inconsequential piano piece, with accompanying thunderous sound effects, that builds the atmosphere impressively. The album features a similar, but more impressive piano instrumental, ‘The Graveyard by Moonlight,’ which is inoffensive in length and helps to break up the monotony of later tracks. Providing the opening melodies for tracks 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9, some of which are effectively extensive keyboard solos in themselves before vocals or guitars come to life, Damien works his way through typical piano and atmospheric synth to more obscure and dingy organ and harpsichord effects, the final of which is the most chilling and memorable. Both ‘A Gothic Romance’ and ‘Beauty Slept in Sodom’ rely primarily on the keyboards above all else, with the exception of Dani’s vocal theatrics in the former.

The album begins, properly this time, with ‘Heaven Torn Asunder,’ one of the most energetic songs and one that clearly owes a debt to Iron Maiden when it kicks into a galloping guitar riff. Some nice dual guitars and changes in speed and style throughout make this one of my favourites on the album, and it’s great to hear the opening riffs return on the bass at the end. My criticism is the same here as it is for the majority of the album: the song is a little too long, kicking back into more verses after sounding like it’s drawing to a close, and the vocals are nothing more than unintelligible screeches at many points. The other guitar-heavy songs on the album are the mediocre ‘Malice Through the Looking Glass,’ which nevertheless features a nice duet of Dani Filth’s high and low vocals and one of the album’s rare solos, and the title song ‘Dusk and Her Embrace.’ The latter is full of energy, dominated by the killer riff that could easily be a lost guitar line from the early days of Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. Deva’s choral backing vocals are at their best in this track, and really employed as an integral part of the music for a change.

The emphasis is on mood and melody rather than speed in ‘Funeral in Carpathia’ and ‘A Gothic Romance,’ both classic Cradle of Filth songs. ‘Carpathia’ boasts two of their greatest riffs, one on guitar and the other a haunting keyboard melody, while the keyboards of ‘A Gothic Romance’ owe something to the film soundtracks of Danny Elfman, especially ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (of which the band are reportedly big fans). Both songs are overlong, but the atmosphere they create is excellent, and there are some very nice changes, such as unexpected heavy guitar sections in the latter song. ‘Beauty Slept in Sodom’ is something of a disappointment later, failing to reproduce this style in the latter half of the album, before the closing ‘Haunted Shores’ sees the band’s black metal roots coming to the fore. The focus is on speed and aggression, but Stuart and Gian still get some nice dual guitar work. The closing speech by Venom’s Kronos is a nice touch too, even if it is a little silly. Still, nice to see England get a mention – Dracula was set here too, you know.


‘Dusk… and Her Embrace’ maintains a gothic atmosphere throughout with far greater success than any of the band’s other releases, but the focus on keyboards and synthesised symphonic elements does detract from its immediate ‘fun’ value. Almost every song sounds too long, and things get dull as the album becomes weaker towards the end, yet the album lends itself to being played the whole way through, rather than as a selection of songs. At fifty minutes, ‘Dusk… and Her Embrace’ is only ten minutes longer than the ‘VEmpire’ E.P., but it feels like a lot more. ‘Haunted Shores’ and the title track prove that this is still ‘extreme’ metal; ‘A Gothic Romance’ is the band at its most gothic and poetic; ‘Heaven Torn Asunder’ keeps the English heavy metal spirit alive, and even ‘The Graveyard By Moonlight’ is a step above their later instrumentals.

Symphonic gothic metal won’t be to everyone’s taste, but Cradle of Filth have enjoyed more mainstream attention and devotion than their contemporaries in recent years, often seen as the boy-band of gothic metal due to their affection from many fans of Marilyn Manson and the like (I really struggle to see the similarity though). ‘Dusk’ is a nice, semi-independent release by a burgeoning band from Suffolk, and if nothing else it deserves to be remembered for beginning the band’s obsession with controversial clothing. The accompanying ‘vestal masturbation’ T-shirt, with its rather rude evaluation of Jesus, caused understandable controversy when the band wore it to the Vatican. Those naughty goth boys.

Summary: Cradle of Filth's second studio album (1996)