Review: Cradle of Filth's Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa

If British extreme metal band Cradle of Filth is not already on your radar, be wary; these guys are about as far out as heavy metal is going to get for a long, long time. And when I say that these guys are metal and that they don’t give a fuck, I mean that the band sells a T-shirt of a masturbating nun and the words ‘Jesus is a cunt’ written on the back. Now, about this album…

Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is the ninth studio album by Cradle of Filth in twice as many years since their inception. Like many of their albums, this has an overarching concept – the story of the Biblical Lilith, first wife of Adam, returning to Earth and doing what a Succubus does best. For this album, there are two sides that must be taken into consideration, almost as separate entities; the lyrics, and the music.

Musically, we have two things happening at once: We have the double bass, blast-beat almost unlistenably- fast drumming, power chord flailing guitars and bass tuned so low, that it’s almost impossible to keep up with the chord-to-chord motion of the songs. Above these elements are all the elements that create the faux-Victorian, gothic, haunting sound of the album. Glockenspiel, harpsichord, clavichord, they’re all in here. Shivering, high strings and bellowing pipe organs and choirs all contribute to the record. And while the two styles of instrumentation laid atop one another might sound really stupid on paper, the end result is one of choice, because every track is almost two in one. One being the thudding metal side, the other the graceful, eerie orchestral half.

Now the lyrics. Keep in mind that this vocalist, Dani Filth, sounds like a car alarm being shoved into the bowels of a screaming cat that is being thrown into a wood chipper from the side of an exploding speedboat. And by that I mean that all of his vocals are of the screamed/spoken variety, which brings me to an observation I’ve made about this kind of heavy metal that features entirely shouted vocals: The lyrics are almost always really interesting to read. When the vocalist doesn’t need to worry about following a melody, then there’s no longer such a close relationship between him and the rest of the band, and the lyrics take on a much more Renaissance, poetic aspect. And this absolutely happens here.

Open the booklet for this album, and you’ll see probably a thousand to fifteen hundred words’ worth of lyrics, all somewhat along the same vein as this sampling from Deceiving Eyes: “Having torn at the soil like a man insane / He threw his fists at the poisonous cosmos / And from that pit of shame / He bore the coffin from her sorry lot / Neath trees whose eaves were knotted with rot / Through ornate chapel doors, unlocked / To splinter her sarcophagus / And gaze upon her face”. Beautiful poetry screamed horrifyingly over horrifying music. There is, though, a female vocalist on this album, making occasional appearances and most notable on the lead single and best track of the album, Lilith Immaculate.

All told, Darkly, Darkly is a good album. It’s a good story, the lyrics are very well written, and the musical arrangements are very nice at times, but it is not something that one can just grab casually off the shelf and start grooving to; contained within is a very intensely crafted work of art, and if you want to really enjoy this (Because it is not exactly enjoyable to just listen to), you’re going to need to lyrics spread out on the floor in front of you the whole time, and you’ll probably need to listen all the way through two or three times.