An Absinth Inspired Review ... The Freaks Catharsis of Cradle of Filth’s “Nymphetamine”
Written: Aug 01 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The only words that sum it up are...carnal..primal..haunting..offensive..morbid..enchanting..lewd..in other words ... aural ecstasy.
Cons: It’s Cradle of Filth .. if it offends you then it’s achieved it’s goal.
The Bottom Line: ...in the Samhain mist we lay in welcome by the western gate...with the five fold kiss for every soul returning...from the fecund abyss where nature’s travesties congregate...
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| Freak369's Full Review: Nymphetamine [PA] by Cradle Of Filth |
I have been dreading this moment.
The moment when I would have to sit down, turn my on CD player and write a review of Cradle of Filth’s “Nymphetamine”. As I’ve mentioned in several other music reviews, groups like this, Clutch, Nailbomb and Type O Negative are my guilt pleasures. They are things that I keep locked away from everyone else, in the solitary confinement of my gas guzzling SUV I raise the volume to an obscene level, scream out the words and have some of what Peter Steele deems ... sonic therapy. Cradle of Filth is an extreme blend of death and epic metal; you have the deep, demonic, growling vocals from Dani Filth but the hard driving guitar work from Paul and Germs to keep things at a fevered pitch. All this would be for naught if it didn’t have the intense beat to tie everything together If you think that the lyrics would be lacking then you have obviously never heard anything from the group. Death oriented, most of them have a morose tone and feel to them but someone once said that if you fear death then that fear will consume you - face it and you are free of that mental form of slavery.
Stickered with a Parental Advisory warning label for explicit lyrics, this didn’t stop droves of teen age girls from flocking to the mall to seek out anything that had the Cradle of Filth name on it. After rumors that they would appear on an episode of Viva La Bam, it was the same scene as when H.I.M. made appearances on the show. They had no idea what the music was about but if you asked any of them they’d swear on their pink Hello Kitty underwear that they were “fans for the longest time”. I won’t say that this type of music will appeal to everyone, in fact, I am sure that most people at the site have never even heard of the group. That’s cool, variety is the spice of life. It’s really hard to say, “Well, they sound a little like this group and a little like this group” because there are so many different styles of music on Nymphetamine. I’d hate to say that they sounded like a certain group, have someone try them out, come back and leave a comment asking me if I was insane.
Tracks
Satyriasis
Guilded C*nt
Nemesis
Gabrielle
Absinthe With Faust
Nymphetamine
Painting Flowers White
Medusa And Hemlock
Coffin Fodder
English Fire
Filthy Little Secret
Swansong For A Raven
Mother of Abominations
Remember how I said I was dreading writing this review? Well, this is one of the reasons why. Where exactly do you begin when there are so many stellar tracks to pick from? I guess that the namesake for this wicked masterpiece would be a most suiting and fitting start. “Nymphetamine” is a tricky track to understand if you aren’t a little on the morbid side. You can sit there and read the words, listen to the vocals and be enchanted by the music - but that’s like ordering a hot dog and eating it without adding relish, deli mustard and onions to it. You get some food in your belly but it isn’t all that tasty going down. If you take this track at face value you won’t feel the least but ripped of - but you will be missing a lot of the magic that surrounds it. As much as I swore I wouldn’t try to compare other groups efforts to that of Cradle of Filth, I simply have to when it comes to this song. If you are a fan of Type O Negative and have heard Bloody Kisses then you’ll know how some of the songs are strung together in a rock opera fashion. That’s how this song unfolds - so many different levels to dig into and enjoy providing you with the alpha and the omega. The darkness of it is perfectly matched with the light yet haunting female vocals [Liv Krull], the music is constantly changing and the beat is varied so you never really know what is coming at you next when you first hear it. All you can do is sit back, let it wash over you and like the lick of a flame ... consume you.
A lover hung on deathrow, I was hooked on her disease
Highly strung like cupids bow, Whose arrow hungered meat
And the blinding flare of passion, In the shade of narrow streets
Where their poison never rationed, all the tips they left in me
At this point in the review I guess I should admit that I’ve cracked open one of my last bottles of absinth [chastise me if you will, I spell it without the “e” at the end] so if things get a little verbose from here on out, blame that green enchantress. This would be a most fitting time to mention the song “Absinthe With Faust” seeing as how I’m enjoying it at the moment. I’ll be honest here, I didn’t really care for the song when I first heard it. It was too hard to make out what was being said in some parts but oddly, when I read over the lyrics and listened to it again, the song had a new meaning to it. Please don’t make this mistake when you are listening to this; if there is something that you can’t make out then check the lyrics. I highly doubt anyone will be able to listen to Cradle of Filth and make out every word, if they do then I raise my glass to them. Even though I initially didn’t care for the song, like moss on a stone, it grew on me after a while. This isn’t one of the harder songs on “Nymphetamine” but it has some impressive beat changes to it.
Tripping through boudoirs laced with opiate themes
Sipping the bizarre, tasting the copious dreams
A toast to those most sacrilegious days
Where for every whim won .. one soon repays
If you want to go straight for the jugular and have a true taste of what Cradle of Filth is capable of, skip to track eight, “Medusa And Hemlock”. If the flow of the music doesn’t get to you then the sporadic, taunting background vocals most certainly will. I like to think of this as a stripped down version of the groups musical efforts - you are still getting a full strength dose of filth but it’s in a more simplistic form so you can really appreciate what it being presented. “Nemesis” is another great pick if you want something that is hard core, this is a little more methodical as it unravels. As impressive as the music is, it’s the lyrics that really blew me away. You can take things a lot of different ways and the mention of Leda and Troy only reinforce the fact that Cradle of Flith doesn’t rest on its laurels when it comes to writing intricate and elaborate songs. Maybe this was complete accident that they mentioned these two names ... maybe Dani Filth is a hell of a lot smarter than most people think.
Chances are if I didn’t mention “English Fire”, someone would show up at my doorstep and slap me around. Now, if you only listen to the start of this you might not be able to appreciate the depth of this one. Musically this isn’t something that is going to knock you off your feet, that’s where the words come into play. They are an interesting mix of lore, history and fables from times long since past and it isn’t something that most people are going to understand unless they do their research or are into such topics. But if you want a track that is going to completely blow you away, fast track to number eleven, “Filthy Little Secret”. If someone pressed a gun to my head and made me pick a favorite track from this release - based solely on the lyrical content - this would have to be it. It’s not that it’s that complex or loquacious, it’s the total package - the image that you get in your head. This is something that the little teenagers at the mall just don’t get when they are walking around with their Cradle of Filth t shirts. There’s so much more to it than just “music”. If you doubt me, I challenge you to find another group [outside of the later works from Type O Negative and Wraith] that can combine music and lyrics in such a way.
Without her there ...
... My Nymphetamine with the faraway stare
Thin walls would crumble
Horrors would corroborate from dogstar lairs
For in the dead of night, she spasms with orgasmic flare
This reamed demeter, with poseidons there inside her
Too appeased to grieve our air ...
My Take On Things ....
There is no doubt that Cradle of Filth has talent but I have to wonder how much of their appeal is from the shock value people get from it and subsequently use it to its full extent. To me it’s music. Music that I really like. I won’t say that they are ever going to unseat Type O Negative from the top spot but they are most definately in the top ten. The artwork on the CD jacket is the icing on the cake; while the lyrics are a little difficult to read, Matt and Amy Lombard did an amazing job with the visceral imagery and if you never stopped to check this out, you are missing out on some of the hottest stuff I’ve seen in years. If you’ve never checked out Cradle of Filth but are into what I like to call “evolved death metal” - a unique blend of goth, epic and death metal - Soilwork
is a great example of this, then you really owe it to yourself to check out this group. I won’t be so bold as to suggest a good CD to start out with because they all have their finer points and redeeming qualities.
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
Related reviews ...
Type O Negative - Slow Deep And Hard
Necrophagia - Holocausto De La Morte
Soilwork - Stabbing The Drama
Nailbomb – Proud To Commit Commercial Suicide
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Romancing
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