Kev Rowland There are few bands over the years who have generated so many as extreme reactions as Cradle of Filth, from being arrested by armed police at the Vatican in Rome for wearing ‘I Love Satan’ T-shirts in the Holy City to collaborating with Ed Sheeran, Dani has led this band through numerous line-up changes in their 30-year existence (and since the release of this album towards the end of last year there have been even more). He has always been at the heart of a metal beast which has its roots in black metal but over the years has embraced (darkly) many more styles, and here we find the band again bringing plenty of symphonic modes into their sound. Have they moved more towards Dimmu Borgir with this release, or vice versa? Discuss.

I loved their last album, 2017’s ‘Cryptoriana (The Seductiveness of Decay)’, yet there are moments on this album when they manage to exceed those lofty heights, with “Crawling King Chaos” being the perfect blend of Dani, black metal, symphonic and orchestral as it creates something dark and majestic. It is immediately obvious that this is a CoF album, and we are taken on a journey of styles and contrasts, with the instrumental “Here Comes a Candle... (Infernal Lullaby)” being both beautiful and totally at odds with the far more metallic “Black Smoke Curling from the Lips of War” which follows. This is one of the real delights of this album as one never knows where it is going to lead us, and Dani is the master manipulator ensuring he is always in total control. Although there have been some recent changes to the line-up, everyone else has been in the band since at least 2014, so one wonders if we are in for a period of stability, and possibly a more frequent release schedule?

They may not be loved by all metalheads, but no-one can deny they have stayed true to the course and 30 years on from ‘Invoking the Unclean’ they are as relevant and exciting as ever.