Cradle of Filth were only two albums deep into their (as of writing this) fourteen full-lengths strong discography when ‘Cruelty’ dropped in 1998. With countless demos and split appearances and the occasional EP, it was clear that back in the mid-to-late 90’s, CoF were truly coming into their own, moving away from the straight forward death metal of their early demos, and more into the suitably grimdark territory of black metal. Their two albums prior to this, ‘The Principal of Evil Made Flesh’ and ‘Dusk and Her Embrace,’ helped to establish them in their native Europe as black metal terrors of the night. This would all come to a head with this third album, a sprawling concept record about the notorious murderess Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, one of history’s most fascinating and downright horrific serial killers. Báthory is best known these days for killing an untold number of young women and, according to the most infamous legend about her, bathing in their blood for the sake of self-preservation in the name of beauty. The blood countess and her legend is ripe with metal material, even inspiring black metal visionary Quorthon to name his band Bathory in reference to her. If one looks hard enough, you WILL find Báthory hidden among metal bands and their music. Now, with such fertile material to work with, CoF, being the gothic weirdos they are, decided to make an ENTIRE FULL-LENGTH ALBUM centered on her.
Then again, makes you wonder why no one had really done this before.
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Let it be known that CoF know how to write an epic song, one that typically exceeds four minutes, doesn’t quite meet ten (or surpasses it in some cases), and is filled with moments of bloodthirsty horror and archaic fucking beauty.
rafazardly 