With the recent hat-trick of absolute stinkers in the form of Thornography, Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa and the incredibly turd-like The Manticore And Other Horrors (the amazing Godspeed On The Devil's Thunder acting as an interesting anomaly in a long string of crap albums), and not to mention the recent spate of shameless cash-in releases (Midnight In The Labyrinth, the Total Fucking Darkness re-issue), I had given up all hope on Cradle Of Filth ever redeeming themselves as a force to be reckoned with.
Honestly, the only reason I took a second glance at Hammer Of The Witches was because of the fantastic artwork, which has more inspiration in one oil-painted tit than the last decade's worth of Cradle cover sleeves combined. One of the issues with Cradle Of Filth is the constantly-rotating "staff" orbiting frontman Dani Filth. But the stars have aligned here in quite an interesting fashion; drumming powerhouse Martin Škaroupka breathes untold life in to the songs similarly to the way the legendary Adrian Erlandsson lit fires beneath the frosted riffs of Midian all those moons ago (Martin also brought new power to Godspeed... after the farce of Thornography) . With the long-running songwriter / guitarist mastermind / awful gobstopper dodger Paul Allender leaving the fold for the second time, room for a fresh new stringsmen has opened up.
I could waffle for some time but "Deflowering The Maidenhead, Displeasuring The Goddess" and the thrash-tacular "Blackest Magick In Practice" show Cradle Of Filth in a impressive display of pregnancy after years of barren creative stagnation. My eyes and ears once again opened, I find myself praying that their next release is as monstrous as this one. Welcome back, you utter cunts.
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