Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Cradle of Filth are
now 25 years and 11 albums deep, which is
undeniably impressive for an extreme-metal
band. They’ve rotated in two new guitarists and a keyboardist for the self-evidently
themed Hammer of the Witches, without compromising any of the Filth-iness that has
garnered the band some mainstream popularity in Europe. At the mic, screech master Dani Filth proves his pipes haven’t picked up any rust, as the remarkably cohesive-sounding band dabbles in their own witchcraft: an evil olio of black, death and goth metal. Call it spellbinding, even.
– Kurt Orzeck