Year: 2025
Label: Napalm Records

British extreme metal legend Cradle Of Filth’s career has been a weird one. Up until and including Midian (2000), they were on a serious roll without so much as a single miss. Midian is actually a high point in their career for me. And very abruptly, after Midian, they’ve released absolutely nothing in a quarter of a century that would have tickled my fancy.

It’s all the more baffling because Cradle Of Filth have never had a massive shift in style. True, over time, they slid more into some kind of vague “extreme gothic metal” thingummy than black metal, but it’s been a gradual shift. And, listening to their discography with some approximation of objectivity, there’s never been a significant drop in quality. There’s just that ever so elusive something missing in everything they’ve done this millennium.

Which is why I was more than a bit surprised to find myself actually a bit excited by the advance video tracks of this new album, in particular White Hellebore.

After the first spin of the album, it was obvious to me: that aforementioned something that had been lost – has been rediscovered. And again, I can’t put my thumb on what that is. Essentially, this is Cradle Of Filth like they’ve been for who knows how long. Dramatic, melodic, gothic, extreme metal. Or black metal, if you don’t want to beat around bushes. I for one have never shied away from calling them black metal.

I’ve listened to the album about a dozen times trying to figure out why I like The Screaming Of The Valkyries so much more than anything by the band in the past 25 years. And whilst immersing myself in the album has helped me single out personal favourites among the album’s tracks, I’m still no closer to finding out the definite answer to why this one is so much better than, say, Hammer Of The Witches (2015), which has a much better average score on Metal Archives.

I suppose one reason is that the band openly evoke elements from some of my favourite albums. Album opener To Live Deliciously kicks off with a surprisingly thrashing section, but quickly starts to invoke the atmospheric gothic horror of Midian once more melodic riffs and background female vocals kick in. Malignant Perfection is less subtle: the opening is more than a bit similar to Saffron’s Curse off of Midian. But hey, maybe Cradle Of Filth are allowed to steal a bit from an album they released 25 years ago! You Are My Nautilus, on the other hand, echoes the forlorn romanticism of Cruelty And The Beast.

The album doesn’t stand on the strength of nostalgia alone. My favourite on the album, Non Omnis Moriar, is a beautiful and hauntingly melodic, melancholic fare with great female vocals. The lyrics are also worth mentioning: thematically a typically gothic paean to love beyond death, vocalist/lyricist Dani Filth has managed another evocative lyric. Cradle Of Filth are really playing on all of their strengths on this one. The Trinity Of Shadows is another song with catchy melodicism that easily makes the song memorable.

And perhaps that’s the reason why The Screaming Of The Valkyries hits better home than the majority of the band’s long discography. For the first time in a long, long time, Cradle Of Filth have managed to craft songs that stick with me. The fact that the album echoes past glories ever so often piques interest, but in the long run, it’s the innate strength of the material which provides the lasting pull.

Sonically, too, the band are in fine form. Dani Filth shrieks, growls and recites in top form, and the rest of the band fare no worse. Of course, they’ve always done so in the studio; it’s in the live arena where especially the vocals have sometimes been criticized in later years. At any rate, this is Cradle Of Filth dealing out their gothic horrors as only they do.

Call Cradle Of Filth anno 2025 what you will – gothic black metal, gothic metal, extreme metal, or something else – the simple bottom line is that for decades, the band have sounded like nobody but themselves. However, at least for me personally, they’ve also sounded like a shadow of their past glories. Every new album has been a passable thing, but far too easy to dismiss.

Up until now. The Screaming Of The Valkyries does not quite rank up there with their best – which is everything from debut The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh (1994) to aforementioned Midian (2000). But it comes close.

And that’s not a mean feat, considering just how good early Cradle Of Filth is. So, welcome back, dear old friend. I’m glad you’ve cracked out that good stuff again. I think this is one that we will savour for a good, long time.

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