Revolver has teamed with Cradle of Filth for a limited-edition, exclusive "black & white marble" vinyl variant of their new album, Existence Is Futile. It's limited to 400 — order yours now!
Heavy metal is made for bands like Cradle of Filth. The veteran U.K. corpse-paint enthusiasts, fronted by inimitable ringleader Dani Filth, are arguably one of the most musically and lyrically over-the-top rock groups in existence. Across a soon-to-be 13-album discography, Filth and Co. has spun countless heinously poetic fantasies into otherworldly symphonic-metal masterpieces, drawing from his own twisted mind and our world's own twisted history (see: Elizabeth Bathory) and creating delightfully theatrical sonic bloodbaths.
Ahead of COF's upcoming album, Existence Is Futile, we asked our readers to choose the single best song from their sprawling 30-year career. There was a great deal of variety in the responses, so it did come down to the wire for this one, and the results are ranked accordingly below. Behold, the top five Cradle of Filth songs.
5. "Lord Abortion"
"Care for a little necrophilia?" This utterly gruesome centerpiece from Cradle of Filth's fourth LP, 2000's Midian, sees Dani Filth portray one of the most fiendish beings in the album's titular land of heinous monsters. Lord Abortion is a man who partakes in only the most unimaginably evil acts of sexual sadism, and Dani approaches his vocals like a theater role — lurching between absurd voices like Jekyll and Hyde gone even madder.
4. "Funeral in Carpathia"
Over the years, Cradle of Filth have done an impeccable job at adding melodic singing parts into their songs without sacrificing any of the intensity that makes them special. However, that doesn't mean older tracks like "Funeral in Carpathia" don't fucking slap. This black-metal rampage from their 1996 record, Dusk and Her Embrace, is galloping extreme metal par excellence, and with all of COF's symphonic charm.
3. "Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids"
Cradle of Filth's third album, 1998's Cruelty and the Beast, is written about the legend of the Hungarian "blood countess" Elizabeth Bathory, who allegedly murdered 650 girls and women between 1590 and 1610. Naturally, such a horrific concept requires the proper level of cinematic finesse, and the band were up to the challenge on album standout, "Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids." Dani's piercing screams are bone-chilling, Sarah Jezebel Deva's harmonies create so much eerie atmosphere and the rest of the band is locked into a brutal black-metal blitz.
2. "Her Ghost in the Fog"
In addition to his delightfully eccentric, five-octave singing performances, Dani is also one of extreme metal's most extravagant lyricists. "Her Ghost in the Fog" is a poetic tragedy that ends with a fiery act of vengeance, and this Midian cut is also one of the band's most musically entertaining spectacles. Dani sings many of his lines with a pitch-down demonic effect, and his bandmates, specifically the operatic Deva, play with an urgent grandiosity.
1. "Nymphetamine"
The word "epic" gets thrown around a lot in the world of metal descriptions, but sometimes it's the only adjective that makes sense. "Nymphetamine" (in its "Fix" version) is Cradle of Filth's most popular song by a long shot, and it's easy to see why. While toning down the roaring black metal for a more symphonic trad-metal approach, the band dole out massively melodic leads and a swinging rhythm to bolster what's essentially a gigantic power ballad. Best of all is the juxtaposition between Liv Kristine's celestial coos and Dani's witch-like shrieks, which evokes the chemistry of two A-list actors who naturally click.
